Views from the Choir Loft

Society for Catholic Liturgy Conference 2018

Fr. David Friel · July 15, 2018 ·

OMANO Guardini will be the unifying theme among all of the papers delivered at this year’s Society for Catholic Liturgy (SCL) conference. Guardini was one of the most influential figures in the Liturgical Movement during its early-twentieth-century phase. This year (2018) marks the centenary of the publication of Guardini’s classic book, Vom Geist der Liturgie (The Spirit of the Liturgy).

The SCL conference will be held 27–29 September 2018 at the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Miami, FL. The event will feature a solemn Mass in the Ordinary Form on Friday, as well as a solemn pontifical Mass in the Extraordinary Form on Saturday.

Numerous papers will be presented during the days of this conference, but the three keynote address will include:

Gerhard Cardinal Müller, former Prefect of the CDF (“Lex orandi, lex credendi”)

Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Archbishop of Miami (Topic TBA)

Secretariat of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship (Topic TBA)

More details about the conference—including registration information and titles of papers to be delivered—are available here. I am pleased to be presenting a conference paper entitled, “Romano Guardini and the Priesthood of the Baptized.”

OUNDED in 1995, the Society for Catholic Liturgy is a unique organization that brings together faithful Catholic scholars and artists from around the world to recover, discuss, and promote the rich liturgical tradition of the Church. The Society holds an annual three-day conference and publishes Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, which deals with important theoretical and practical questions in the fields of liturgy and sacramental theology.

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served for five years as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

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