St. Paul’s Choir School Appoints New Director of Music

Lucas Tappan · July 1, 2019

T. PAUL’S CHOIR SCHOOL in Harvard Square, the only Catholic choir school for boys in the United States, announced today they have appointed James Kennerley as the new Director of Music.

Mr. Kennerley picks up the baton from John Robinson, the choir school’s former director who will return to his native England to take over the music at Blackburn Cathedral. Kennerley, like Robinson, is a native of England and a product of the English choir school system. According to Richard Clark, Director of Music and Organist for the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Boston) and the Archdiocese of Boston as well as a member of the search committee, James Kennerley’s “rehearsal with the men and boys was brilliant as is his organ playing.” We wish James Kennerley all the best!

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

About Lucas Tappan

Dr. Lucas Tappan is a conductor and organist whose specialty is working with children. He lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.—(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

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About Lucas Tappan