Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Booklet • Feast of the Purification (2 February)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 2, 2020 ·

HAVE created a printable booklet for the Feast of the Purification “Pre-Mass” Blessing of Candles, Distribution of Candles, and Procession. One of the reasons it took longer than it should have is because the 1962 Missale Romanum deleted bits and pieces—here and there—for no apparent reason. I hope you’ll let me know of any errors you find:

* PDF Download • Booklet for the Procession
—This 8-page booklet contains the chants and rubrics for “Pre-Mass”.

The rest of the chants for the Mass—score, videos, Mp3 files, and so on—can be downloaded here:

* Saint René Goupil Website

Here is an example of what you’ll find there:

These documents support my “booklet” for the Blessing of Candles:

* PDF • Candlemas 1962 Rubrics (official)
—A document in Latin containing the official rubrics from the 1962 Missal.

* PDF Download • Dom Pothier’s 1896 Liber Usualis
—Published about 10 years before the Editio Vaticana.

* PDF Download • 1903 Liber Usualis (Dom Mocquereau)
—This is not the official edition, which is called the Editio Vaticana.

* PDF Download • Candlemas in the Solesmes Graduale (1908)
—This is the Editio Vaticana with rhythmic markings by Dom Mocquereau.

* PDF • Candlemas 1957 Rubrics & Plainsong
—This document is useful because of the English translations.

* PDF • Fulton Sheen Sunday Missal (1961)
—The editor was Fr. Philip George Caraman (d. 1998).

* PDF • Saint Edmund Campion Missal (©2012)
—These Candlemas pages come from the Saint Edmund Campion Missal.

I found this in a Roman Catholic Missal from 1806, printed in London for use of the laity:

About Jeff Ostrowski

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski