Views from the Choir Loft

Papal Liturgies – Day 3 of the Papal Visit

Andrew Leung · September 24, 2015 ·

On Day 3 of Pope Francis’s apostolic visit, he celebrated Solemn Vespers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. This New York cathedral is a great piece of art, especially after the recent renovation. And the musicians of the cathedral did some beautiful and true Sacred Music under the direction of Dr. Jennifer Pascual.

Reception of the Holy Father: 10:10
Solemn Vespers: 21:00

The New York cathedral set a very good example of Liturgical Music. It is definitely a huge contrast comparing to the two public liturgies yesterday. The Mass last night really doesn’t even worth mentioning, but St. Patrick’s Cathedral seems to have the solutions to the five problems I mentioned on the post yesterday. Even though the cantor sings a little slow sometimes, but unlike the cantors of the National Shrine, he didn’t have a big smile nor did he make a lot eye-contact with the congregation. The music is also very different from the mid-day prayer yesterday, the music selection of the Vespers is very up-lifting and solemn. From the music, you can hear the importance of the person visiting. After all, the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth. Too bad they cut off the end of Beethoven’s Hallelujah.

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