Views from the Choir Loft

New English Hymnal • Voice-Leading

Jeff Ostrowski · November 7, 2017

ONSTANT CRITICS are deleterious and corrosive. The internet is full of people who find fault with everything. That being said, in the past we’ve sometimes pointed out errors in the Solesmes books—e.g. here and here—to show that even the very best make mistakes. Realizing this, we obtain the strength necessary to avoid paralysis.

Consider this page from the New English Hymnal:

4022 New English Hymnal Parallel Fifths

This is not very good voice leading, folks. They should have stuck with the harmonization in Woodward’s book. Yet, that’s one of the best hymnals.

IT IS IMPORTANT to point out and praise musicians who are accomplishing nice things. Consider what Mr. Jacob Flaherty has been up to:

* * Article • Palestrina’s Missa Aeterna Christi Munera

The video excerpts (which I wish were available on YouTube) sound very good. And if the recordings sound good, the real life sound must have been marvelous, as we’ve discussed.

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).

16 September 2021 • Fulton J. Sheen

Here is a photograph of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen celebrating Mass in Jerusalem. That image was included in the “Fulton J. Sheen Sunday Missal” (1961), which was edited by Father Caramen and has an IMPRIMATUR by William Cardinal Godfrey, who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1956 until his death in 1963. The Fulton Sheen Missal can be freely downloaded as a PDF file, thanks to Corpus Christi Watershed.

—Jeff Ostrowski

15 September 2021 • Offertory Problem

I submit to you that nothing is gained by these slight variations in the repeats for the Epipany Offertory. The edition is by Carl Ott, a musicologist. Almost nothing is about Carl Ott—as far as I can tell, nobody even knows when Carl Ott was born or when Carl Ott died.

—Jeff Ostrowski

A Truly Insane Liturgical Practice

In 2013, I began speaking of an insane liturgical practice which was allowed by Pope Pius XII—but nobody realizes this. If you tried to do this at the Traditional Latin Mass, you would most likely be run out of town on a rail. However, for the record, the FULTON SHEEN MISSAL (edited by Father Caraman) specifically mentions this type of participation … and you can see for yourself.

—Jeff Ostrowski