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Views from the Choir Loft

Pavane for a Dead Princess — Maurice Ravel

Jeff Ostrowski · July 16, 2013

658 North American Martyrs ACH DAY only has so much time. There are thousands of things I would like to accomplish, but I end up doing only a few, and that’s difficult to accept. One thing I’ve wanted to do for years is write about the Jesuit Martyrs of North America and help make their heroism better known. I have failed in this task. It’s very hard to find the time. As my dad would say, “Time is a premium.”

Anyway, one excerpt from the life of St. Gabriel Lalemant comes to mind. John A. O’Brien wrote that Lalemant was “grateful to his family, most particularly to his mother, for a childhood and youth of rare happiness and love.” Similar words were written about St. Charles Garnier and his family. More on this below.

GREAT MUSIC is powerful, and truly can move the emotions. Randomly, totally out of the blue, Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess came to my mind. I remember hearing my brother play this piece. My brother is scheduled to be ordained a priest this coming May. He’s a truly great person and friend. His interests included conducting, piano, organ, singing, history, theology, and every form of sports you can imagine. He seemed to have every player memorized, be it tennis, basketball, football, baseball, etc.

Here’s a rendition by Shura Cherkassky, a pupil of the great Josef Hofmann, but I prefer the way Mark used to play it:

      * *  Pavane for a Dead Princess [mp3]

I cannot begin to express the emotions that are brought back when I hear this melody, and remember the sacrifices my parents made to provide for us children “a childhood and youth of rare happiness and love.” I suppose that makes me a wuss.

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

Filed Under: Articles 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

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

Random Quote

“In case of urgent danger of life anyone may baptize, even a heretic or pagan. It is sufficient that he administer the essential matter and form and have the implicit intention of doing what Christ instituted. Naturally a Catholic must be preferred, if possible. A man is preferred to a woman; but anyone else to the parents.”

— Father Adrian Fortescue (1917)

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