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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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20 January 2021 • REMINDER

We have no savings, no endowment, and no major donors. You can help us (please) by subscribing to our mailing list. It’s incredibly easy; just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Some of our younger parish clergy read their sermons. This should not be done except for some very special reason. The priest who is not capable of preparing and delivering a brief, clear instruction on Catholic teaching to his people is not fit to be in parish work. The people as a rule do not want to listen to a sermon reader.”

— Archbishop of Baltimore (9 July 1929)

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