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Views from the Choir Loft

Introduction To “Views From The Choir Loft”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 30, 2012

LEASE allow me to welcome you to “Views from the Choir Loft.” Credit for the clever Blog name belongs to Andrew Motyka, one of the founding contributors. I hope our Blog title is sufficiently descriptive, because I dislike Blogs with excessively enigmatic titles.

I will not attempt to describe the kinds of blog entries our contributors will be creating since I assume this will be obvious to our readers. For myself, however, I anticipate posting two different types of items: (1) reflections on Catholic sacred music & liturgy; (2) short reflections on interesting things I come across. To illustrate number 2, here is an example:

This was found in a very interesting article by Dom Gregory Anthony Murray (“Catholic Action and the Mass”) published in a 1935 edition of Caecilia (Volume 61, No. 10, page 439).

“In the opinion of all save perhaps the actual singers” . . . How true is this statement by Dom Gregory Murray! So often, singers attempt music they ought not to. But there are ways to remedy this, and I hope to write many more articles explaining how this can be fixed. I also hope to continue providing resources on CCW to help fix this problem.

One more example of an “interesting” thing I would pass along would be this statement by Monsignor Francis P. Schmitt:

It may not seem like forty years to some Pittsburghers since Paul Koch succeeded the redoutable Carlo Rossini, but it is. Prior to that he had studied at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Tech. Graduate study took him to Leipzig and Paris, 1936-1939, for work with Gunther Ramin and Marcel Dupre. Not the least of his accomplishments in Leipzig was slipping out of class one not-so-fine day to snap a photo of the Nazis demolishing an heroic statue of Felix Mendelssohn. Taken into custody, he was released only after they found the negative.

This was taken from a 1989 article (“Regalement In Pittsburgh”) in Sacred Music. I will be including a lot more by “Frank Schmitt” (as his friends called him) because he was a good writer with “wit” . . . perhaps too much wit.

P.S.

I will sometimes end my blogs with the following motto, repeated often by a great Church musician:

“Remember: the life of a Church musician is a life of sacrifice.”

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

The local church should be conscious that church worship is not really the same as what we sing in a bar, or what we sing in a convention for youth.

— Francis Cardinal Arinze (2005)

Recent Posts

  • Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
  • Bishop François Charrière Vs. Hannibal Bugnini
  • 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • “My First Year with the Latin Mass” • A Music Director’s Perspective
  • Boston Auxiliary Bishop: “In offering the Traditional Mass for the first time, after removing the vestments, I knelt in the back pew and wept.”

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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