Views from the Choir Loft

Making time

Veronica Brandt · August 31, 2013 ·

Nap Attack, drawn by Peter Brandt T LAST THE HOUSE IS QUIET. There are a few hours at the end of a Saturday to write a post for the beginning of the same Saturday half way across the world. I wish there were more occasions I could leave things 10 hours too late and still get them in on time!

But apart from living on the other side of the date line, how do we make time for all the good things there are to do? There are obvious things, like avoiding time-eaters: television and facebook spring to mind. Prioritizing tasks. Just doing what needs to be done and skipping over as much of the rest as you can safely get away with.

But sometimes it helps to do more. I mean more than the bare-bone necessities. Being generous can make it easier to meet the tasks.

Viktor Frankl finds that happiness does not depend on having what you want, but finding meaning in your situation. He talks about cases where a crippling accident can make people happier in the long run, not that you need suffering to be happy, but that comfort alone does not produce happiness. When we drop our quest to be comfortable, then the adventure begins.

The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness. — Pope Benedict XVI.

I have two choirs each singing Mass once a month at different parishes. One likes psalm tones, Paul IV’s Jubilate Deo booklet and having music in a folder in the order it is sung. The other sings from the Liber Usualis, plus polyphony when possible and likes to try different Mass settings. There is a big difference in ability between the two, I grant you that, but also a big difference in how easy it is to put in the preparation for each one. And you can guess which one my sons like to join in with.

And hopefully now I’ll go snooze like that tiger cub while the other half of the world awakes.

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.

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