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Views from the Choir Loft

Biography • Christopher Mueller

Christopher Mueller · January 3, 2013

337 Chris Mueller Family HRISTOPHER MUELLER is a church musician, conductor, and composer. His most well-known composition, the Missa pro editione tertia—a congregational setting of the 2011 ICEL translation of the Ordinary of the Mass—has been purchased by parishes in Australia, Canada, the UK, and throughout the USA. Most of his compositions are choral works written to be sung at Mass, including 40 Gregorian Introits (in Latin), a nearly-complete set of Responsorial Psalms for the 3-yr. cycle, 35 Offertory settings (in English), and numerous Masses, motets, sequences, and other works. He aims to write music befitting the liturgy out of gratitude to God, the Author of beauty.

His two decades of work as a church musician—in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite—have focused on Renaissance polyphony and Gregorian chant (as well as his own compositions), first with a volunteer choir at the Church of Notre Dame in New York, NY, then with the professional SCHOLA POLYPHONICA at the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Stamford, CT; following that with the volunteer choir at the Church of St. Bernadette in Silver Spring, MD, and the professional schola he instituted at the National Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington, D.C.  He is presently the organist and choirmaster at St. Louis Bertrand Church in Louisville, KY, where he serves with a wonderful cadre of Dominican Friars and directs a small professional schola.

His choirs rarely repeat music during the course of the choral year, singing 100 or more different motets each season, and he has created editions of at least 200 motets himself. Similarly, his choirs seldom repeated music from one year to the next (with notable exceptions), so that the always-changing musical experience of Mass was a reflection of the ever-new experience of Christ in the Eucharist. The texts of the motets are drawn from sacred Scripture: sometimes a setting of the day’s Offertory or Communion proper, sometimes a passage from the day’s readings, and occasionally an Office hymn or other related text. He estimates that his choirs have sung at least 1400 different Renaissance motets over the years.

In addition to his musical work, he also spent seven and a-half years coordinating the marriage preparation program for the Archdiocese of New York, over the course of which he and his wife taught pre-Cana classes to thousands of engaged couples. He has an undergraduate degree in piano performance (classical) and theory/composition (jazz) and has done graduate work in theology. And he loves the novels of Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton.

Please visit his website for more information, to listen to excerpts of his compositions, or to purchase scores.

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

Filed Under: Articles, Biographies Last Updated: August 20, 2020

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About Christopher Mueller

Christopher Mueller is a conductor and composer who aims to write beautiful music out of gratitude to God, Author of all beauty.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Far from dreading an encounter with the Iroquois, Fr. Garnier often told us he would be quite content to fall into their hands and remain their prisoner if—while they were torturing him—he at least had a chance of instructing them as long as his torments lasted. If they allowed him to live, it would afford him a golden opportunity to work for their conversion, which was now impossible, since the gateway to their country was closed as long as they were our enemies.

— Father Ragueneau (Jesuit Relations)

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