Views from the Choir Loft

1934 “Antiphonale Monasticum” (Solesmes Abbey) • Free PDF Download!

Jeff Ostrowski · December 4, 2013

THE FAMOUS 1934 Antiphonale Monasticum published by the monks of Solesmes can now be downloaded in its entirety:

* * Part 1 of 3 • pp. 1 – 363

* * Part 2 of 3 • pp. 364 – 763

* * Part 3 of 3 • pp. 764 – 1,296

Part 3 had some missing pages. These were added as of 10 December 2013 thanks to Gustav Valencia.

Father Brian T. Austin, FSSP, has created a B/W version—based on our scanned copy—which can be downloaded:

* PDF Download • ANTIPHONALE MONASTICUM (1934)
—Scanned and uploaded by Corpus Christi Watershed.

IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE that Fr. Paul Jausions (†1870) was born in 1834, precisely a century before the publication of the Antiphonale Monasticum. After Jausions’ death (in America!), his associate, Fr. Joseph Pothier, took the reins, and history knows what he was able to accomplish. The 1934 Antiphonale, however, might be regarded as the “crowning achievement” of the Solesmes monastery (unless it was the 1903 Liber Usualis). Dom Gajard is generally believed to have been the motivating force behind its publication.

Not everyone appreciated this work. In 1960, Msgr. Francis P. Schmitt wrote in the Caecilia:

“The Monastic Antiphonal is proof that the archaeologists never gave up. One can have no objection to the adherents of Solesmes singing what they please, but it is a fair and conjured guess that a cursory reading of the Monastic Antiphonary, and other books said to be in preparation, will make most people grateful that the like was not released upon the unsuspecting public some fifty years ago.”

THOSE WHO WISH TO LEARN MORE about Abbot Joseph Pothier, Fr. André Mocquereau, and the Vatican Edition might be interested in the following:

VIDEOS: 01 • 02 • 03 • 04 • 05 • 06 • 07

Article by Jeff Ostrowski — The rhythm of the Vatican Edition (PDF)

(1906) Fr. Henry Bewerunge’s Attack on the Vatican Edition (PDF)

(1906) Prior T. A. Burge, O.S.B. Defense of the Vatican Edition (PDF)

(1907) Dr. Peter Wagner’s Article on the Vatican Edition (PDF)

A few extra items worth noting:

Alternate Version of Article (with minor changes)
Hayburn Dissertation (Page 317)
Translation Explained

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

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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

“Yahweh” in church songs?

My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)

I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).

—Corpus Christi Watershed

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum

Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker