Views from the Choir Loft

Evelyn Waugh Requiem Panegyric Preached At Westminster By Fr. Caraman (21 April 1966)

Jeff Ostrowski · August 11, 2015 ·

E HAVE MENTIONED Fr. Philip Caraman before, and will have occasion to do so again, but today focus on Fr. Caraman’s dear friend, Evelyn Waugh. Here is the full text of the panegyric (public speech) preached by Fr Philip Caraman at Waugh’s Latin Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral on 21 April 1966:

* * Panegyric (Complete) • Preached By Fr. Philip Caraman

The Tablet article says this was preached by Fr. Caraman, but I thought Requiem Masses traditionally lacked a homily. Moreover, was this a eulogy? Were eulogies forbidden? Are they forbidden now? Didn’t Fr. George Rutler famously deliver a funeral eulogy for William F. Buckley in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral? Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

“He was sad when he read of churches in which the old altar was taken down and a table substituted, or of side altars abolished as private Masses were held to be unliturgical or unnecessary. With all who know something of the pattern of history, he was perturbed. It was a struggle to accept it all, but he did accept it, and with enviable fidelity.”

Remember: this was 1966, so the massive liturgical changes would not arrive for another half decade.

411 Philip Caraman

A discussion about this post is underway.

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

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