Views from the Choir Loft

Musical Resources • 1st Sunday of Lent (EF)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 14, 2016 ·

RESPONSES FOR HIGH MASS

PDF Score (Singer) • printed on a single sheet

PROCESSIONAL • #828 Throughout These Forty Days

From the Campion Hymnal. • No organ during Lent, except on Laetare Sunday.

ASPERGES

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer) • Organist

To practice the new section of the Asperges, you must locate #4550.

INTROIT • Sung by the men only.

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer)

KYRIE ELEISON

The new “Kyrie” is #3661 and #3579 and until we learn the other parts will be sung with this score.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS

You need to be practicing #3610 for when Lent is over.

GRADUAL & ALLELUIA

There is no Alleluia until Easter arrives.

As always, the verses are found in our GOUPIL GRADUAL books.

CREDO IV • Alternatim

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer) • Organist

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON

PDF Score (Singer)

OFFERTORY HYMN

Hymn to the Sacred Trinity can be found as #3473

SANCTUS & HOSANNA

The new Guerrero Sanctus & Hosanna can be found as #3496

We have been singing #4912 and will sing it again this Sunday.

Sometimes—but not this coming Sunday—we sing a different polyphonic “Hosanna,” which is #5048. You don’t need to practice the Chant Part.

AGNUS DEI

The new setting currently lacks rehearsal videos.

To practice the Agnus Dei by Philippe Verdelot (d. 1531), you must locate #4801.

Don’t forget our other setting, #4347.

COMMUNION ANTIPHON

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer)

COMMUNION POLYPHONY “A”

“Jesu Dulcis Memoria” is number #4428.

COMMUNION POLYPHONY “B”

Ave Maris Stella is number #4669.

RECESSIONAL HYMN • 837 O Sacred Head, Surrounded

From the Campion Hymnal. • No organ during Lent, except on Laetare Sunday.

PRAYER WITH THE CHOIR (including excerpts from the CAMPION HYMNAL) :

757 Campion Missal

810 Endings Collects CAMPION MISSAL

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

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