“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)
From a reader: “I have read the pages explaining the Blessed Sacrament in the Brébeuf hymnal and plan on continuing to contemplate them. Moreover, the Christ the King Hymn is beautifully sung on the recording you posted (to the Watershed blog), and I wish my church would sing these hymns instead of modern ones from […]
Can Protestant translations be dangerous? This paper presents items worth considering.
I personally find the following pairings (hymn text + hymn melody) to be reprehensible…
From a rare book of Franciscan chants (1902)
Christmas Matins from Bavaria…
Readers already realize that seventeen (17) splendid organ accompaniments for the simple “Salve Regina” can be freely and conveniently downloaded here. But what about the solemn tone for the “Salve Regina”—has anyone composed an organ accompaniment for that? Yes, Canon Jules Van Nuffel has composed one for the solemn version.
The ability of your singers to sight-read music instantly does not guarantee a good performance.
Sometimes words are superfluous. Sometimes no commentary is needed. If you look at this Tale of Two Missals (PDF)—which compares the Canon from the “Modern” ICEL Missal with a “Dark Ages” Missal, I think you will understand exactly what I’m getting at.
From a reader: “Corpus Christi Watershed is the greatest musical organization ever created in the Church!”
Do you know what the church narthex is? It’s kind of like a separate room, blocked off by a wall. A buddy of mine (sitting in the narthex) took some iPhone recordings of our congregation singing Vespers. Here’s how they sound sans organ. [Note: Whenever I play for Vespers, I make sure to have some […]
Did Vatican II “restore” the hymns—as mandated by §93 of Sacrosanctum Concilium?
Forty images of (IMHO) the patron saints of church musicians.
“In our day and age I think it is good that we all be reminded that Christ will eventually overcome his enemies.”
Here is a photo of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen celebrating Mass in Jerusalem. That image was included in the “Fulton J. Sheen Sunday Missal” (1961), which was edited by Father Caramen and has an IMPRIMATUR by William Cardinal Godfrey, who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1956 until his death in 1963. The Fulton Sheen […]
I submit to you that nothing is gained by these slight variations in the repeats for the Epipany Offertory. The edition is by Carl Ott, a musicologist. Almost nothing is about Carl Ott—as far as I can tell, nobody even knows when Carl Ott was born or when Carl Ott died.
Did you know Catholics began translating hymns from Latin into the vernacular about 400 years before the Protestant Revolution?
There is much here to contemplate, written by a man with a deep reverence for the Sacred Liturgy and Music of the church…
All Saints—November 1st—will be here before you know it!
Readers will enjoy perusing this book.
In 2013, I began speaking of an insane liturgical practice which was allowed by Pope Pius XII—but nobody realizes this. If you tried to do this at the Traditional Latin Mass, you would most likely be run out of town on a rail. However, for the record, the FULTON SHEEN MISSAL (edited by Father Caraman) […]
