Brave Schola Director Posts “Live” Recording 1

Jeff Ostrowski · February 8, 2018 ·

EAR AFTER YEAR goes by, and I never cease to be fascinated by recordings of choral music—they always sound terrible! They seldom reproduce the true choral sound with anything approaching accuracy. I’m physically present, so I know how good it sounds; but when I go home and hear a recording I recoil in horror. Which should I believe: My own ears, or the pocket recorder? I ask myself again and again, without ever becoming reconciled to this bizarre phenomenon.

Someone recorded snippets of our FSSP choir singing (28 January 2018):

The ladies singing the Gradual psalm tone was gorgeous in real life. The “live” pocket recording sounds terrible by comparison.

Believe me. I was there.

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.

A quote from Fr. Valentine

Speaking of “nihil solliciti estis,” Fr. Valentine recently said: “I’ll bet that most people, including myself, have suffered more from things that never happened than from things that actually did happen.” Wise words!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Circle is complete

This is interesting! We have made it all the way around the liturgical year for Vespers organ accompaniments—which means all we have to do now is fill in the “holes,” such as Candlemas.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Fr. Valentine is very sick

I beg you to pray for Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, who I am told is dying (or may possibly have died already). He’s one of the most faithful & generous priests I know. There would be no CCWatershed without Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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