Views from the Choir Loft

Bottega • Aurelio Porfiri

Aurelio Porfiri · June 23, 2014

URELIO PORFIRI OFFERS INSPIRATION to all who work with him. His attitude and gifts have taught me a lot and I owe him a great debt of gratitude. It is a great privilege to know and work with him.” — Colin Mawby (Westminster)

English

St. Augustine Mass • “Lord, Have Mercy” : 6166 (organist) • 6165 (vocalist) • (youtube)

St. Augustine Mass • “Holy, Holy, Holy” : 6164 (organist) • 6163 (vocalist) • (youtube)

St. Augustine Mass • “Lamb of God” : 6168 (organist) • 6167 (vocalist) • (youtube)

There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy (Faber) : 6162 (organist) • 6161 (vocalist)

The Praises Of My Tongue (Watts) : 6160 (organist)

Hail Mary : 6170 (organist) • 6169 (vocalist)

Pentatonic Mass • “Glory To God” : 6157 (organist) • 6156 (vocalist)

Communion Antiphon (9th Sunday in Ordinary Time) : 6153 (organist) • 6152 (vocalist)

Gospel Acclamation for the Feast of Saint Francis : 5901 (organist)

English Responsorial Psalms

Rejoice In the Lord (Ps. 97) : 6116 (organist) • 6117 (vocalist)

Here Am I, Lord (Ps. 40) : 6159 (organist)

The Lord Is My Shepherd (Ps. 23) : 6155 (organist)

Have Mercy On Us, O Lord (Ps. 50) : 6158 (organist)

Italian

Presentation of the Gifts (1st Sunday of Advent) : 6142 (organist/cantor)

Introit (1st Sunday of Advent) : 6141 (organist) • 6140 (cantor)

6139 A te il regno

6138 A Te, Signore

6137 Angelo di Dio

6136 Ave Maria

6135 Io gioisco pienamente Magnificat

6134 Risuoni la mia bocca

Latin

Bone Pastor Panis Vere (From the Lauda Sion) : 6151 (SATB)

O Salutaris Hostia : 6115 (organist/vocalist)

Quid Retribuam Domino : 6114 (organist & vocal parts)

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

About Aurelio Porfiri

Renowned as composer, conductor, theorist, author, pedagogue, and organist, Aurelio Porfiri has served the Church on multiple continents at the highest levels. Born and raised in Italy, he currently serves as Director of Choral Activities and Composer in Residence for Santa Rosa de Lima School (Macao, China).

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday—1 March 2026—the 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year A). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are available at the flourishing feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Particularly Beautiful

The 2nd Sunday of Lent has magnificent propers. Its INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“However well equipped and trained a choir may be, all its good points may be obscured by an unsuitable accompaniment. In fact the organist can, in a large measure, either make or mar his choir. It must be owned, however, that the accompanist of Plainsong has to contend with many difficulties. […] The purist will still find his best enjoyment of the chant when it is sung unaccompanied, but to most a becoming accompaniment gives an added charm.”

— Benedictines of Stanbrook (1905)