Views from the Choir Loft

Catholic Hymns Before Vatican II Will Shock You!

Jeff Ostrowski · February 28, 2016 ·

NE OF OUR MOST CONTROVERSIAL articles appeared on 19 August 2013. That was the day we posted a 1937 article by Dom Gregory Hügle, OSB, affirming that selections from the Ordinarium Missae and Proprium Missae could be sung during LOW MASS. Some demanded that the post be taken down, e.g. the head of an anonymous “ultra-conservative” blog who sent several nasty emails. It seems that Fr. Hügle’s article contradicted a narrative this person had been promoting about the pre-conciliar liturgy and he felt the truth should be kept secret—I disagreed.

In spite of what you may have read online, hymns and selections from the Ordinarium Missae were often sung during Low Mass in English. Consider these pages from a 1913 hymnal published by a English Benedictine monk:

* * PDF Download • From a 1913 Roman Catholic Hymnal

Is this a fluke? No, because the hymnal’s IMPRIMATUR PAGE includes several distinguished clerics, including Francis Aidan Gasquet (who later became a Cardinal). ¹ In light of this, the “hype” that accompanied Alexander Peloquin’s 1964 performance of a Mass Ordinary in English seems silly.

Those who have read the PREFACE to the Campion Hymnal realize that prior to 1965, Catholics were free to worship any way they wished. ² After Vatican II, the strong emphasis on external participation caused some to neglect internal participation:

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Unless I’m wrong, it isn’t every day that a Benedictine monk is elevated to the cardinalate.

2 This is why official rubrics for the congregation at Low Mass do not exist.

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