Views from the Choir Loft

Church Madness 2016

Andrew Leung · April 13, 2016

AM NOT SURE if many of you are aware of this: there is an online competition going on right now! Church Madness 2016—a contest which allows everyone to vote and select the most beautiful Catholic church in the country—is entering its final week.

The competition started back in March with sixty-four nominated churches around the country. It is now down to four churches called the “Ferial Four.” There will be two churches left after tomorrow, so put down your vote now! You can also check the result of the previous match-ups on the same website (Most of the nominations are great! But be warned; there are some really bad ones, especially from the west coast.)

The four churches that entered the semi-finals are: St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC, Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville and the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City.

CTL National Shrine

CTL Shrine Blessed Sacrament

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

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).

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski