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Views from the Choir Loft

The longest 54 seconds in a Missa Cantata

Veronica Brandt · December 30, 2016

Mini Magi British Library, Cuttings from a liturgical manuscript, Rome 16th century 21412, f. 95 Adoration of the Magi HE LONG SILENCE. Were you supposed to start singing already, or is something else about to happen first? It is the time just after the Lord’s Prayer while everyone is waiting to start the Agnus Dei at a Vetus Ordo / Extraordinary Form sung Latin Mass. That wait between Sed libera nos a malo until the Per omnia saecula saeculorum. It is so tempting to start the Agnus Dei to fill in the silence, but hopefully that’s a mistake you don’t make more than once.

Starting to take care of the music for a sung Latin Mass can be daunting. There is a handy book available called Psallite Sapienter. It’s not a completely authoritative work – you will find there are all sorts of variations among different priests and musicians, but it does give a good starting point. It’s available printed by Lulu and also as a free pdf download from musicasacra.com.

May your 2017 be full of new adventures, not least in the pursuit of sacred music!

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: November 15, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

He stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.

— Re: Pope Saint Pius V (d. 1572)

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