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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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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“We have baptized about 240 this year … All the labors of a million persons—would they not be worthwhile if they gained one single soul for Jesus Christ?”

— Father Isaac Jogues, writing to his mother

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