Views from the Choir Loft

“Serviam Scores” • Mr. Richardson has a beautiful voice!

Jeff Ostrowski · August 4, 2020

OU MIGHT remember me taking about seasonal melodies for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The YouTube algorithms sent me one of those, which guided me to an interested YouTube channel called SERVIAM SCORES. Mr. James J. Richardson, the gentleman who runs SERVIAM SCORES, also maintains a YouTube page containing organ recordings. Satan was the one who said Non Serviam (“I will not serve”). But SERVIAM SCORES reverses that disobedience: Serviam (“I will serve”).

Mr. Richardson has quite a beautiful voice:

I see that he also recorded Stella Caeli Exstirpavit (Gregorian Chant During Times Of Pestilence), which we recently featured sung by young ladies from the Brébeuf Virtual Choir. Again, Mr. Richardson’s voice strikes me as quite beautiful:

SERVIAM SCORES does not currently have a website, but someday they will. They have produced numerous scores, and here’s a sample:

In spite of the utter devastation caused by Covid-19, I am encouraged to see more and more projects like SERVIAM SCORES. James J. Richardson can be reached at: ServiamScores@gmail.com.

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).

Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦

Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?

—Jeff Ostrowski

Don’t You Agree About These?

If you want to make Jeff Ostrowski really happy, send him an email with effusive praise about the individual voice recordings for hymn #296. [Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass] They came out dazzlingly sensational, don't you agree?

—Jeff Ostrowski

Choral Vowels? Yes? No?

Here's a live recording of one of the choral “warm-up” exercises my choir enjoys. It was taken during our rehearsal on 27 January 2023. It’s good to make sure each chord is perfectly in tune and balanced before moving to the next one. That only happens when each singer has the correct vowel. If you like, you can freely download that vocal exercise.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Pope Gelasius in his 9th Letter to the Bishops of Lucania condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass. Since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the Bishop of Tusculum: “Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry.” We too have forbidden this practice in the same words in Our oft-repeated constitution “Etsi Pastoralis” (§6, #21)

— Pope Benedict XIV • Encyclical “Allatae Sunt” (26 July 1755)