Views from the Choir Loft

Scogna and Olbash talk Gregorian Chant • “On a Sacred Note”

Richard J. Clark · August 3, 2018

’VE BEEN CATCHING UP with the Catholic TV Network’s series “On a Sacred Note” launched in June. Hosted by Stephanie Scogna (Artistic Director, Boston Art Song Society), the series explores over a millennium of music history through present-day genres and experiences. Scogna tackles subjects from Gregorian Chant to Navigating Vatican II on the parish level.

• WATCH EPISODE 1 with Michael Olbash Director of Music, St. Adelaide Parish, Peabody, Mass: How It Started | Gregorian Chant | Monophony (Scroll down to see an archive of all the shows in the series aired to date.)

Watch another episode with Michael Olbash here as they discuss this hot topic: Vatican II and the Vernacular Novus Ordo Part — Covering musical style changes after the Second Vatican Council.

• The show airs (HD) on Mon. 8:30 A.M., Tue. 8:30 P.M., Fri. 12 A.M., and Sat. 5 P.M. (All Eastern times) Beginning June 4, 2018, there will be a new episode each week.

• In addition to cable, Catholic TV is available on several streaming platforms. Chick here for various ways to watch. You can also get more information at CatholicTV.org.

HESE SHOWS ARE AN EXTRAORDINARY resource for laypersons and musicians alike who wish to learn an overview of the Church’s vast history and treasury of sacred music. It is also a great resource for children and adults to round out their appreciation and understanding of the role of music in prayer, as well as its influence on all of Western music! (My eight-year-old son and I have watched and listened together!)

The shows feature a different compelling topic each week, beginning with simple and easily understandable explanations by host Stephanie Scogna. This is followed up by interviews with various musicians and concludes with superlative musical examples sung by the The Brookline Consort. You can listen to the many of their musical performances from the show on YouTube here.

It’s a musical and prayerful feast!

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

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 4th Sunday of Easter (11 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I don’t know a more gorgeous ENTRANCE CHANT than the one given there: Misericórdia Dómini Plena Est Terra.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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