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Views from the Choir Loft

New Discovery in Canada

Andrew Leung · August 23, 2018

URING MY TRIP IN CANADA a month ago, I was very fortunate to have met some new musician friends. I was put in touch with a few music professors at the University of Toronto and was able to meet one of them in person. During our chat, we discussed about the situation of the local church music in Canada and in Hong Kong, which I have shared in a few posts before (HERE, HERE and HERE). I was introduced to some of the choral works by contemporary composers in Canada, and one of them is Stephanie Martin.



TEPHANIE MARTIN is an associate professor of music at York University and the director of Schola Magdalena (a women’s ensemble for chant, medieval and modern polyphony). She was the music director of the historic church of Saint Mary Magdalene in Toronto, where the famous Canadian composer Healey Willan had also held the very same position. And coincidentally, both Willan’s and Martin’s music are available for sale on Biretta Books.

Martin is a composer proficient in composing both instrumental and choral music. A lot of her choral works are composed based on religious texts. Personally, I found her composition style, a mix of chant, polyphony and modern harmonies, very beautiful and uplifting. And I would say that her sacred works are quite appropriate for liturgical use. Here is one of her compositions modeled after chant and polyphony: Kyrie from Missa Chicagoensis sung at St. John Cantius, Chicago.



If you are interested in her works, you can find out more on her website and you can also look up her works on YouTube. One of the many interesting videos I found is this interview where she talks about her setting of Sicut Cervus and how it was inspired by Palestrina, Debussy and Duruflé.

On a different note, the campus of the University of Toronto is gorgeous! Here are some pictures I took during my visit. I think many of our readers would appreciate these very classy halls and chapels.

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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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Andrew Leung

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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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“As often as possible they gathered together the children of the village and sat them down in the cabin. Father Brébeuf would put on a surplice and biretta and chant the Our Father, which Father Daniel had translated into Huron rhymes, and the children would chant it after him. Next, he taught them the sign of the cross, the Hail Mary, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Commandments.”

— Biography of St. Jean de Brébeuf

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