Views from the Choir Loft

Sacred Music Colloquium XXV — Update I

Andrew Leung · June 29, 2015

T IS GREAT TO BE HERE. It is great to be in Pittsburgh for the twenty-fifth Sacred Music Colloquium organized by the Church Music Association of America. This meeting is not only an academic conference and spiritual retreat, but also a great time to hang out with old friends and meet new ones. In the coming few days, I will be posting a report at the end of each day for friends who are not able to participate the Colloquium this year.

ONIGHT, Dr. William Mahrt, President of the Church Music Association of America, delivered his welcoming speech at the dinner. He gave an introduction on what we will be doing at this Colloquium. He mentioned the three characteristics of Sacred Music from Pope St. Pius X’s Tra le Sollecitudini: Sacred, Beautiful and Universal. He told us that we are about to experience the sacredness and beauty of the Church’s music, especially Gregorian Chant and Classical Polyphony. The aim of the Colloquium is that the participants, who will experience the sacredness and beauty of Sacred Music, will go out to the world and make it universal.

In his speech, Dr. Mahrt also talked about the Liturgies that we will be participating this week. He mentioned about the Liturgy of the Hours, he said, “We must pray the Liturgy of the Hours as the Liturgy of the Hours”. Which means that we need to pray it throughout the day. Dr. Mahrt also said that we should reflect on the relationship between the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. Masses will be celebrated in both Forms this week: once in English Novus Ordo, twice in Latin Novus Ordo and twice in Vetus Ordo.

FTER THE OPENING DINNER, we had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Ann Labounsky’s special recital on the newly-installed pipe organ in the Duquesne Chapel. The recital featured mainly French pieces, which is what Dr. Labounsky is known for, and ended with a wonderful improvisation on two themes (King’s Weston tune or “At the Name of Jesus”, and the simple tone Salve Regina) submitted by Dr. Mahrt. We ended the night with the Compline sung by almost two hundreds participants. It was truly a powerful prayer and moving experience.

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

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday—1 March 2026—the 2nd Sunday of Lent (Year A). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are available at the flourishing feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Particularly Beautiful

The 2nd Sunday of Lent has magnificent propers. Its INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski