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Views from the Choir Loft

Hereford Cathedral Choir to Sing at the Vatican

Andrew Leung · May 10, 2018

CTL Hereford Cathedral Choir HE HEREFORD CATHEDRAL CHOIR has been invited to sing for a Papal Mass with the Choir of Sistine Chapel. According to the BBC News, the two choirs will sing together on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Both Geraint Bowen, the cathedral’s director of music, and Msgr. Massimo Palombella will direct the joint choir during the Mass.

The Hereford Cathedral Choir will be the first Anglican cathedral choir to sing in a Papal Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica since the Reformation. In the past, the Roman Catholic Church and Anglican Church have had similar “music exchange programs”. In 2010, the Choir of Westminster Abbey sang a Choral Evensong for Pope Benedict during his visit to the UK. In 2012, the Abbey Choir visited the Vatican and sang at the Papal Mass on the Solemnity of Ss. Peter & Paul. More recently in 2016, a Solemn Vespers sung by The Sixteen was held in the Chapel Royal; that was the first Catholic liturgy held in that chapel since the time of Henry VIII.

Here is a video clip from the 2012 Papal Mass with the joint choir of Westminster Abbey and Sistine Chapel:

Hopefully, this Papal Mass will contribute to the healing process between the two Churches. And as the two Churches grow closer in unity, we may experience a mutual enrichment in our liturgical music. Music and arts are powerful instruments of prayer and evangelization! People may not remember the readings of the Mass and the sermon, but they will remember the beautiful music they heard at Mass!



Editor’s Note:

*   We thank Mr. Leung for his articles, which are always of interest. However, it would be important to add that events such as this do involve a certain amount of risk. We must be careful never to belittle or “gloss over” the differences between Catholic truths and positions at variance with the Catholic teaching. We certainly pray this is not the case here and (again) thank Mr. Leung for bringing this everyone’s attention.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew Leung

Andrew Leung currently serves the music director of Vox Antiqua, conductor of the Cecilian Singers, and music director at Our Lady of China Church.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

No concession should ever be made for the singing of the Exsultet, in whole or in part, in the vernacular.

— ‘Fr. Augustin Bea, S.J. in the years immediately before the Second Vatican Council’

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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