Views from the Choir Loft

A Dramatic Moment

Jeff Ostrowski · September 10, 2018

At the Traditional Latin Mass, a dramatic moment happens on Holy Saturday Night. Three things return all at once: the BELLS, the GLORIA, and the ORGAN.

Somebody took a video of our ceremony on 31 March 2018:

I whispered to the organist (Ethan Haman) what was required, and somehow he knew exactly what I needed from him. If the singing voices sound strained, remember that this ceremony was three hours long—in the middle of the night! I hope to divide the choirs next year, so that a single choir is not responsible for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. The priests shown in the video are members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. The FSSP recently dedicated a church in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, called Saint Vitus.

The 1962 Missal—fully approved by the Catholic Church—is known as the Extraordinary Form. Starting in 2007, no priest of the Latin Rite needs permission from the bishop to offer this ancient rite. Our FSSP parish had permission from Rome this year to use the pre-1955 Holy Week, as I have explained.

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).

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