Views from the Choir Loft

Sacra Liturgia 2019 in Toronto

Fr. David Friel · January 31, 2018

VER THE last five years, the Sacra Liturgia organization has hosted a series of four very successful academic conferences on the sacred liturgy:

Rome (2013)
New York City (2015)
London (2016)
Milan (2017)

The series will return to North America, it has just been announced, with a 2019 conference in Toronto, Canada. Dates for the upcoming Sacra Liturgia will be June 17-20, 2019. This event is being hosted with the generous approval of the Archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Cardinal Collins. Information concerning the specific locations for the conferences and liturgies has not yet been released.

Speakers at the 2019 conference will include Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, and Bishop Peter Elliott, among others.

Sacra Liturgia has also just announced the details of their Fifth International Summer School, to be held at the Monastère Saint-Benoît, in La Garde-Freinet, Provence, France.

The dates for this summer program will be July 27 – August 8, 2018.

Click here for CCW coverage of the past Sacra Liturgia proceedings. Stay in touch with Sacra Liturgia via their website and Facebook page.

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

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

“Tonus Solemnior” • How old is it?

In the 1962 Missal, a section called “præfationes in tono solemniore” contains ornate melodies for the Preface. An article posted on the blog of the Church Music Association of America claims the tone comes from “the late 19th century” and said its elimination “is one of the very few good things which the post-Conciliar reform did for Gregorian chant.” The author said: “The Roman solemn preface tone is already beautiful enough, there was no need to give a more Romantic feel.”

Some have asked us whether the tonus solemnior comes from “the late 19th century.” It does not. Their author was wrong by at least 400 years. I have seen this tone in MSS from the 1400s—and it may go back even further. Here is an example from 1494AD. And here’s another from the 1400s. The FSSP priests use these tones on high feasts, and the effect is unforgettable.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2022 • Quick!

A short version of the INTROIT for the feast of the Epiphany has been added to the Saint René Goupil Gregorian Chant Website.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Confusing Feasts of Christmas

Whether one considers the Missale Vetustum or the post-conciliar calendar—or even the 1908 calendar—the feasts which follow Christmas are very confusing. Last year I created this comparison chart. I hope you find it helpful. As far as I can tell, my chart is the first effort to carefully detail the changes made to post-Christmas feasts (unless we also count the rather basic one by Lauren Pristas).

—Jeff Ostrowski