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Views from the Choir Loft

The best 5 seconds in Gregorian Chant…

Jeff Ostrowski · May 2, 2020

OW WOULD YOU respond to the following question? “What are the best five seconds in the entire Gregorian repertoire?” I must admit my own answer undoubtedly comes from being an Altar Boy for so many years. Anyone who has served the Holy Saturday Vigil will recall how special, fantastic, and mysterious it is. For some reason, the following melody causes a tingle down my spine. Translated into English, it means: “This night, long ago, thou didst rescue the sons of Israel, our fathers, out of Egypt, over the Red Sea bidding them pass dryshod…”

Here, then, is my favorite “five seconds” from the Gregorian repertoire:


Father Augustin Bea, S.J.—personal confessor of Pope Pius XII—was certainly not a liturgical conservative. But even he said in the years immediately before the Second Vatican Council: “No concession should ever be made for the singing of the Exultet, in whole or in part, in the vernacular.” If only this statement had been followed…

(Maybe Fr. Bea remembered hearing the Deacon chant the Exultet as a boy, just like I do. It’s something you never forget.)

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: May 5, 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

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
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Partly on account of these alterations, and partly because I have been unable to ascertain the authorship of many compositions—which have come to me either in manuscript or through other collections—I have thought it right to publish the volume without appending the names of writers to their works. This, however, I confess to be a defect…”

— Benjamin Hall Kennedy (1863)

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