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Views from the Choir Loft

Maestro Colin Mawby—The Newest Blogger

Andrew Leung · August 2, 2015

CTL Colin Mawby AESTRO COLIN MAWBY is one of the most well known and popular composers these days. He recently became a contributor of Castaway, a new blog focusing on choral & sacred music founded by Aurelio Porfiri.

Colin Mawby is an English organist and composer. He was the Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral and also the Choral Director for the Irish National Television and Radio Service. Perhaps Dr. Lucas Tappan can tell us even more, since he’s made an extensive study of Westminster (and even visited there, I believe). He was awarded Knighthood of the Order of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006. He also appeared on Sursum Corda—an EWTN documentary on sacred music and the liturgy.

The English maestro has posted quite a few short articles since April and I am sure our readers will find them interesting. In his most recent article, Three (3) Contemporary Composers of Choral Music You Should Not Overlook, Mawby mentioned the music of Benjamin Britten, Morten Lauridsen, and Avro Pärt. He said their contemporary liturgical music “reflects our culture and speaks to the souls of all listeners.”

Allow me to add a fourth composer: Colin Mawby himself, whose works should not be overlooked. His piece, Ave Verum Corpus, was sung during one of the Masses at CMAA’s Sacred Music Colloquium. This piece is definitely contemporary—but also beautiful, dignified, and truly liturgical. Mawby shares the story behind the piece in one of his posts.


He wrote some other interesting POSTS including:

— Edward Elgar’s choral music|
— How to make your choir sound better|
— A few suggestions to write a decent liturgical composition|
— Why the organ and not the guitar?|
— Is the UK still the country of choral music?

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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Andrew Leung

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).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Every experienced choirmaster’s work is founded on the following three axioms: (1) Few boys have a really good natural voice; (2) No boy is able to control his voice and produce good tone without training; (3) Most boys have a good ear, and considerable imitative capacity. It is on the last of these axioms that the choirmaster must begin his work.”

— Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1912)

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