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Views from the Choir Loft

Does Polyphony “Fit” Ordinary Form Masses?

Jeff Ostrowski · July 11, 2017

URING THE SACRED MUSIC SYMPOSIUM, I described how to painlessly add polyphony to the Ordinary Form by “sneaking it in” with choral extensions. So much information was shared during our conference—from 7:30am until 9:30pm each day, literally—that I wasn’t able to spend sufficient time explaining.

Therefore, I’ve created this video:

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice await you at #4884.
As always, the PDF score can be downloaded there, too.


If you desire an Mp3 version of this video, click here.


IF YOU DON’T HAVE enough voices to do the example above, consider the following: Guerrero “Iste Sanctus” (#5294); Palestrina Short (#6482); Palestrina Longer (#6995); Guerrero “Beata Mater” (#3347, #3661, #3579); Durieux (#4638); Palestrina “Impleta sunt” (#5053, #5054); Brudieu (#4327).

The Mass setting in the video is from Victoria’s Officium Defunctorum. This is a famous piece, and I was too scared to “vandalize it” by transposing it up a whole step—but my choir will most likely do so. Fr. Victoria’s work is based on the Requiem KYRIE, so I could have chosen the plainsong accordingly, but only if we were singing it for an actual Requiem. Despite what some assert, these are not rigid rules that can’t be changed. For example, most editors choose Mode II for Allegri’s Miserere Mei, but the actual music is based on the Tonus Peregrinus. Indeed, Sanctus VIII was taken verbatim from O Quam Suavis Est; but does that mean Sanctus VIII can only be sung on feasts where that Antiphon is employed? I think not.

I recorded all the voices for the above video except the third section, which was recorded by volunteers at Sacred Music Symposium 2017. Can you hear the difference? Listen closely to the richness in the third section, which begins at the 2:17 marker.

Don’t expect the congregation to understand immediately when they are supposed to sing. It will take at least a year before they begin to understand. At the Symposium, we spoke of the importance of using the same structure every Sunday for a long time before the good fruits become evident. That is why I would never dream of introducing the propers at OF Masses unless the congregation had a book such as the Isaac Jogues Pew Lectionary, which has 100% of the propers in Latin and English. I repeat: it takes years to reintroduce authentic liturgy, because our people have been robbed for half a century.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Place the missal in the hand of the faithful so that they may take part more easily and more fruitfully in the Mass; and that they faithful, united with the priest, may pray together in the very words and sentiments of the Church.”

— Ven. Pope Pius XII

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