Views from the Choir Loft

Brand New • “Saint Paul Hymnal”

Jeff Ostrowski · March 15, 2016 ·

ROM the Roman Catholic blog of Saint Paul’s in Harvard Square, we learn of a fantastic new hymnal, which seems to have been produced for their exclusive use. A description is provided, but no sample pages:

* * PDF Download • SAINT PAUL HYMNAL

The hymnal editors were Dr. Jonathan Wessler, Mr. John Robinson, and Fr. Michael Drea. I’m told that some of the traditional “American” Catholic hymns were included such as: Mother of Christ; Sweet Savior, Bless us E’re We Go; and Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All.

My friend Peter Meggison helped with this book and is listed in the acknowledgments as a contributor to the publication. Indeed, many names from the hymnal advisory committee will be familiar to CCW readers:

Msgr. Andrew R. Wadsworth
Executive Director, International Commission on English in the Liturgy

Fr. Michael E. Drea
Pastor and Senior Chaplain, The Parish of St. Paul

Fr. Jonathan M. Gaspar
Director of the Office of Divine Worship, Archdiocese of Boston

Richard J. Clark
Director of Music, St. Cecilia Parish

Chalon S. Murray
Director of Music, St. Helena’s Episcopal Church (Boerne, TX)

Edmund G. Murray
Director of Music, Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church (Houston, TX)

Dr. Susan Treacy
Professor of Music, Ave Maria University (Ave Maria, FL)

More information about the Saint Paul Boys’ Choir School can be found here, and I suspect our own Richard J. Clark and Dr. Lucas Tappan could (perhaps) tell us even more about this wonderful place!

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