Views from the Choir Loft

Holy Week Chants • Clergy Training

Fr. David Friel · March 13, 2021

OLY WEEK is certainly the most demanding week of the year—ceremonially, musically, and spiritually. From the Passion narratives to the Reproaches to the Exsultet, the music for the week is sublime, but challenging. In an effort to help clergy prepare for their part in the chants of Holy Week, a free online workshop will be offered this coming Thursday evening.

Sponsored by Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast, the training will take place on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 8 PM (EDT) via the Zoom platform.

The workshop is focused on the English chants of Holy Week according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The music to be covered includes the week’s major chants proper to the clergy:

Sung Passions of Palm Sunday (Year B) and Good Friday)
Solemn Intercessions of Good Friday
Chant for the Showing of the Cross
Exsultet
Triple Alleluia and Dismissal of the Easter Vigil

Three presenters will lead this very timely workshop:

Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka (Director of Sacred Music, St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers)
Fr. Michael Connolly (Parochial Vicar, St. Columba Church, Hopewell Junction, NY)
Fr. Jon Tveit (Parochial Vicar, St. James the Apostle, Carmel, NY)

The workshop is free, but requires advanced registration. Register here.

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

Follow the Discussion on Facebook

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and teaches liturgy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.—(Read full biography).

“Progress Made!” • 10-Nov-2022

My volunteer choir has felt the repercussions of this year’s (particularly severe) flu season. Nevertheless, I believe in always—always—giving one’s best as a choir director, even when many singers are absent. You can hear by this brief recording that our singers are starting to blend very nicely. And you can download that choral “warm-up” exercise if you click here.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Mark Your Calendars!

Have you marked your calendar for Sacred Music Symposium 2023? The dates were recently revealed. You don’t want to miss this! This annual event has gained a reputation as the church music conference par excellence vis-à-vis Catholic musicians “in the trenches.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

A God We Cannot “See”

By the Incarnation, our Savior’s divinity was hidden. In the Eucharist, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, our Savior also ‘hides’ His manhood. We cannot see God—although we can see Him (through faith) in the SANCTISSIMUM, in the eyes of the poor, in the grandeur of the mountains, and so forth. Hymn #746 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal contains a text from the 12th century called LUX ALMA JESU MENTIUM, whose second stanza says: “You are the companion of the Father at His right hand. You are the light that consoles heaven, but is unseen by man on earth” (Carnis negatum sensibus).

—Jeff Ostrowski