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Views from the Choir Loft

That Inscrutable Creature On The Internet

Jeff Ostrowski · September 9, 2014

884 Tridentine VER SINCE I first encountered that guy, I’ve been puzzled by him. Do you know him? I’m sure you do. That guy can be found on every major blog or forum. If the post is about blueberries, his comment is: “Here’s the Wikipedia entry on blueberries.” If the post is about furniture, his comment is: “Here’s the Wikipedia entry for furniture.” Why does he persist? Apparently, that guy feels special because he knows how to do a Google search and ardently desires that we praise him. But doesn’t he realize everyone knows how to do a Google search?

I’ve noticed a similar attitude when it comes to folks “discovering” the 1962 Missal. Certain people act as though they were the first to learn of its existence. I once saw a man displaying this attitude toward an elderly priest. I became angry and could hardly keep silent. I wanted to scream:

“Don’t you realize this priest attended the Latin Mass throughout the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, and early ’60s? How dare you display such an attitude? Have you no sense?”

Yet, the elderly priest just stood there, perhaps realizing that words would be wasted on this person. After all, some people just don’t get it. Years after I’d started my collection of rare Solesmes books, a retired musicologist asked me—in the most serious way imaginable—if I owned a copy of the Liber Usualis. Week after week, he continued to ask me the same question. I think I eventually stopped answering him.

I know a blog author who spends inordinate amounts of time “chasing down” people he feels have stolen his exclusive news items. He desperately wants the whole world to appreciate how AMAZING he is. His plight is made more difficult by the fact that most of his “original blog articles” are copied & pasted from the Fox News Website.

HY DO I BRING all this up? The fact is, people who constantly try to POSSESS beauty & truth secretly loathe them. Truth & beauty are only valued by such people if they can be presented as “breaking news,” gaining the adulation of others. When someone describes a wonderful film, some people cannot simply nod their heads and say, “I love that film, too.” Instead, they feel compelled to say, “I saw it before you did.”

I know a liturgist who seemingly cannot help himself. Whenever anyone discusses hymnals which mutilate original texts for no good reason, he feels compelled to point out that the original version of HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING was “Hark, How All The Welkin Rings.” He was making this same argument all the way back in the 1990s. His students have been known to bait him by deliberately mentioning “authentic hymn words”—and without fail he tries to shock his listeners by means of the “Welkin Rings” example.

I’ve had some of my original ideas stolen by bloggers, and this used to annoy me like you wouldn’t believe. However, I’ve come to realize that truth & beauty should be loved for their own sake. It’s silly to try to “possess” them. One of my friends is fluent in eleven languages, and always seems to hear breaking news before anyone else. Yet, this same person has “ghost written” hundreds of articles going back all the way to the 1960s. Only his closest friends realize that all those brilliant ideas—for which others take credit—are the product of his brilliance.

In college, I took elementary Latin with a genius named Stanley Lombardo, even though I’d previously had four years of Latin in high school. Dr. Lombardo was probably the best teacher I ever had. Even when he was explaining the most basic concepts, I learned so much.

A PRIEST WE ONCE HAD began every sermon with verse 9 from the first chapter of Ecclesiastes: “There’s nothing new under the sun.” How true that is! What’s really interesting is to watch old presidential debates. For example, Al Gore fought George Bush about “nation building” and “overextending the U.S. military”—but you’d be amazed to see who espoused which positions. Walter Mondale fought Ronald Reagan over “an out-of-control deficit” and “terrorists illegally crossing the Mexican border”—but, again, you’d be amazed at who took which position.

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 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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

The eminent theologian Suarez (who died in 1617) […] took the position that a pope would be schismatic “if he, as is his duty, would not be in full communion with the body of the Church as, for example, if he were to excommunicate the entire Church, or if he were to change all the liturgical rites of the Church that have been upheld by apostolic tradition.”

— Monsignor Klaus Gamber (1981)

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  • Luis Martínez Must Go!

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