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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

“Exceeded Every Expectation!” • Mr. O’Brien’s Review

Jeff Ostrowski · June 29, 2022

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Y NAME IS BENJAMIN, and I’m a professional musician with a B.A. in Music Performance from the University of New Hampshire. I have served at a parish in New Hampshire for 10 years. I am now the Cathedral Organist & Choirmaster as well as the Diocesan Director of Sacred Music for the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan. I attended the Sacred Music Symposium 2022 … and was absolutely blown away.

What is it? All week long we took part in impressive educational talks, lectures, hands-on classes, rehearsals, etc. all relating to various aspects of the wealth of Catholic Sacred Music—be it Gregorian chant notation and style, pipe organ technique, improvisation, choral conducting technique, theology/philosophy behind liturgical music, practical tips for the professional church musician working with volunteers, and plenty of hands on experience rehearsing music you actually sing with others for Vespers and Mass during the week.

The culmination? Culminating in a glorious High Mass (at the end of the week), what we were able to experience as part of the choir providing the music for that liturgy was supremely beautiful, reverent, angelic, and prayerful. Truly a “taste of heaven,” to be honest. Every aspect of the liturgy lifted your mind and heart to God the Father, Creator of the universe, and His Son, Jesus Christ, who is our majestic King of Kings. This felt like what Mass was truly meant to be.

For whom? Whether coming from a liturgical background in the Ordinary Form or the Extraordinary Form, this Symposium helped “cover all the bases,” providing extremely helpful training that would apply to both forms in a mutually enriching educational process. I would HIGHLY recommend the Sacred Music Symposium to Catholic clergy, choir directors, organists, church accompanists, church choir members, and church cantors.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Sacred Music Symposium 2022 Last Updated: June 29, 2022

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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).

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Quick Thoughts

For the Upcoming Choir Season!

Last week, I posted an SATB choral setting of the SANCTUS in a ‘contemporary’ style. You might want to consider this piece for two reasons: (1) It’s extremely brief; (2) Free rehearsal videos are available for each individual part. The piece is by Father Lhoumeau.

—Jeff Ostrowski
PDF Download • “Sunday Vespers” (22 pages)

When an organist accompanies Vespers, there is no time to think. It’s one thing after another: Bam – Bam – Bam. And that’s what makes Vespers difficult to accompany; there’s hardly even time to check the key signature for each piece! Therefore, although it’s far from perfect, I’m releasing this 22-page booklet:

PDF Download • SUNDAY VESPERS ACCOMPANIMENT

As time goes on, I will explain why I believe this booklet is important, my hopes for it, and why I selected the official edition, directly from the Vesperale Romanum. In spite of its imperfections, creating this (draft) booklet required much more effort than I had anticipated.

—Jeff Ostrowski
11 July 2022 • FEEDBACK

Someone who heard the CCW plainsong recordings with NOH accompaniment says: “For years I have travelled the continents and crossed the oceans of Gregorian chant in search of a composition and interpretation as sublime as this. The text and the melody are interwoven in a game of mirrors with the interpreters, the singer and the instrumentalist, so as to confer delicacy on the jubilation. The organ is soft, humble. This is what we hear from the singer. These artists have come together to produce beauty. In 1903, Pope Pius X, by motu proprio, restored Gregorian chant in the Latin Church. In his words: Sacred music must possess, to an eminent degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, and notably the sanctity and delicacy of form, whence another characteristic spontaneously results, universality. I stress: the holiness and delicacy of forms result in universality, time and place. That is to say, sometimes the beauty of human hands gently caresses the face of the Eternal.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Some are called not to much speaking, | nor to conversations about the Church, | but, rather, to a deep silence | and to a life hidden in the heart of the Church, | far from wrangling tongues, from speculations, and discord. […] This is the essence of a Eucharistic monastic life.

— Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby (Meditation on Colossians 3:3)

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