Views from the Choir Loft

1908 Pustet Graduale (Fragment)

Corpus Christi Watershed · March 19, 2013

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* * 1908 Graduale (Pustet) copy #1

• Graduale sacrosanctae romanae ecclesiae : de tempore et de sanctis ; SS. D.N. Pii x. ponctificis maximi jussu restitutum et editum ; cui addita sunt festa novissima. 1908 : : Editio ratisbonensis justa vaticanam. xviii, 1-552, [1]-[204] p., 1*-52* pages Romae ; Neo Eboraci ; Cincinnati : Friderici Pustet •

* * 1908 Graduale (Pustet) copy #2

• Graduale sacrosanctae romanae ecclesiae : de tempore et de sanctis ; SS. D.N. Pii x. ponctificis maximi jussu restitutum et editum ; cui addita sunt festa novissima. 1908 : : Editio ratisbonensis justa vaticanam. xviii, 1-552, [1]-[204] p., 1*-52* pages Romae ; Neo Eboraci ; Cincinnati : Friderici Pustet •

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

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

14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Had the Church never spoken on this matter, it would still be repugnant to our Catholic people’s sense of what is fit and proper in the holiest of places, that a priest should have to struggle through the prayers of the Holy Mass, because of such tunes as “Alice, where art thou?” the “Vacant Chair,” and others of more vulgar title, which, through the carelessness or bad judgment of organists, sometimes find their way into our choirs.

— Preface to a Roman Catholic Hymnal (1896)