Views from the Choir Loft

Josquin’s Beautiful “Missa Pange Lingua” In Minnesota

Guest Author · May 4, 2013

The following is a guest article by Sandra Eller.

AINT BENEDICT Catholic Church in Duluth, Minnesota, will be hosting a Solemn High Mass (traditional Latin Mass), celebrated by the parish pastor, Father Eric Hastings, for the Ascension on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. The choir will be singing the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei from Missa Pange Lingua by de Prez, a beautiful Mass we have done a few times in the past, in addition to Masses by Byrd and Victoria. The Duluth Men’s Schola will be singing the Gregorian propers.

The choir, which will have about a dozen voices, is comprised of members of my parish choir at St. Ben’s and members of the Duluth Men’s Schola, a group my husband founded several years ago and which is now directed by Kevin Pilon, who will also conduct the polyphony Thursday evening.

It will be our third Solemn High Mass, the first with both deacon and subdeacon from our diocese. It’s sort of the latest stage in an ongoing exploration of what’s possible in liturgy and particularly liturgical music in continuity with tradition, accompanied by a lot of catechesis from Father Hastings. Musically, things have grown from simple chants to more ornate Gregorian ordinaries and Gregorian propers and finally polyphony. We have also included new compositions inspired by the Church’s sacred music tradition, such as pieces by Kevin Allen and various projects of setting English translations of the propers to plainchant, something we use routinely. After the new translation of the Mass, the parish moved to the Adoremus hymnal, as well. The congregation is now fairly comfortable with singing the Gloria in Latin and a few other more ornate chant ordinaries.

The extraordinary form plays a relatively small role in parish life, celebrated Sunday afternoons twice a month and sometimes on special occasions like this one, ranging from low Masses to the full blown Solemn High Mass. Two of our regular weekend Masses, Father celebrates ad orientem.

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

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday—1 March 2026—the 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year A). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are available at the flourishing feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Particularly Beautiful

The 2nd Sunday of Lent has magnificent propers. Its INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski