Views from the Choir Loft

Recording • Choral Mattins with John Rutter

Andrew Leung · July 20, 2017

WO SUNDAYS AGO, I had the privilege to sing for a Choral Mattins with the Choir of St. John’s Cathedral under the direction of world-renowned composer, John Rutter. I have already shared my experience and thoughts as well as some pictures of the service in my post last week. Now, I would like to share a live recording that was just uploaded to the cathedral’s website a few days ago. Here are some musical highlights and the recording:

Preces by Lau Yik Long (7:30)
Venite by Aldrich (9:10)
Psalm 55. 1-4, 17-21 by Riding & Stewart (11:15)
Te Deum by John Rutter (17:37)
Jubilate Deo by John Rutter (28:45)
Responses by Lau Yik Long (33:05)
Like As The Hart by Herbert Howells (40:15)

Conductors: John Rutter, Felix Yeung
Organists: Jonathan Yip, Peter Yue
Officiant: The Very Reverend Matthias Tze, Dean of St. John’s Cathedral

As Jeff Ostrowski has said many times in the past: “the microphones never do justice to the choral sound”; one cannot fully experience the full effect and power of the singing without being at the service.

Even though the Anglican Church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, I think we can learn a lot from them. For example, our Anglican brothers and sisters are doing a pretty good job in preserving and developing the church music of their tradition. They are also very successful in the upkeep of high choral standards in churches and schools. Many of the best choirs in the world are from the Anglican Communion. Let us learn from each other, and pray for the unity of Christ’s body.

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).

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski