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Views from the Choir Loft

How did your Holy Week go?

Veronica Brandt · April 11, 2015

candle OLY WEEK IS A MASSIVE EVENT. Singing for the Sacred Triduum and Easter ceremonies is an awesome privilege. The more you think about it, the more enormous it seems. And after it passes there is an enormous relief. Coming out the other side can be very sweet indeed, even when things didn’t always go quite as planned.

In the spirit of a overwhelmed and collapsed inarticulate person, I’ll proceed in disconnected recounts:

Most memorable moment:

The Litany of the Saints when miss 2 demands help with her socks. The three of us leading were kneeling in the back pew, well out of view. I tried as best I could between invocations to figure out what she wanted and keep her happy. It must have impressed her because she started singing along with “ora pro nobis”.

Of course everyone complimented her on how well she behaved throughout the week.

Favourite music:

The Reproaches. We only sang from Popule meus down to the end of Sanctus Immortalis. My eldest son was choir 2. I was choir 1. Have I mentioned we could use some more choir members?

My introduction to this piece of music was by way of Victoria’s polyphonic setting, which is awesome. I was disappointed at first with the plainchant original, but it has definitely grown on me since then. The more you get into the chant the more it gets into you.

Trickiest music:

Easter Sunday Day Mass offertory and communion – but mostly because I overlooked practising sufficiently for them. Fortunately my mother was there with more experience and I could lean on her. The rest of the choir had been focused on learning the Ordinary parts of the Mass. After that we had only got as far as the Introit and Haec Dies. You do what you can.

Notes for next time:

Remember that they use incense for Holy Thursday so make use of the extra verses for the Introit. Booklights for the Easter Vigil Canticles and make sure there are no page turns while singing. Also pick the recessional hymn ahead of time and tell any potential singers about it a good week in advance. Also have someone with you while you play the organ who can keep an eye on what’s happening up the front. If you’ve run out of verses and you’re still waiting for the priest to come past then it could just be some slow servers.

And get a T-shirt made with the slogan: “Silence is Always an Option”

After all that, there were many, many compliments. Lots of people enjoyed the music.

Happy Easter! Christos Anesti!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Beauty, Holy Week Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “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
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

Thus in 1905 the Vatican Kyriale appeared with rhythmic signs and the following legend: “Præsens exemplar, rhythmicis signis a Solesmensibus monachis ornatum, typicae Vaticanæ editioni de cætero plane conforme repertum est.” (This copy, provided with rhythmic signs by the monks of Solesmes, completely agrees in every other respect with the Vatican original.)

— Dom Gregory Hügle, OSB

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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