Views from the Choir Loft

Los Angeles Pontifical Mass • This Coming Sunday!

Jeff Ostrowski · June 24, 2016 ·

HIS COMING SUNDAY, in two days, our FSSP.la Apostolate in Los Angeles will be joined by the Most Rev’d Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan (underneath Russia). We will also be joined by our FSSP District Superior, Very Rev’d Gerard Saguto, several FSSP seminarians, and of course our chaplain, Fr. James Fryar.

The Solemn Pontifical Mass will begin at 7:00pm:

St. Victor Catholic Church
8634 Holloway Drive
West Hollywood, CA 90069

You’re invited to the reception & potluck dinner which will follow.

PROCESSIONAL • Organist.

ASPERGES • No Asperges for a Pontifical Mass.

INTROIT • Sung by the men.

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer)

KYRIE ELEISON

Visit this website and locate #3347, #3661, and #3579.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS

The Mercier “Canonic Gloria” is #3610.

And please be in the process of starting to learn #7709.

GRADUAL & ALLELUIA

We sing #3524 with the verses which you don’t need to practice.

CREDO IV • Alternatim

We sing this version: #3445.

OFFERTORY ANTIPHON

PDF Score (Singer)

OFFERTORY POLYPHONY

To rehearse “AVE MARIS STELLA” (Lhoumeau), you must locate #4669.

SANCTUS & HOSANNA

We have been singing #3496.

AGNUS DEI

Here is the musical score. To learn this piece, locate #2978.
The lyrics are different, but the music is the same.

COMMUNION ANTIPHON • Sung by the ladies.

PDF Score (Singer) • Practice Audio (Singer)

COMMUNION POLYPHONY

We will sing at least the first four pages of #3473, “Hymn to the Trinity.”

You also need to be putting aside time each week to learn Verse 3b, which is #7722 because eventually we will sing that verse.

RECESSIONAL HYMN • #908 Hail, Holy Queen

From the Campion Hymnal — with choir descant as #3175 (de Nouë).

OPENING PRAYER WITH THE CHOIR • from the Campion Hymnal:

407 Christ Saves

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