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Views from the Choir Loft

Colin Mawby & Annibale Bugnini

Corpus Christi Watershed · August 27, 2013

From a 1976 article by Colin Mawby, formerly Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral:

T IS INTERESTING to compare these statements with the following quotation from an article in Notitiae (December 1970) by Father (now Archbishop) A. Bugnini, secretary of the Congregation for the Divine Cult and one of the chief architects of the recent reform. Describing the canonization of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, he wrote of the plainchant Alleluia sung by the boys of the Westminster Cathedral Choir: “The triple Alleluia powerfully sung by all, wonderfully framed the chaste melody of the versicle Nisi granum frumenti sunt, performed in a manner quite perfect and, I would say, angelic by the choirboys of the schola. Thus we heard under the vaults of the Vatican Basilica chant in its ever stimulating freshness.”

It may well be unusual to find the names of Jacques Maritain and Evelyn Waugh on the same petition, but it is even more unusual to find Archbishop Bugnini and the late Evelyn Waugh in unspoken agreement on any aspect of liturgy.

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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Quick Thoughts

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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.

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Random Quote

We cannot exaggerate our indebtedness to Dr. Julian’s “Dictionary of Hymnology,” a monumental work, without which we could not have reached the high standard of accuracy, as to both texts and authorship, which we set before us when entering upon our labours.

— Committee for “New English Hymnal” (1906)

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