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Views from the Choir Loft

Can a Lens Make a Difference?

Cynthia Ostrowski · September 11, 2023

OT LONG AGO, my husband released 1,638 pages from an extremely rare book published in the 1930s. The book was created by DOM LUCIEN DAVID, a Benedictine monk who served as the personal secretary and biographer to Dom Joseph Pothier. My interests don’t lie in the history of plainsong. (I’m a professional photographer and mother.) Nevertheless, from my husband I have come to understand that Dom Pothier (d. 1923) was quite important to the history of Gregorian chant, which is the music proper to the Roman Rite. He tells me this edition by Pothier’s student is of monumental importance, and I take him at his word.

Option 1 of 3 • Corpus Christi Watershed paid to have the books by Dom Lucien professionally scanned. It goes without saying that PDF documents are crucial to those who utilize books over a long period of time, because of the ease and rapidity with which searches can be done. The following image allows one to examine the strengths and weaknesses of a professional scan:

Option 2 of 3 • Below is how the book by Dom Lucien looks as captured with my normal camera lens. You can see that it’s better than the professional scan:

Option 3 of 3 • Now consider the quality (as shown below) when captured with a special lens I obtained designed specifically to photograph old books. I think he will agree that it’s crisp and magnificent:

The Device Invented • We are grateful to Jeffrey’s friend, Matthew Frederes, who invented a special “manuscript display” device. We utilized that device to upload and display the books by Dom Lucien. From what I can tell, Matthew is obsessed with all these old plain-chant manuscripts, just like my husband.

*  MOMENTOUS RELEASE! • Gradual & Vesperal by Pothier’s Protégé
—Contains 1,638 pages • Blog article released on 30 August 2023.

Restoring The Past • These books by Dom Lucien were quite old. To be precise, they were 91 years old. A photograph can often show details a scan won’t. Here’s an example:

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Abbat Joseph Pothier, Abbot Joseph Pothier of Solesmes, Dom Josef Pothier Last Updated: September 11, 2023

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About Cynthia Ostrowski

Cynthia Ostrowski holds a bachelor's degree (2005) in Geographic Information Science and a minor in Computer Science from Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    “Glory To God” • (For Choir + Congregation)
    I wish to thank everyone for the nice comments I received vis-à-vis my Glory To God setting for Choir & Congregation. A gentleman with a musical doctorate from Indiana University wrote: “Love this setting so much. And I will pray, as you asked, for your return to composition more fully. You are very very good.” A female choir director wrote: “I love your harmonizations, your musicality, and the wonderful interplay you have with dissonance and consonance in your music. So fun to listen to, and great for intellect, heart, and soul!” A young woman from California wrote: “Thank you for releasing your new Glory To God in honor of Saint Noel Chabanel. I'm enjoying reading through the various parts and listening to your recordings.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    William Byrd • “Mass for Five Voices”
    Our volunteer choir is learning the “Sanctus” from William Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices. You can hear a short excerpt (recorded last Sunday) but please ignore the sound of babies crying: Mp3 recording. We still have work to do—but we’re on the right track. Once we have some of the tuning issues fixed, I desire to use it as an example proving volunteers can sing complicated polyphony.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Baptism” • A Unique Hymn
    Father Christopher Phillips is the founding Pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. One of his hymns is unique and (in my humble opinion) quite beautiful. His hymn is basically a prayer to the Holy Trinity but also speaks of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. It would be an ideal Communion hymn on Trinity Sunday or the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. You can hear live recording from last Sunday by clicking here.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

It is clear the Church is facing a grave crisis. Under the name of “the new Church” and “the post-conciliar Church,” a different Church from that of Jesus Christ is now trying to establish itself: an anthropocentric society threatened with imminent apostasy which is allowing itself to be swept along in a movement of general abdication under the pretext of renewal, ecumenicism, or adaptation.

— Cardinal Henri de Lubac (29 August 1967)

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