Views from the Choir Loft

Sing Like the Angels

Andrew Leung · December 21, 2015

ERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas is upon us and I would like to wish all our readers a blessed Christmas. About two thousand years ago, the angles appeared to shepherds, announcing to them the good news and sang “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests”. (Lk 2:8-14, from the Mid-night Mass Gospel) What can we learn from the Holy Angels? There are two things we can learn from the best and most perfect choir.

(1) Deliver the Message – We know from Luke’s Gospel that the angels delivered the good news to the shepherd outside of Bethlehem and the shepherd understood them clearly. Although our choirs on earth might not be perfect, we can all do our best to deliver the message. One way to make sure that messages are delivered is to sing with good diction. Imagine that the angels who spoke and sang to the shepherds mumbled the whole time, the shepherds probably wouldn’t have gone to adore our Lord. Also, when the chant or choral pieces are not in the vernacular, it would be nice if we can help the congregation to understand the text. Do everything you can to get the message across, especially to those who are visiting your parish during Christmas.

(2) Constantly Praying and Praising – Christmas can be a stressful time for church musicians. But it really should be a prayerful time. So, learn from the Holy Angels this Christmas and make every pieces of music a prayer to God. There will probably be quite a few “CEO (Christmas and Easter Only) Catholics” in church who will be “singing at Mass”. But we have to make sure that we sing the Mass. We are not just performing or caroling, but we are singing the Mass itself! Try to understand and even meditate on the texts that you will be singing. This will allow you to pray the texts as you sing and this will also help deliver the message.

Asking for the intercession of the Holy Angels is also a good idea. Through their intercession, may the Lord help us to grow closer to Him, sing joyfully and prayerfully to the world the good news. And as the conclusion of every Preface in the Mass says, may we “join in one voice with all the Angels and Heavenly Hosts” and proclaim the Glory of God.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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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—Jeff Ostrowski

“Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)

I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).

—Corpus Christi Watershed

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

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Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker