Views from the Choir Loft

Rehearsal Videos • Guerrero “Agnus Dei” (SSATB)

Jeff Ostrowski · May 17, 2017

NE OF THE MANY things participants will learn at the upcoming Sacred Music Symposium is how to produce rehearsal videos. Below you’ll find Guerrero’s AGNUS DEI (“Missa Iste Sanctus”) for which I recorded all the voices, including both Soprano lines. I usually apologize for my Soprano notes (I’m a Baritone), and there are two Soprano lines. But I’m not going to apologize twice—do you understand why?

* * PDF Download • AGNUS DEI (“Iste Sanctus”)

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice await you at #5512.

The internet has damaged the attention span of many people, and this can be a source of frustration to those of us who blog. I have frequently indicated a special website where you can sing along with each individual voice—yet many still do not realize what’s available there. So I will keep repeating it, and hopefully everyone will eventually bookmark that website.

By the way, that website also contains Mp3 files. YouTube compresses the audio files, making them sound horrible. The Mp3 versions sound much nicer.

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).

Hymn by Cardinal Newman

During the season of Septuagesima, we will be using this hymn by Cardinal Newman, which employs both Latin and English. (Readers probably know that Cardinal Newman was one of the world's experts when it comes to Lingua Latina.) The final verse contains a beautiful soprano descant. Father Louis Bouyer—famous theologian, close friend of Pope Paul VI, and architect of post-conciliar reforms—wrote thus vis-à-vis the elimination of Septuagesima: “I prefer to say nothing, or very little, about the new calendar, the handiwork of a trio of maniacs who suppressed (with no good reason) Septuagesima and the Octave of Pentecost and who scattered three quarters of the Saints higgledy-piddledy, all based on notions of their own devising!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Introit • Candlemas (2 February)

“Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”

Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3). I'm not a fan of chant in octaves, but we had such limited time to rehearse, it seemed the best choice. After all, everyone should have an opportunity to learn “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium,” which summarizes Candlemas.

—Jeff Ostrowski