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).

“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

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