Views from the Choir Loft

Popular Posts From 2015

Cynthia Ostrowski · December 29, 2015

Below are some popular articles from 2015. Unfortunately, the list is not exhaustive, because Facebook makes such lists difficult to assemble. If you didn’t read them, you might want to check them out. Here they are in no particular order:

RICHARD CLARK:

Carpeting Is the Enemy of Congregational Singing

Five Things Directors and Choirs Must Remember This Week

ANDREW MOTYKA:

“Proper Of The Mass” (Ignatius Press)

FR. DAVID FRIEL:

Pastoral Difficulties with Recently Ordained Priests

The Future of the Pipe Organ

Bishop Conley & Advent “Ad Orientem”

DR. LUCAS TAPPAN:

One Sure Way To Destroy Your Child’s Musical Potential

Where Have All The Organists Gone?

JEFF OSTROWSKI:

Cardinal Sarah’s Powerful Letter Available In English!

Six Things To Know About USCCB Hymn Approval

PDF Download • Extremely Rare Hymnal (1952)

Top Six Liturgical Quotes By Robert Cardinal Sarah

Short, Fresh, & Beautiful • SATB “Ave Maris Stella”

CHRISTOPHER MUELLER:

A Striking Approach To Performing Gregorian Chant

ANDREW LEUNG:

Papal Master of Ceremonies on receiving Communion

Understanding the Sacred

DR. ALFRED CALABRESE:

An Antidote For Clericalism: Sung Vespers

VERONICA BRANDT:

Easy Organ Hymns for Catholics

How to do Marian Hymns

GUEST AUTHOR:

“No Approval Needed for Substitute Songs” says USCCB

“Saving” Gregorian Chant In The Ordinary Form

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

About Cynthia Ostrowski

Cynthia Ostrowski holds a bachelor's degree in Geographic Information Science and a minor in Computer Science from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi (2005). She is currently a stay-at-home mother of two children. A former GIS analyst, Cynthia's interests include photography, french horn, and singing polyphony.

22 July 2020 • Five Recent Messages

We are asking our readers to give $5.00 per month (or even $3.00 per month) so we can keep our website online. Here are five recent messages from donors:

(#1) Your site is a Godsend. It must continue. I am a church mouse but I can afford $5 a month. Let’s help keep the beautiful music ringing through our sanctuaries. (#2) In honor of my Godson, who just turned 5 yrs old. May he and his brothers grow up singing in my Youth Schola and learning to play pipe organ at our Parish where I am Director of Music Ministries. (#3) Thank you! This is a beautiful resource that I sing with every morning, with my kids, on your YouTube channel. (#4) Thank you CCWatershed team for all you have done to keep Catholic sacred music alive in this ever changing world. You help us provide liturgical beauty in our ordinary form parishes. I can only pray, that before the end of the year, all of us will be back in church singing glorious sacred music. Pax Christi. (#5) Thank you for all your efforts! I have learned so much from you sharing your gifts and love of sacred music.

—Jeff Ostrowski

21 July 2020 • From a Musicology PhD…

To you and your colleagues who helped produce the Brébeuf hymnal, I wanted to drop a line to say “bravo.” I just got a copy and immediately ordered the choral supplement (I ought to have just gotten it in the first place). What an achievement this book is! This is the sort of hymnal one could use for decades without exhausting its contents and the possibilities it offers. And that hymn I asked you about (Southwell/Allen) was QUELLA; what a beautiful melody (and text)! —P.B.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Wonderful emails received recently…

(#1) “Thank you for all the great work you do to provide music and rehearsal videos for all of us to use! It has been invaluable to those music and choir directors who’ve had to build a Gregorian chant schola from scratch! May God continue to bless all you do to promote sacred music for the Mass and for the glory of God!”

(#2) “I am a newly ordained priest. When I was in seminary we constantly used stuff from you guys to help us learn things. Thank you!”

(#3) “Thank you CCWATERSHED for all you do and provide for restoring Sacred Music in the Church today. God bless your ministry.”

(#4) “Thank you for bringing beautiful Sacred Music to all of us!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

There is a lack of that kind of organization which favors mature judgment. Move on, move on, get it out. Schemata are multiplied without ever arriving at a considered form. The system of discussion is bad … Often the schemata arrive just before the discussions. Sometimes, and in important matters, such as the new anaphoras, the schema was distributed the evening before the discussion was to take place … Father Bugnini has only one interest: press ahead and finish.

— Cardinal Antonelli (Peritus during the Second Vatican Council)