Views from the Choir Loft

Live Recording from Macau Cathedral

Andrew Leung · June 8, 2017

T IS USUALLY NOT common for church choirs to get good live recordings during liturgies due to various reasons; but here is an exception! Two weeks ago, we had a concert followed by a choral Mass at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Our Lady (Macau, China), and thanks to the Diocesan Social Communication Centre, we managed to get a pretty good and professional video of the whole program.

We were blessed to have the Tallis Vocalis visiting us from Hong Kong. They performed a 30-minutes program for us before the liturgy and they sang Josquin’s Missa Pange Lingua for the Mass under the direction of Dr. Edward Wickham. The full video can be found on YouTube.

The original program was to sing pieces written by Josquin des Prez and other pieces composed based on his works. However, we added a piece by Thomas Tallis to the program because its text was part of the Gospel of the Sixth Sunday of Easter (OF). And since we are still in the “Octave of Pentecost”, this would be the perfect time to share this. So, here is the recording of the famous If Ye Love Me sung by the joint choirs of the Tallis Vocalis and the Cathedral Schola of Macau. Enjoy!

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

About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

Is the USCCB trolling us?

I realize I’m going to come across as a “Negative Nancy” … but I can’t help myself. This kind of stuff is beyond ridiculous. There are already way too many options in the MISSALE RECENS. Adding more will simply confuse the faithful even more. We seriously need to band together and start creating a “REFORM OF THE REFORM” Missale Romanum so it will be ready when the time comes.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

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—Jeff Ostrowski

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).

—Corpus Christi Watershed

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

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Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker