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Views from the Choir Loft

Repeating Repertoire? • Father Friel

Fr. David Friel · April 2, 2020

NLIKE many of my fellow bloggers, I am not presently engaged in directing a choir or providing music for liturgies week-to-week. Nor am I a pastor tasked with oversight of a music director. Necessarily, therefore, I bring less to this discussion, but I nevertheless have two brief thoughts to share. The first is more practical, while the second is more theoretical.

First, I did spend about a decade singing regularly in a choir. During that time, there were a number of pieces that I can remember being part of our “repertoire.” The director never referred to them that way, nor did any of the singers, but we all tacitly knew that these pieces were planted firmly in our bag of tricks, ready to be taken out whenever duty might call. Our singing of these works was polished, natural, and confident. The pieces in our repertoire shifted to some degree over the years, although a handful of pieces remained perennially on the list.

My recollection is that these pieces of repertory were a stabilizing factor for us as singers. They reminded us of our capabilities and afforded a needed sense of security. After embarking upon a challenging new piece at rehearsal, particularly if it didn’t go well, our director would often follow up with something sturdily in our repertoire. In doing so, he wordlessly reminded us that—despite apparent evidence to the contrary—we could actually sing.

Second, speaking a bit more theoretically, I think there is value in a balance of the new and the familiar, the repetitious and the adventuresome. Repetition and variety are opposites, yet they are also complementary. This is precisely what makes the genre of “theme and variations” delightful. It is what makes the ABA sonata form and the AABA song form so satisfying. Each involves an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation.

An excess of repetition results in mere sequence, the sort of monotonous product spit out by mechanistic assembly lines.

An excess of variety, on the other hand, is chaotic and “novel” in its pejorative sense.

The right dose of repetition conveys order. The right dose of variety creates interest. Together, they forge something beautiful.

This truth, I believe, can be fruitfully applied to parish music programs. Having a certain “repertoire”—a home-base to which you and your choir can return—is a good and stabilizing thing. So, too, there is value in introducing new music, taking a chance that stretches comfort zones and keeps skills sharp.

Beauty is found in the balance.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Beauty Last Updated: April 3, 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

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “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

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

“Now we are aware of the fact that during recent years some artists, gravely offending against Christian piety, have dared to bring into churches works devoid of any religious inspiration and completely at variance with the right rules of art.”

— Ven. Pope Pius XII (25 December 1955)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “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

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