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Views from the Choir Loft

Brave Schola Director Posts iPhone Recording

Jeff Ostrowski · September 30, 2019

NE OF THE CHOIRS I direct has rehearsal every Thursday night. We did something rare on 26 September 2019—we canceled rehearsal. Instead, the singers from that choir sang for a special Mass, since it was the feast of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America: SS. John de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, and companions.

The balance of voices isn’t quite right—as we would expect from an iPhone resting in somebody’s pocket—but here’s a little Palestrina:


And here’s some Guerrero—with the normal caveats 1 about trying to capture choral sound:


Sometimes it seems like evil will prevail. Sometimes it seems we choirmasters have so many obstacles to overcome. Reading the lives of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America will remind us that serving Jesus Christ is all that matters. Let us repeat the prayer of St. Gabriel Lalemant during his martyrdom: “Jesus, have mercy on us!”



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Choral sound cannot accurately be captured by microphones, and necessarily sounds “harsh” when reproduced on an iPhone or some other device. Nothing can substitute for the physical presence of a true choral sound.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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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).

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Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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