Views from the Choir Loft

Introducing the Wethersfield Institute Chant Workshop

Fr. David Friel · April 16, 2017 ·

UMMER 2017 has several excellent sacred music programs on offer. Within a span of just two weeks in late June, there will be three outstanding programs offered on the East Coast, on the West Coast, and in the Midwest.

First up is the 27th annual CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium, to be held in St. Paul, MN from June 19-24, 2017. More details available here.

Second is the second annual Sacred Music Symposium hosted by the FSSP parish in Los Angeles, CA. Dates for the symposium are June 26-30, 2017, and information can be found here.

Third is the inaugural Wethersfield Institute Chant Workshop, which runs from June 27-30, 2017. This event, to be held at Wethersfield house, Amenia, NY, will be led by two Dominicans: Fr. Vincent Ferrer Bagan, O.P. and Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P. This event is billed as an intensive course on Gregorian chant that will feature instruction in singing, teaching, and directing Gregorian chant. Both Mass and the Divine Office will be sung daily. Further details are available from the workshop website here.

June promises to be a wonderful month for the advancement of sacred music. These three conferences, together with Sacra Liturgia Milano earlier in the month (June 6-9, 2017), will introduce the treasury of the Church’s music to many new people. These workshops will also deepen the knowledge and experience of many folks already working with chant in their parishes and institutions.

The placement of these opportunities across the country is very good news for the renewal of sacred music. It is simple evidence that there is a widespread need being met. May the Lord bring forth much fruit from each of these events!

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served for five years as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski