Views from the Choir Loft

PDF • Scottish Catholic Hymnal (453 Pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · August 27, 2018 ·

HEN I FIRST AGREED to serve on the international team producing the Brébeuf Hymnal, I insisted that we collect as many Catholic hymnals as possible—which has taken half a decade. It was essential to have at our fingertips the complete vernacular hymn tradition, going back 500 years, so we could select the best melodies and texts.

Mr. Colin Jackson recently emailed an incredibly rare hymnal from 1964, which was “authorized by the bishops of Scotland for use in the Scottish dioceses.”

* * PDF • Catholic Hymnal from Scotland (1964)

This book—out of print for 50 years—at first glance appeared to be (basically) a reprint of the New Westminster Hymnal. However, careful examination reveals it is much more than that.

O BE HONEST, I never believed we would amass as many Roman Catholic hymnals as we have; the collection is staggering. We were able to post some of them on the Brébeuf hymnal website, and hopefully we can release more after the Brébeuf hymnal becomes available for purchase. It is currently being proofread.

The full title of the above, for the record, is:

The Saint Andrew Hymnal, Authorized by the Archbishops and Bishops of Scotland for Use in the Scottish Dioceses (1964)

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

Anger at mistakes

I have a bad habit of getting frustrated when choir members take a long time to learn a particular interval or entrance. But this can be “cured.” It was cured a few weeks ago, when I made a mistake. I was supposed to go down a minor third, but instead I went down a perfect fifth. It reminded me that errors do happen—and we must be patient with our singers!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“The old man carried the Child, but the Child led the old man.”

The Antiphon for First Vespers of the Feast of the Purification (February 2nd) is beautiful: “The old man carried the Child, but it was the Child who was guiding the old man. The Virgin bore the Child, and after child-bearing was virgin still: whom she bore, him she adored.” —Senex púerum portábat, puer autem senem regébat: quem Virgo péperit, et post partum Virgo permánsit: ipsum quem génuit, adorávit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

A quote from Fr. Valentine Young

I had one brother who was out of the church for quite a few years. When my mother was asked, “Did she worry about him?” I remember her answer: “I don’t worry about him; I just pray for him.” She left that in God’s hands. My mother did not live to see her son return to the Church; but he did, and I was able to celebrate his funeral Mass.

—Jeff Ostrowski