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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Live Recording — Small Choir of Ninth Grade Singers (October, 2006)

Jeff Ostrowski · April 15, 2014

665 Glenn Gould Y WIFE AND I recently celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. Naturally, on that day, our air conditioning system and electric power malfunctioned … but it was still great.

Looking back over seven wonderful years, my thoughts went to when we first got married, when I was still teaching at a (brand new) Catholic high school. Specifically, I recalled how insane I used to be!

I would force my ninth grade students to listen to Bach’s Art of the Fugue (as well as the students in detention), and they were graded on being able to point out where the various fugue subjects entered: in augmentation, diminution, inverted, and so forth.

Non-musicians might have a hard time understanding what a quodlibet, canon, or fugue is … and who can blame them? Perhaps it would help if they listened to an ingenious combination of two patriotic songs. Credit for the idea of mixing them goes to Glenn Gould. You can download the complete score for piano & mixed chorus:

      * *  PDF Download: Glenn Gould Patriotic Quodlibet

… or you can listen to the following recorded excerpt (the part wherein two patriotic tunes are combined):

      * *  Gould/Ostrowski Quodlibet — A small choir of 9th grade singers (October (2006)

Did you hear the two melodies mixed together? If you did, you get a cookie!

WHAT CAN ONE SAY about Bach’s Art of the Fugue? Marvelous. Simply marvelous. Here’s a splendid example played by Gould on the piano:


Here’s the same piece played by Gould on the organ. For the record, critics with no imagination and inferior musical sensibilities tend not to enjoy Gould’s organ playing, but I love it. I think I read somewhere that Gould was originally an organist.


I should be careful when it comes to reminiscences of the past. I have a video of myself conducting 10 years ago and it’s pretty horrible! I may post it one of these days in a moment of weakness … stay tuned!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Pianist Glenn Gould Bach 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

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
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

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— New Grove

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