Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • Booklet for St. Joseph (19 March)

Jeff Ostrowski · March 20, 2017

OMETIMES OUR PARISH adds High Masses at the last second, and we usually use plainsong only. What is the quickest and best way to get starting pitches? Simply visit ccwatershed.org/nova and search for the first few words of the title in question. On Apple computers, “search” is COMMAND + F. For those using Windows, it’s CONTROL + F. Whatever you do, don’t sit there scrolling down—the search function is 100 billion times faster and better.

Here’s the booklet I put together for tonight, since the feast of Saint Joseph was transferred to 20 March this year:

* * PDF Download • Saint Joseph (19 March) During Lent

It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done. I took starting pitches in the exact way I just described. You could also use the Liber Usualis in Modern Notation for this same purpose—but that takes a lot longer to search.

The hymn chosen for Offertory is lovely. I like this verse very much:

O happiest of the happy, abounding in excess of joy, he whom—in his last hour—Christ (and the Virgin watching by him) did assist with countenance serene.

Fr. Connelly translates that verse as follows:

How singularly fortunate and blessed he was, for at his last hour Christ and the Virgin stood side by side to watch over him, their faces full of peace and comfort.

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

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(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