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Views from the Choir Loft

A Tale Of Two Monsignori: Schmitt & Vyverman

Jeff Ostrowski · April 22, 2013

EADERS KNOW very well my admiration for Flor Peeters and his associates at the Lemmens Institute, so I need not repeat that at this time. However, I need to remind readers the Lemmens Institute is located in a place called “Mechelen” in Belgium. It turns out “Mechelen” can also be written as “Mechlin” and “Malines,” depending on which language a person is using at the moment. In the article below, I notice that Msgr. Schmitt (who liked to be called “Father Schmitt”) spells the region as “Malignes.” Fr. Schmitt was a notoriously bad editor when it comes to spelling and proofreading (and he often made fun of his abilities in these areas). I’m not sure whether “Malignes” is technically a correct variant spelling or simply an error on his part. Very soon, this Blog will allow comments. If we had comments enabled right now, I’m sure some Dutch-speaker could tell me whether it was a typo. In any event, I thought it would be fun to use “Malign” in the subtitle (hence: Did Schmitt malign Vyverman of Malines?).

Here’s the article I spoke of by Fr. Schmitt:

      * *  7521 • Article by Msgr. Frank Schmitt (Winter, 1962) [pdf]

As alluded to above, Msgr. Jules Vyverman was an associate of Flor Peeters at the Lemmens Institute. Vyverman contributed to the Nova Organi Harmonia, along with Msgr. Jules Van Nuffel, Marinus de Jong, Gustaaf Nees, Henri Durieux, and Edgard de Laet. A picture of Vyverman is in the upper right corner.

In Schmitt’s article, he mentions a chant method by Msgr. Vyverman. I’ve never seen it. I sure would like to obtain it someday.

As I was reading, I saw that Schmitt spelled Joseph Gogniat as Joseph Cogniat. I thought to myself, “Ouch, there’s a typo.” Reading more, I saw that Schmitt spelled Gogniat as Cogniat a second time. That would seem to indicate he truly forgot Gogniat’s name, which is really odd considering Schmitt’s admiration for Dr. Peter Wagner and his student (Gogniat).

P.S.

Don’t be to bothered by Schmitt’s attacks on the Solesmes ictus. This is a constant theme (obsession?) with him. It would have been better for Schmitt to have simply said, “I don’t like the ictus. I don’t find it helpful to make my choirs sing beautifully.” Instead, he chose to write volume after volume about the ictus. In the end, it made very little difference. Schmitt pushed for Rembert Weakland to be CMAA President. (Weakland is a disgraced Catholic bishop who did tremendous harm to the Catholic Church). Schmitt thought having a bishop as President would make the Conference of Catholic Bishops listen to the CMAA. It totally backfired. Weakland ended up pushing for the “hootenanny Mass” and I think he only lasted one year as CMAA President.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Monsignor Francis P Schmitt 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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

Random Quote

“In everything of any importance at all, Sarum (and all other mediæval rites) was simply Roman, the rite which we still use.”

— Fr. Adrian Fortescue (1912)

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