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Views from the Choir Loft

“No Propers? No High Mass!” — 1933 Article

Jeff Ostrowski · June 30, 2014

323 High Mass Latin E RECENTLY POSTED a Complete Proper of the Mass with Organ (1946) and it was downloaded more than 700 times. As a kind of “follow-up,” here’s an interesting article from 1933, with paragraphs like the following:

On 16 January 1885, the Bishop of Lucan, France, put the following condition of his diocese before the Sacred Congregation of Rites: “Here in Lucan exists the custom of having High Masses daily. At these High Masses the choir omits the Gloria, Credo, Gradual, Tract and Sequence because the singers are usually one person and the people who attend are of the working class and we do not wish to detain them. May the method of singing High Mass above. described be continued or must it be done away with?” The Congregation answered: “The method is an abuse and must be done away with.”

Read the whole article — it’s only one page!

      * *  Why Sing The Proper Of The Mass? (1933) — PDF Download

Perhaps our contributor, Richard Clark, can weigh in with regard to their statements about the Archdiocese of Boston (in 1933):

And so our archdiocese stands forth with a record of 95% of its churches singing the Proper every Sunday. By degrees we are sure that the attitude of the Sacred Congregation of Rites — “No Proper? No High Mass.” — will become the rule every where in the archdiocese.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Graduale Romanum Roman Gradual Propers, Mass Propers Proprium Missae 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

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
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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