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Views from the Choir Loft

Fifa World Cup

Aurelio Porfiri · June 24, 2014

DON’T KNOW WHY, but in these days of FIFA World Cup frenzy, I have a thought that is consistently in my mind: Which national soccer teams do you consider the best in the world, consistently, in soccer history? I would list the following: Italy (sorry to put it first), Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Great Britain, and Spain. If we look at those national teams consistently winning or shining, I think this should be the list. What do these countries have in common? They are (were) strongly Catholic countries. More precisely, they come from a Catholic tradition, which in some of them is clearly fading away.

Even if Great Britain is Anglican par excellence, we know that the similarities between Anglicans and Catholics are many, especially in the liturgical rite. What does the liturgy have to do with the World Cup of soccer? Nothing, probably, or maybe something. Indeed, what is soccer? The ability to organize human resources in a winning scheme, able to produce results and hopefully elegance in the development of the game. So we have the ability of the players to be part of a sort of rite, where everyone has his own role and where everyone is connected with the others. This connection is also important: if one player scores the winning point, the whole team participates in the victory, not just him.

I want to think that Catholic liturgy (and Anglican too, when of high standards) is not dissimilar from what we have said before. It is a rite that has its own reason, where every function is connected with the others. Where when someone sings, he is also singing for the others and not against the others. Where the beauty and elegance is functional to the final success of the rite—that in this case is the glory of God and the edification of the faithful. Who knows, maybe these two things, apparently so unrelated, soccer and liturgy, have more similarities than we can imagine.


BOTTEGA • Aurelio Porfiri is where you can discover
many of Mæstro Porfiri’s compositions in PDF format.

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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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).

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Quick Thoughts

    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Don’t You Agree About These?
    If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Choral Vowels? Yes? No?
    Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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“I left music college swearing never to write another note again … It was during the mid-1980s when esoteric and cerebral avant-garde music was still considered the right kind of music to be writing.”

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