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Jesus said to them: “I have come into this world so that a sentence may fall upon it, that those who are blind should see, and those who see should become blind. If you were blind, you would not be guilty. It is because you protest, ‘We can see clearly,’ that you cannot be rid of your guilt.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

“Whoever controls the language controls the Masses.”

Jeff Ostrowski · November 8, 2022

ILLAINS UNDERSTAND one reality: He who controls language controls the masses. We see this in our secular culture. For example, our media refers to abortion as a “women’s issue”—yet about 50% of babies murdered are female. So how can it be a women’s issue when the murders are equally split between boys and girls? Even worse is the slogan: “If you don’t like abortion, don’t get one.” That’s like telling an 1860s abolitionist: “If you don’t like slavery, don’t own a slave.”

Controlling the “Masses” • For fifty years, we’ve witnessed certain church leaders control the language—and thereby control the Masses (with a capital “M”). For example, Vatican II solemnly declared: “The treasury of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care.” But for half a century, progressive Catholics have insisted that preserve and foster with great care means banish, prohibit, and vilify. Those who promote the Catholic treasury are warned to stop ‘resisting’ Vatican II. It beggars belief that this situation still exists.1

Quick Example • In a moment, I will speak about the mind-blowing GLORIA from Missa Ave Maris Stella, published by Father Cristóbal de Morales in 1544AD, which contains a perfect canon between Alto and Tenor while the CANTUS FIRMUS (“Ave Maris Stella”) is sung in augmentation by the Soprano section. In the following demonstration, I made those voices extremely loud in order to make it easier for you to hear the canon:

Intimidate Jeff? • I refuse to allow anyone—anyone—to browbeat me into prevaricating when it comes to the authentic Catholic treasury. For example, only a lunatic would mention Marty Haugen, Dan Schutte, John Foley, or David Haas in the same sentence as Guerrero, Morales, Victoria, or Palestrina. Nor do “hurt feelings” come into play here. Missa Back-To-The-Future (a recent offering by OREGON CATHOLIC PRESS) isn’t part of the “treasury” mandated by Vatican II; nor do I belong on the basketball court with Michael Jordan. And it’s not a close call. When the composer was born makes no difference; e.g. several compositions featured in this video are contemporary. Nor is it a matter of complexity—e.g. plainsong melodies are straightforward and simple.

Jeff’s Feeble Attempt • My choir is learning that GLORIA, and it’s going to require a lot of work. This is music from the sacred treasury which—according to Vatican II—Catholics must “preserve and foster with great care” … and the wonderful volunteers in my choir are doing precisely that! Here’s my feeble attempt to record all the voices:

M Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #46215.

Father Michael Irwin • In the 1990s, during the Mass on Holy Thursday, Father Michael Irwin, FSSP, preached a homily about the sacred priesthood. He spoke of an American diocese that had virtually no seminarians. Therefore, the diocese offered to pay an young man who would join the seminary $35,000 per year as a salary … and in the 1990s that was a lot of money! But Father Irwin said it wasn’t working, because: “Our young men don’t want an easy road; our young men want a challenge. No serious Catholic should become a priest just to make money.” Along those same lines, even though this GLORIA is not easy, my volunteer choir is enjoying learning it because they also want a challenge.

Original Part Books • Here’s how the musical score for this GLORIA looked in the 16th century:

46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-006
46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-005
46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-004
46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-003
46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-002
46135-part-books-MISSA-AVE-MARIS-STELLA-Morales-001

Dr. Stevenson • The inimitable Robert Murrell Stevenson (d. 2012) had this to say about Missa Ave Maris Stella by Father Morales:

An attempt at imposing a still tighter unity upon a mass of plainsong derivation is made in Morales’s “Ave maris stella.” When Josquin wrote his mass of the same title (“Liber secundus” of 1505), he ended with Agnuses, each of which boasts a canon—Agnus I between bass and tenor at the fifth, Agnus II between alto and soprano at a fourth, and Agnus III between tenor and soprano at an octave. This was insufficient for Morales, who insisted on going further: with a canon in every full movement, always at the interval of a lower fourth, and always between alto and tenor II. In the earlier movements, his canonic voices recall the plainsong rather fragmentarily, the outer voices carrying it instead. But in the Sanctus he even has the two canonic voices sing the hymn, and—as usual when he quotes plainsong—with the utmost fidelity to the Gregorian original. During the climactic final Agnus a 6, Morales elevates the original hymn to ‘cantus firmus’ status in cantus I. […] Symbolically the plainsong—like the star hailed in the hymn text—shines above a turbulent sea of churning voices. In the nether surge, the three “accompanying” voices continually pick up for imitation melodic fragments thrown out by the two canonic voices. The whole mass is one of surpassing grandeur, comparable in peninsular art only with such achievements as the fifteenth-century Gothic nave of Seville Cathedral. What can be called peculiarly Spanish in Morales’s accomplishment are (1) the subordination of science to an expressive purpose, and (2) the application of the most rigorous devices, by preference, to a plainsong. In Josquin’s Missa ad Jugam (“Liber tertius” of 1514), each full movement embodied a canon between superius and tenor at the interval of an under-fifth. But neither Josquin nor Palestrina in his like-named work attempted canon simultaneously with plainsong paraphrase. It remained Morales’s special prerogative to rise highest in the display of his contrapuntal powers while yoking himself most securely with a plainsong. Truly, Morales has lavished his greatest art on this Marian text.

1 After all, how can something explicitly mandated by the Council be ‘against’ that same Council? It reminds one of 1972, when the U.S Supreme Court officially declared the death penalty “unconstitutional,” even though our constitution explicitly says that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law” (U.S. Const. amend. XIV, §1). What did they think it means to deprive citizens of life? These justices—in their infinite wisdom—deemed the constitution itself unconstitutional. One is reminded of Saint Paul: “Thinking themselves wise, they became as fools” (Rom 1:22).

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

Filed Under: Articles, Featured, PDF Download Tagged With: Catholic Composer Cristobal de Morales, Missa Ave Maris Stella, Polyphony Canon, Renaissance Polyphony Last Updated: November 8, 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 Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)
    This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 4th Sunday of Easter (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 4th Sunday of Easter (11 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I don’t know a more gorgeous ENTRANCE CHANT than the one given there: Misericórdia Dómini Plena Est Terra.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants because he is free from disordered attachments. Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

— Fr. Thomas Rosica (31 July 2018)

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