Views from the Choir Loft

Summer Sacred Music Workshop 2015

Andrew Leung · July 18, 2015 ·

ECENTLY, I have been working hard with Bridget Scott, a fellow music director in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, organizing and preparing for the Summer Sacred Music Workshop. This workshop is a collaborative effort between parishes in response to the Archdiocesan pastoral plan. The workshop will be held at Our Lady of the Mountains Roman Catholic Church in Jasper, Georgia, on August 15, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

This is an opportunity for musicians in the Southeast area (Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina) to learn about the Ancient Gregorian Chant and Classical Polyphony. Fr. David Carter, JCL, will be giving the keynote entitled, Re-discovery of the Church’s Sacred Tradition: II Kings 22. Three accomplished musicians joined us as faculty members recently: Maria Rist, Jonathan Eason and Noel Jones. There will also be a book sale at the workshop. The Closing Mass, Sung Mass in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, will be celebrated at 4:00pm at the parish by the pastor, Fr. Charles Byrd. All are welcome to join us for the Liturgy. More information can be found on our webpage.

The deadline of registration for the workshop is August 1. So, REGISTER NOW!

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. He is also an artist and vocal coach at the Paul Phoenix Academy.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski