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Views from the Choir Loft

The Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music

Fr. David Friel · June 9, 2019

OLLOWING the implementation of the Roman Missal, third edition, in English in 2011, a flurry of “Mass settings” were published. Some are good, many are bad. Among the worst are those compositions which rehash previously existing settings, simply force-fitting the new texts into old wineskins. Among the best is the Mass of St. Philip Neri by Paul Jernberg (available from the composer’s own website).

Jernberg serves as executive director of the Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music, which has recently launched a new website. The goal of the site is to offer resources to those responsible for sacred music in parishes and other communities. These resources include new repertoire along with opportunities for ongoing formation and inspiration. In time, the Institute plans to offer one-day seminars, weeklong workshops, and even consulting services in support of their vision for a four-pronged approach to the renewal of sacred music: theoretical, practical, spiritual, and apostolic.

Based in Lancaster, MA, the Institute began a new phase in 2018. Its history, however, stretches back to the 2005 founding of Magnificat Academy, formerly a choir school for grades 4–12 in Warren, MA. The academy was transferred to the Cathedral of St. Paul in Worcester in 2008. Then, from 2011 until 2017, it shifted its focus to supporting sacred music projects by means of collaboration with various schools and institutions. This re-founding as the Magnificat Institute of Sacred Music, therefore, is exciting news.

OME of the strengths of Jernberg’s Mass of St. Philip Neri include its flexibility, accessibility to congregations, and musical interest. It can be sung unaccompanied with SATB choir, or it can be sung in unison with organ accompaniment.

Check out this 2014 recording of the setting’s Gloria, sung by the schola cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle Church in Chicago under the direction of J. Michael Thompson:


Jernberg’s bio is available here.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: ICEL New Translation of the Roman Missal, Paul Jernberg, Roman Missal Third Edition Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “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

Quick Thoughts

    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

Random Quote

“We have baptized about 240 this year … All the labors of a million persons—would they not be worthwhile if they gained one single soul for Jesus Christ?”

— Father Isaac Jogues, writing to his mother

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

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