Views from the Choir Loft

2018 • Christendom College Choral Scholarships!

Jeff Ostrowski · January 5, 2018

TARTING NEXT FALL, Christendom College will offer two (2) one-year choral scholarships: one for a man (TENOR or BASS), and one for a woman (SOPRANO or ALTO). The scholarship will consist of $4,500 in tuition reduction and $1,500 toward voice lessons throughout the year.

Full details are here:

* * Choral Scholarships (2018)

The recipient is expected to attend sectional and full rehearsals throughout the year, sing at the Sunday Mass, the First Friday Holy Hour, help out at weekday Masses, sing in the Palestrina Chamber Choir, and perform other duties that will be discussed during the interview.

Students will need to submit an audition video of one piece by March 1, 2018 and, if selected, will come to campus as a finalist to audition in person on Saturday, April 7. If there are any questions, you should contact Dr. Kurt Poterack at: kpoterack@christendom.edu

Readers will already know about Christendom College, which for decades has been a “shining city on a hill” as far as Roman Catholic education. Over the years, the faculty has included such luminaries as Dr. Warren H. Carroll and Very Rev’d Robert A. Skeris.

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).

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