Views from the Choir Loft

Important • Watershed Will Never Be The Same!

Jeff Ostrowski · June 19, 2020

HE STRENGTH of Corpus Christi Watershed is the vast number of supporters all over the world: you, in other words! From the very depths of my heart, on behalf of our entire team of volunteers, I thank you for your support and sacrifices. Our readers quite literally give the widow’s mite; we have no endowment and zero large donors. We are completely funded by generous Catholics who give $5.00 per month. Today, on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I have exciting news. A plan which has been formulated for quite some time has officially begun! You can read all about it in this presidential memo:

* PDF Download • MEMORANDUM (19 June 2020)

It’s better to read directly from the PDF, but you can also read these JPEG files:

77627-MEMO-A

77627-MEMO-B

77627-MEMO-C

OU WILL BE observing many changes over the next few months. If you want to immediately begin “getting the ball rolling,” please switch your monthly donations from PayPal to Cornerstone, unless using PayPal is the only option you have. Thank you!!!

Regarding what my letter says about the Feast of the Sacred Heart, here is documentation:

We did not plan to make this announcement on the Feast of the Sacred Heart—it was a coincidence. It’s difficult to avoid seeing Divine Providence here.

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

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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).

“Tonus Solemnior” • How old is it?

In the 1962 Missal, a section called “præfationes in tono solemniore” contains ornate melodies for the Preface. An article posted on the blog of the Church Music Association of America claims the tone comes from “the late 19th century” and said its elimination “is one of the very few good things which the post-Conciliar reform did for Gregorian chant.” The author said: “The Roman solemn preface tone is already beautiful enough, there was no need to give a more Romantic feel.”

Some have asked us whether the tonus solemnior comes from “the late 19th century.” It does not. Their author was wrong by at least 400 years. I have seen this tone in MSS from the 1400s—and it may go back even further. Here is an example from 1494AD. And here’s another from the 1400s. The FSSP priests use these tones on high feasts, and the effect is unforgettable.

—Jeff Ostrowski

6 January 2022 • Quick!

A short version of the INTROIT for the feast of the Epiphany has been added to the Saint René Goupil Gregorian Chant Website.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Confusing Feasts of Christmas

Whether one considers the Missale Vetustum or the post-conciliar calendar—or even the 1908 calendar—the feasts which follow Christmas are very confusing. Last year I created this comparison chart. I hope you find it helpful. As far as I can tell, my chart is the first effort to carefully detail the changes made to post-Christmas feasts (unless we also count the rather basic one by Lauren Pristas).

—Jeff Ostrowski