Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Rorate Mass” (13 pages) —Dec 2017

Jeff Ostrowski · December 13, 2017 ·

O PREPARE for our sunrise Rorate Mass on Saturday morning (here at FSSP.la) I have completely redone the booklet from which we will sing. It’s one of my better booklets, and I think you’ll appreciate how I’ve indicated starting pitches.

* * PDF Download • RORATE MASS (13 pages)

The famed Mrs. Veronica Brandt generously helped me create the Offertory Hymn—thanks to the melody found in Hymni de Tempore et de Sanctis—to which we added an “Urbanite” translation by Fr. Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923). We chose Mass X, which is supposedly a more ancient “Blessed Virgin Mass” than Mass IX—although Mass IX is also fantastic.

I do not know a more gorgeous melody or text than Virgo Dei Genitrix, which we selected to sing during Communion. Do you?

Here is the translation for VERBUM SUPERNUM PRODIENS—for Advent, not the one by St. Thomas Aquinas—by Fortescue:

(Advent) Verbum Supernum Prodiens

IGH WORD of God,
coming forth from the eternal Father,
who being born in the fullness of time
dost succour the world;

2. Enlighten now our hearts
and burn them with love of thee,
that leaving earthly things
they be filled with heavenly joy.

3. And when the tribunal of the great judge
condemns the wicked to fire,
when his voice calls
the good to their reward in heaven,

4. Let us not be cast into the darkness
to burn in flames,
but may we share the joy of heaven,
seeing the face of God.

5. To the Father, to the Son,
to the Holy Spirit,
as it was, so always
for all ages be glory.

Somebody has created an alternate version of the same hymn, but the melody is not identical.

Veronica also sent Latin only version, for people who don’t like English translations.

(Of course, I’m not sure how perfect that Fortescue translation is, because Pope Urban VIII messed with some of the hymns pretty bad…)

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

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