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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Downloads • Vernacular Mass Settings Published During The 1960s

Jeff Ostrowski · May 18, 2015

755 Mass in honor of FATIMA COVER EVERAL YEARS AGO, I received a letter from a bishop quite upset with our blog. Specifically, he didn’t like some of the information we published regarding the reforms—such as the testimony of Cardinal Antonelli—and declared that we were wrong to be critical because “everyone associated with the reforms had good intentions.”  1

We will continue to investigate the liturgical reforms of the 1960s. These reforms exceeded what was called for by the documents of Vatican II, yet certain “scholars” still carefully ignore statements they dislike, such as the Council’s mandates regarding Gregorian chant and the retention of Latin. 2

The following Mass settings were published almost immediately after the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium on 4 December 1963:

    * *  1964 • ENGLISH MASS No. 2 (Sister M. Elaine)

    * *  1965 • AVE MARIS STELLA MASS (Carroll T. Andrews)

    * *  1965 • ENGLISH MASS Honoring Our Lady of Fatima (Sister M. Florentine)

    * *  1965 • ENGLISH MASS for the DEAD (J. G. Phillips)

    * *  1965 • CHORAL MASS IN ENGLISH (William J. Marsh)

    * *  1966 • ENGLISH MASS in honor of SAINT RICHARD (R. K. Biggs)

    * *  1967 • ENGLISH MASS “Peace on Earth” (V. Carnevali)

You’ll notice tons of curiosities, especially regarding approval for texts and music. Someone has written “wait for kiss of peace” in the Requiem score…but does the PAX occur in a Requiem? These settings strike me as utilitarian and “thrown together” rather than true art. By the way, I wish ICEL had kept “peace on earth to men of good will.” I hate the wording in the current version. If they were set upon avoiding the word “men,” I wish they would have done something like “peace on earth to those of good will.” But nobody asked me.

Why didn’t they create simple settings, based on Gregorian chant? Here’s one of my attempts; judge for yourself whether it makes sense:


That setting is found in the Jogues Illuminated Missal. Simple melodies can also be made more ornate; here’s an attempt by yours truly:


We’ve mentioned many of the unanswered questions caused by the post-conciliar reforms, such as the approval debacle, the contradiction regarding Holy Days, and the “reverse effect” caused by trying to give more options. But what drives me crazy is how certain reformers left their personal mark on the liturgy. Countless venerable texts were replaced with contemporary settings composed by “experts.” Ancient ceremonies were “corrected” arbitrarily. It is often difficult to trust in their skills when we observe careless errors in the official books. Here’s one example.

Nevertheless, I wish to publicly apologize for the times my rhetoric has come across as caustic, inflammatory, or mean-spirited. Such actions do not help our cause.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   I sent him a nice response, choosing not to argue with him, but was dying to ask how he could be so sure that everyone associated with the reform had good intentions, especially in light of the revelations by an Oratorian priest, Fr. Louis Bouyer, who was intimately involved with these very reforms.

2   It’s important to remember that the Vatican II documents were not available to the average Catholic in those days. The internet has altered this situation.

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Low Mass Vernacular Hymns Last Updated: April 6, 2021

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Jeff Ostrowski

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

5 April 2021 • When Girls *SING*

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • Condemned?

On Palm Sunday, the Passion was read. Immediately after mention is made of the betrayal by Judas, the Holy Eucharist is introduced. Is this not a condemnation of “Christians” who deny the Church teaching on the SANCTISSIMUM? Here is Matthew 26: And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: “Is it I, Rabbi?” He saith to him: “Thou hast said it.” And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body.

—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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