Views from the Choir Loft

Goal Met • Why We’re Grateful To Our Readers

Jeff Ostrowski · July 28, 2020

HANKS to our readers—that’s you, by the way!—something has been accomplished which very few people thought possible. We met our fundraising goal—and perhaps you noticed we removed the annoying “pop-up” window asking for donations. On behalf of our entire team, I thank you sincerely for your support! In spite of the response to Covid-19—which has devastated so many Catholic families and dioceses—your generosity saved the day. I think this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt: AUTHENTIC CATHOLIC SACRED MUSIC IS NOT GOING AWAY. (Thanks to your kindness!)

A Small Gift For You

Thomas à Kempis said we must frequently contemplate the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Padre Pio said the same thing. Saint John Mary Vianney said the same thing. The Jesuit martyrs of North America—Father John Brébeuf, Father Isaac Jogues, Father Antoine Daniel, etc.—said the same thing.

Therefore, here are some 15th-century images that might assist your meditations:

OUR LORD BEFORE ANNAS:

OUR LORD BEFORE CAIAPHAS:

OUR LORD BEFORE PILATE:

OUR LORD IS UNJUSTLY SCOURGED:

ECCE HOMO:

VERONICA WITH SUDARIUM:

OUR LORD DIES ON THE CROSS FOR US:

These pictures are quite amazing. Consider the level of detail:

Pontius Pilate’s yellow garment is particularly remarkable, in my humble opinion.

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

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).

20 October 2020 • “What we can’t share”

Almighty God has given to us the example of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America, whose feast day we celebrated yesterday. Of course, along with those eight martyrs we honor their associates, e.g Father François Bressani. I can’t share with you the torments Father Bressani underwent at the hands of Iroquois: it is too brutal. It would tear your heart out. But I will share what Bressani’s Superior said, after receiving a letter from him: “The letter is soiled and ill-written; because the writer has only one finger left on his right hand, and cannot prevent the blood from his wounds—which are still open—from staining the paper. His ink is gunpowder mixed with water, and his table is the earth.” If you have the stomach for it, read what Father Bressani (d. 1672) underwent for Jesus Christ. Let his example help us never fall into sins of impurity, avarice, ingratitude, or envy.

—Jeff Ostrowski

13 October 2020 • Chopin talks Bach

My “pianist pedigree” goes from my teacher through Wiktor Łabuński through Felix Blumenfeld, who studied with Anton Rubinstein. I always considered myself part of the “Bach-Mozart-Chopin school” as opposed to the “Handel-Beethoven-Liszt school.” (Needless to say, there’s great overlap between these schools.) Before giving a concert, Frédéric Chopin would always shut himself up in a room and play through Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. The year Chopin died, he spent considerable time with the painter, Eugène Delacroix (d. 1863), who recounts hearing Chopin launch into a monologue on the transcendence of J.S. Bach, insisting that “the fugue is like pure logic in music,” and that “to know fugue deeply is to be acquainted with the element of all reason and all consistency in music.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

12 October 2020 • True Story

Before a Low Mass, the priest ascends the Altar to place the Chalice, check the altar Missal, and do other “preparing” tasks. The organist must be prepared to play here, and—depending upon the priest—this can be of surprising length! For certain priests, I can easily play all six verses of a hymn while he’s doing these tasks. In the Ordinary Form, I believe too many have abandoned the preparation time before Mass (vesting, praying, keeping silence, and so on). I remember waiting for a priest to arrive in Corpus Christi, so I could ask him about the music. He never did arrive, because he had gotten into his vehicle wearing his chasuble, parked, hopped out of his truck (fully vested), and literally “processed” in as he entered the Church…true story.

—Jeff Ostrowski