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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

Colloquium Update III

Fr. David Friel · July 5, 2014

FAN FAVORITE at each year’s Colloquium is the breakout session on organ improvisation, entitled “Minding the Gap.” The class is led by the incomparable David Hughes, who is adept not only at improvising himself, but also in helping other organists to improve their approach.

As in previous years, Friday’s session began with David laying out a general framework for how to conceive of an improvisation. He then took volunteers to sit at the console and provide an improvisation based on the introit or offertory chant of the day to fill a certain length of time. After some critique, the volunteers received another chance or two, sometimes with an added assignment. For example, in addition to a required length of forty-five seconds, the organist might be required to modulate to a certain key or develop a certain motif. In one case, the volunteer was limited to using only two chords for his improvisation!

At the close of the one-hour session, Hughes made a few summary statements concerning how to approach the art of improvisation. It was at this point that he made what I think is a brilliant observation. This is not an exact quote, but a very close paraphrase, of what he said: “The goal of improvisation is to exploit, explore, and expand a musical idea.”

Another observation that I was very glad to hear David make is this: when considering how to “mind the gap” with improvisation, one ought not to forget the need for silence. In other words, when we think of the periods after the introit, offertory, and communion chants, they should not be considered simply vacuums to be filled. Occasionally, plain silence will be what is best for a particular moment in a particular liturgy, and sacred musicians need to be comfortable with that.

Colloquium Update I

Colloquium Update II

Colloquium Update IV

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Improvisation, Sacred Music Colloquium Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

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
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“It introduces us to a still and serious world, deserted and rigid, without colour, without light, without motion; it does not gladden, does not distract; yet we cannot break away from it.”

— ‘Schweitzer on the THEME from Bach’s “Art of Fugue”’

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