• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

  • About
  • Symposium
  • Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Square Note App

Fr. David Friel · April 9, 2017

ELL PHONES and other mobile devices these days serve manifold purposes. For some, they double and triple as cameras and internet browsers. For others, they also function as gaming devices, tip calculators, searchable Rolodexes, stereo systems, navigation systems, and portable televisions. But, have you ever used your mobile device as a Graduale Romanum?

Now you can, if you would like.

Recently, I stumbled upon an app called Square Note, which markets itself to church musicians and those who wish to learn more about chant. The app allows users to see a wide array of chants, with their texts and square notation. The chants are grouped in four major sections.

First, the Mass propers for the Ordinary Form encompass the whole temporal cycle and part of the sanctoral. Secondly, Mass propers are also available for the temporal cycle of the Extraordinary Form. Also included is a Kyriale section complete with all eighteen chant Masses and six chant creeds. Finally, the app offers a collection of “Other Chants,” which includes multiple versions of the Marian antiphons, certain Eucharistic chants, and several tones for the Te Deum.

One of the most useful features of the app is its capability of searching the texts of all the chants. Searches can be limited to the titles, or incipits, of the chants, or searches may be opened to include the full text of all the chants. For students of the liturgy, this tool is especially valuable.

Another feature that can be useful is the playback mode offered for each piece. Although this would unsettle purists, I can imagine the playback being useful for beginners. The tone quality of the playback is, of course, choppy and mechanistic, so its overuse ought to be avoided. I’ve known many schola directors who will not use a piano to find pitches or sound out passages, and there is real wisdom in their approach. For some, though, the playback mode offered in Square Note could be the help they need to get off the ground. Square Note even allows the user to adjust the pitch and tempo of the playback tool.

This app is the handiwork of Fr. Matthew Spencer, O.S.J. and Bro. Stephen Spencer, O.S.J., both members of the Holy Spouses Province of the Oblates of St. Joseph in the United States of America. It is a developing product, too, as more chants continue to be added to the collections.

The app is available for $2.99 in the Apple App Store or on Google Play. Click here to explore more fully the riches of this “Rituale in your pocket.”

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Graduale Romanum Roman Gradual Propers, Gregorian Chant, Propers, Resources for training in Church music Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

“The authority of the Pope is not unlimited. It is at the service of Sacred Tradition. Still less is any kind of general ‘freedom’ of manufacture, degenerating into spontaneous improvisation, compatible with the essence of faith and liturgy. The greatness of the liturgy depends—we shall have to repeat this frequently—on its lack of spontaneity.”

— Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (2000)

Recent Posts

  • Summer Ward Method Courses • CUA 2022
  • PDF Download • 2022 “Vespers Booklet” (99 Pages)
  • “Playing the Pipe Organ” • By Richard Nixon
  • 16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?
  • Prayer of Abandonment,  Saint Charles de Foucauld

Copyright © 2022 Corpus Christi Watershed · Gabriel Lalemant on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.