Views from the Choir Loft

Archives for October 2015

Lucas Tappan · October 6, 2015

The Power of Good Music

Please, please don’t ever underestimate the power of good music to touch hearts in either the work of evangelization or catechesis.

Aurelio Porfiri · October 5, 2015

Something Unexpected

Music is not and cannot be neutral.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 3, 2015

Worst Song Ever?

What Church musicians can learn from “Friday” by Rebecca Black.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 3, 2015

Loading Choir Binders For Sunday (4 October)

The life of a choirmaster is a life of sacrifice…

Richard J. Clark · October 2, 2015

Believe. Connect. Disappear.

The older I get, I prepare more not to receive accolades, but to become invisible.

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · October 1, 2015

Is this the “Proper” solution for you?

I’ve decided to try an experiment that may work in other parishes.

Andrew Leung · October 1, 2015

Mass in the Ancient Form at a Basilica

The Traditional Latin Mass is being offered regularly at the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul in Chattanooga.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 1, 2015

Musical Resources • 19th Sunday after Pentecost (Extraordinary Form)

“Almighty and merciful God, in thy goodness put far from us all that may work us harm…”

16 September 2021 • Fulton J. Sheen

Here is a photograph of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen celebrating Mass in Jerusalem. That image was included in the “Fulton J. Sheen Sunday Missal” (1961), which was edited by Father Caramen and has an IMPRIMATUR by William Cardinal Godfrey, who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1956 until his death in 1963. The Fulton Sheen Missal can be freely downloaded as a PDF file, thanks to Corpus Christi Watershed.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 September 2021 • Offertory Problem

I submit to you that nothing is gained by these slight variations in the repeats for the Epipany Offertory. The edition is by Carl Ott, a musicologist. Almost nothing is about Carl Ott—as far as I can tell, nobody even knows when Carl Ott was born or when Carl Ott died.

—Jeff Ostrowski

A Truly Insane Liturgical Practice

In 2013, I began speaking of an insane liturgical practice which was allowed by Pope Pius XII—but nobody realizes this. If you tried to do this at the Traditional Latin Mass, you would most likely be run out of town on a rail. However, for the record, the FULTON SHEEN MISSAL (edited by Father Caraman) specifically mentions this type of participation … and you can see for yourself.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Giovanni Doni is known for having changed the name of note “Ut,” renaming it “Do.” He convinced his contemporaries to make the change by arguing that 1) “Do” is easier to pronounce than “Ut,” and 2) “Do” is an abbreviation for “Dominus,” the Latin word for the Lord, Who is the tonic and root of the world. There is much academic speculation that Giovanni Doni also wanted to imprint himself into musical canon in perpetuity because “Do” is also ulteriorly an abbreviation for his family name.

— Giovanni Battista Doni died in 1647AD