Views from the Choir Loft

World Youth Day Krakow: Music Recordings

Fr. David Friel · August 14, 2016

AST WEEK, I shared news about the liturgical experience at last month’s World Youth Day 2016 in Poland. I wrote about the wonderful work done by the Dominican Liturgical Centre in Kraków, which orchestrated all the liturgies at the Mercy Centre (Tauron Arena), the main English-speaking catechesis site.

If you would like to taste a bit of what pilgrims experienced that week in Kraków, you can do so with the help of iTunes, where the Dominicans have released seventeen new tracks. Take note that the album, entitled “Jesus I Trust in You,” is not a collection of live recordings from the Mercy Centre, but rather the same pieces recorded earlier by members of the Dominican Liturgical Institute. You can download the album here:

* * * “Jesus I Trust in You” — iTunes Album

(WYD music recorded by the liturgical ensemble of the Basilica of the Holy Trinity & Hubert Kowalski)

This music is beautiful, simple, and sacred. It enhanced the World Youth Day liturgies greatly, and it serves as a model for what can be done to promote truly sacred music at the popular, grassroots level.

* * * UPDATE * * *

Additional recordings of some of the “Gouzentine” music used at the Mercy Centre are freely available on SoundCloud. These recordings were made in 2010 by the Columbia University Catholic Ministry Choir, including Chris Mueller, Fr. Lukasz, and other singers.

* * * “In the Gouzentine Manner” — SoundCloud Album

(Music recorded by the Columbia University Catholic Ministry Choir)

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

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday, which is the 2nd Sunday of Lent (1 March 2026). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. This feast has magnificent propers. Its somber INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with its fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Like! Like! Like!

You won’t believe who recently gave us a “like” on the Corpus Christi Watershed FACEBOOK PAGE. Click here (PDF) to see who it was. We were not only sincerely honored, we were utterly flabbergasted. This was truly a resounding endorsement and unmistakable stamp of approval.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski