Views from the Choir Loft

“Father, Not Everyone Can Sing”

Fr. David Friel · May 26, 2013 ·

EOPLE SAY ALL KINDS OF THINGS to priests, especially after Mass. We get brought up to date on hospital stays & illnesses, graduations & upcoming travels. We hear confessions & complaints, compliments & concerns. We meet newcomers & visitors, and folks tell us about the broken kneeler in the eighth pew (Blessed Mother side). We hear if the homily was on target, and we hear if the homily was horrible. Several weeks ago, though, a woman said something I had never been told before. She said to me, “Father, not everyone can sing, you know.”

What she meant didn’t register with me at first. I probably gave her a quizzical look, which prompted her to explain further. When I celebrate Mass, she said, we sing so much stuff that the other priests don’t usually sing. Now I understood that she wanted me to stop singing the Collect, Preface, Prayer over the Offerings, Our Father, and Post-Communion, which I chant on every Sunday & solemnity.

I was tempted to say many things. For instance, running through my mind went these thoughts:

1. Yes, actually, everyone who can speak can sing.
2. The liturgy, by its very nature, is meant to be sung.
3. Our personal preferences (both mine & yours) must be subordinate to the preferences of Holy Mother Church.
4. Chanting the orations really doesn’t add any time to the Mass.
5. Singing “On Eagle’s Wings” is much more difficult than responding to the Preface dialogue, and yet I’ve never had anyone complain about the mammoth range & odd intervals of the OCP favorite.

By the time I had interpreted her remark, the lady was already passed me and headed towards the door. I only had about 10 seconds to respond. What would you have said?

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served for five years as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski