Views from the Choir Loft

Learn A New Word, See It Within 24 Hours

Jeff Ostrowski · December 12, 2011

As noted in past blogs, after you learn a new word you will often see it again within 24 hours . . . in a completely different context! I think it has to do with the miraculous way God designed the human mind. The human mind “skips” over things which are not apropos of the thing at hand, as well as things with which the mind is not (yet) familiar. However, once an association is made, the mind is then “on the lookout” to notice the new word or phrase. I don’t know if this is the case for everyone, but it is for me.

Let me give just one example:

I was recently reading the Abyssus Abyssum Invocat Blog, and I read an excellent Foreword by Most Reverence Bishop René H. Gracida. Here is an excerpt:

I had never heard of Patrick Cardinal O’Boyle before. Then, a few hours later, I happened to be reading a book by Patrick Buchanan, and I came to this paragraph:

See? It happens every time!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Myth Re: Johann Sebastian Bach

Some musicologists try to make a “splash” by saying that Bach was totally forgotten when he died—remembered only as an organ virtuoso—and that his sons were more famous than he was. Such an idea is indefensible. It is true that musical styles changed in 1750AD—but this is normal. Musical styles change constantly; e.g. much of the repertoire of Hofmann and Rachmaninov was considered “garbage” toward the end of their lives. But those who carefully study the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Hans von Bülow, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, and countless others realize that Bach was revered. It’s true that his music was seldom played in public, but music by “dead composers” was generally speaking not played in public until approximately the middle of the 19th century.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Arthur Friedheim, Franz Liszt’s Secretary

Arthur Friedheim (d. 1932) has a very poor reputation as a pianist, and Liszt rejected him several times before finally accepting him as a pupil, yet the Liszt recordings he left are quite good—especially considering the transgressions by other Liszt pupils. Friedheim must have been an amazing musician; twice he was asked to become conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1898 + 1911) but he declined both times. Circa 1912, Friedheim was recording Chopin’s “Funeral March” but the record ran out, so he simply stopped in the middle of the piece. Things sure have changed! Pianists no longer stop in the middle of pieces, although Cortot would sometimes abridge pieces to make them fit on records (cf. Chopin’s Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brilliante).

—Jeff Ostrowski

“A blast from the past”

Consilium document (“Instantibus Pluribus”) to presidents of the national liturgical commissions, on norms for translation of the Graduale Simplex, dated 23 January 1968: “The types of chant in the Graduale Simplex may be adapted to the style of music and song typical of individual peoples. But any sort of secular or profane melody is excluded.”

—Jeff Ostrowski