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Views from the Choir Loft

Promoting a Good Choral Culture at Your Parish

Andrew Leung · March 31, 2016

CTL Promoting a Good Choral Culture at Your Parish HE LORD IS RISEN! Alleluia! I hope everyone had a blessed Holy Week. I had a very prayerful Sacred Triduum. All the liturgies at my parish went very smoothly. Some of you might already know, the parish I am assigned to for my pastoral year does not have a regular choir. We have a pretty developed cantor program, but our choir only sings twice per year, once for Christmas and once for the Triduum. I guess we don’t really have a choral culture here.

This Holy Week, I started a new Schola for the parish. It was very successful and we had many compliments from the parishioners and the clergy. There were seven singers in the schola and we learnt two pieces for the liturgies. I would like to share the two live recordings of our singing, even though they are not professional recordings. For a group that sang together in front of people the first time and only having half-hour-rehearsals for four times, I thought we did pretty well.


* *  Mp3 Audio File — Dubois’s Adoramus te, Christe


* *  Mp3 Audio File — Lotti’s Regina Caeli


Nothing is impossible with God! It is possible to introduce a good choral culture to a parish that is not familiar with any choir. The key is to be hopeful and communicate with others, especially with the singers and the pastor. It is important to begin a choir with a small group of core members singing a simpler repertoire. As the music program develops, it will attract more people to join and the choir can work on some more complex pieces.

CTL Promoting a Good Choral Culture at Your Parish Schola NOTHER WAY to promote a good choral culture at a parish is to invite guest artists to perform. Thanks to Msgr. Kurt Kemo, my pastor, Mark Dougherty, our church organist, and Prof. Nicholas Will, the director of the Franciscan University Schola, we are able to have the university’s schola to sing the 4:30pm Mass next Saturday. The Schola Cantorum Franciscana will be singing at the Ordinary Form Mass for the Third Sunday of Easter followed by a concert. The repertoire will include Gregorian Chant, Renaissance Polyphony and a few organ pieces played by the organ students. Inviting guest artists for special Masses or concerts is an excellent way to promote the choral culture. It increases the interest of the singers and help the faithful to appreciate in choral music. If you live around the Steubenville area, please join us for the 4:30 Sung Mass followed by a concert on April 9 at Blessed Sacrament Church, Wintersville, OH.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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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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Quick Thoughts

    Schola Director Posts ‘Live’ Recording
    As I explained in my article posted earlier today, Nun Komm Der Heiden Heiland is actually a Catholic tune (in spite of what some have claimed). The volunteer choir I direct sang that beautiful ADVENT melody last Sunday, and I invite you to listen to the live recording. It will get better the more we sing it.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Message from the Vice-President!
    The Vice-President of the Church Music Association of America, Dr. Horst Buchholz (who also serves as Director of Sacred Music for the Archdiocese of Detroit) sent us an email yesterday regarding the harmonizations (PDF) I composed for the Gregorian Chant psalm tones. Dr. Buchholz says: “Those settings are absolutely exquisite, as I'm used to when it comes from you. Bravo! Well done! Now, as a sequel, if you could write something for accompanying psalms in English that would be awesome.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Requesting Our Advent Eucharistic Hymn
    A young lady named Agnes wrote to us: “Dear Mr. Ostrowski, do you have the PDF score for Ave Corpus Domini set to the ADVENT melody? Last year, we sang the hymn tune “Nun Komm der Heiden Heiland” quite a bit using your contrafactum technique. My choir appreciates the Latin hymns and practice videos, especially in the ADVENT and CHRISTMAS seasons. Your recent article on Gregorian Psalm Tones is a great help to my organist brother, and reminds us of attending VESPERS years ago when we lived in California. Thank you so much for all the effort put into providing these wonderful resources!”   Agnes, if you are listening! Yes, the PDF file you desire can be downloaded for free at the Brébeuf Portal via this URL link. Thanks for writing to us!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

It’s good that you are in the USA, otherwise who is going to—in the best sense—make music?

— Ignaz Friedman writing to Josef Hofmann (4 January 1940)

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