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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Intensely Powerful • “Requiem” Production (FSSP)

Jeff Ostrowski · April 7, 2017

By way of the FSSP blog in North America, we received this electrifying news:


From the press release:

Fr. Gerard Saguto, North American FSSP Superior, who also sang on REQUIEM, explains that the daily responsibilities of the priests entail shepherding its flock’s greatest joys and its deepest sorrows: from a marriage in the morning to a funeral in the afternoon. Saint Augustine’s sense of the sacred was a beauty “ever ancient, ever new.” This beautiful work—ancient, yet made anew whenever he and his confreres sing it—serves as a message of hope.

Click this image for all the details:


Excellent polyphonic works by Palestrina and Giovanni Battista Martini (one of Mozart’s teachers) are included along with traditional plainsong:

1. Antiphon Exsultábunt Dómino with Psalm 50
2. Tolling of the Bell
3. Responsory Subveníte Sancti Dei
4. Introit Réquiem ætérnam
5. Kýrie eléison
6. Gradual Réquiem ætérnam
7. Tract Absólve Dómine
8. Sequence Dies iræ
9. Offertory Dómine, Jesu Christe
10. Sanctus
11. Agnus Dei
12. Communion antiphon Lux ætérna
13. Responsory Líbera me
14. Antiphon In paradísum
15. Antiphon Ego sum with the Canticle of Zachary
16. Responsory Qui Lázarum
17. Responsory Dómine quando véneris
18. Responsory Peccántem me
19. Pie Jesu Dómine
20. Réquiem ætérnam

The program notes (SEE ABOVE) say that Fr. Zachary Akers currently serves as music director for the Fraternity in North America, which I did not realize. I’m proud to say he is an old friend of my brother, Mark. Fr. Akers visited our community in October, as these photographs show.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

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

Random Quote

It’s good that you are in the USA, otherwise who is going to—in the best sense—make music?

— Ignaz Friedman writing to Josef Hofmann (4 January 1940)

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