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)

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

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

Myth Re: Johann Sebastian Bach

Some musicologists try to make a “splash” by saying that Bach was totally forgotten when he died—remembered only as an organ virtuoso—and that his sons were more famous than he was. Such an idea is indefensible. It is true that musical styles changed in 1750AD—but this is normal. Musical styles change constantly; e.g. much of the repertoire of Hofmann and Rachmaninov was considered “garbage” toward the end of their lives. But those who carefully study the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt, Hans von Bülow, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, and countless others realize that Bach was revered. It’s true that his music was seldom played in public, but music by “dead composers” was generally speaking not played in public until approximately the middle of the 19th century.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Arthur Friedheim, Franz Liszt’s Secretary

Arthur Friedheim (d. 1932) has a very poor reputation as a pianist, and Liszt rejected him several times before finally accepting him as a pupil, yet the Liszt recordings he left are quite good—especially considering the transgressions by other Liszt pupils. Friedheim must have been an amazing musician; twice he was asked to become conductor of the New York Philharmonic (1898 + 1911) but he declined both times. Circa 1912, Friedheim was recording Chopin’s “Funeral March” but the record ran out, so he simply stopped in the middle of the piece. Things sure have changed! Pianists no longer stop in the middle of pieces, although Cortot would sometimes abridge pieces to make them fit on records (cf. Chopin’s Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise Brilliante).

—Jeff Ostrowski

“A blast from the past”

Consilium document (“Instantibus Pluribus”) to presidents of the national liturgical commissions, on norms for translation of the Graduale Simplex, dated 23 January 1968: “The types of chant in the Graduale Simplex may be adapted to the style of music and song typical of individual peoples. But any sort of secular or profane melody is excluded.”

—Jeff Ostrowski