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Views from the Choir Loft

Mass in the Ancient Form at a Basilica

Andrew Leung · October 1, 2015

CTL Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul NE of the greatest experiences I had this past year in the South is meeting some new friends. I had the privilege to visit the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Chattanooga, Tennessee, this past weekend. Fr. David Carter, the rector of the basilica, and Maria Rist, the Director of Liturgical Music, are two of those amazing people I met. (And by the way, Fr. Carter was the keynote speaker for the Summer Sacred Music Workshop.)

Fr. Carter started to offered Masses according to the 1962 Missale Romanum when he was assigned to the basilica. And recently, he started to celebrate monthly Sung Masses and I was invited to sing with the choir a few times. It has been great to see the growth of the parish and the choir, especially the children’s choir. If you are in the area and would like to attend a Extraordinary Form Mass, Fr. Carter celebrates a Low Mass every Monday at 7am and a Sung Mass on the fourth Sundays of the month at 5pm.

Making connections is very important, especially now that people are starting to rediscover true Sacred Music. Even though we might still be the minority and are spread out, but try to find a “partner in crime”! Trust me! It is a joyful and encouraging experience when you collaborate with priests and musicians who share passion for the Liturgy and Sacred Music.

This visit was my last visit before I move to Ohio. I sang the Missa Cantata with the schola and the choristers on Sunday afternoon. And we had a simple Sung Mass on Monday morning, a Requiem Mass for Fr. Patrick J. Ryan. I was the cantor for that Mass and below is an excerpt of the Offertory, Domine Jesu Christe.


The video was taken by Maria Rist and you can see Fr. Carter on the right. And please pardon me for my mistakes, it was 7am in the morning and I was reading from my phone. More videos of the Basilica Choirs can be found on their Facebook Page.

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

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“To me nothing is so consoling, so piercing, so thrilling, so overcoming, as the Mass, said as it is among us. I could attend Masses for ever, and not be tired.”

— John Henry Cardinal Newman (1848)

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