Views from the Choir Loft

“Boys Like A Challenge!” • Charles Cole Interviewed

Corpus Christi Watershed · July 20, 2019

HARLES COLE recently granted an interview to EWTN. The entire thing can be viewed courtesy of YouTube. Readers will be interested in this excerpt:

CHARLES COLE began his musical training as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral. He went on to win a major music scholarship to Ampleforth and organ scholarships at Exeter College, Oxford and Westminster Cathedral. He is Assistant Director of Music at the London’s Brompton Oratory where he directs the London Oratory Junior Choir. Since 2012 he has been the Director of the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory School, a world-famous boys’ choir which sings the Vigil Mass at the London Oratory every Saturday. Recent concerts include Bach’s Saint John Passion, Monteverdi’s Vespers, and a joint performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass In B Minor with the Choir of Westminster Cathedral.

Maestro Charles Cole says: “If you set the bar low, a boy will crawl underneath it—but if you set the bar high, he will leap over it.”

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

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski