Views from the Choir Loft

Antiphon Journal Expands Its Archives

Fr. David Friel · May 21, 2017 ·

NE OF THE journals I most enjoy reading is Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal. Published by the Society for Catholic Liturgy and presently edited by Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, C.O., the contents of the journal always stimulate new thoughts and perspectives on liturgical matters.

Until recently, the journal archives of Antiphon have been available through the journal website. Articles would only appear from volumes more than three years old.

Now, the more recent editions of the journal, up to the current issue, have been made available through Project MUSE. The mission of Project MUSE is to disseminate broadly scholarly content in the field of social science and the humanities. This new page makes it possible to preview Antiphon Volumes 19 through 21, which represent the years 2015-2017. The page makes available HTML and PDF versions of each individual article, editorial, and review—truly a wealth of quality resources.

Click here to see a few of my thoughts on Fr. Lang’s most recent book, Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred (2015), including a discussion of whether or not liturgies ought to be televised.

If you enjoy scholarly discussion on liturgical themes, I would invite you to consider subscribing to Antiphon or even becoming a member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. Among the many instruments of liturgical reform operating in the Church today, SCL is one of the finest.

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