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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

Traditional Latin Mass with Vernacular (!) Ordinary at High Mass in the 1600s

Jeff Ostrowski · September 14, 2023

HINK ABOUT SOMEONE you consider a really good friend. Usually, it’s somebody who listens when you speak. Readers will probably agree not many know how to listen when others talk. Most of the time, the other person—instead of listening—is thinking about what they’re going to say next. Growing up in Kansas, I knew a university professor named Dr. Thomas O’Connor. I always liked that man, and one day I ask myself why. I realized that Tom was someone who listened when others spoke. Part of reaching maturity is realizing there’s a time and a place to speak—and there’s a time and a place to remain silent.

Remaining Silent • Much could be said about the special permission the Jesuit missionaries in North America received allowing the Native Americans to sing the Ordinary of the Mass (!) in their vernacular languages. In the past, we have made reference to the astounding plainsong books printed in Iroquois, Algonquin, and other Native American languages. Much could be said about the efforts undertaken by the Jesuits to learn the languages of the various tribes. Much research still needs to be done regarding all these themes. But the time is not now.

Brief Overview • For a brief introduction, please watch this film (which I helped produce). I recorded the organ music in the background, so don’t say anything bad about it.

Here’s the direct URL link.

Please Don’t Tell Anyone! • We don’t know that much about the various Native American languages. For example, Father Noël Chabanel was a brilliant rhetorician and poet, yet struggled mightily to learn the Huron tongue. The missionaries—without translators—were able to communicate with the Hurons, Iroquois, Algonquins, Petuns, Neutrals, and many other tribes. But I have not been able to learn how this was possible. Some claim that Algonquin was a type of lingua franca, but there are problems with that theory. Making things even more complicated is the fact that the Huron race was exterminated hundreds of years ago, although they have descendants called “Wyandot.” In any event, I will let you in on a little secret. The video above does display Native American plainsong, but it’s not actually the Huron tongue. Several examples are in Algonquin and several are in Iroquois. Please Don’t Tell Anyone!

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Native American Gregorian Chant Books, Native American Plain-Chant, Native American Plainsong Last Updated: May 15, 2024

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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

Ralph Vaughan Williams “was an atheist during his later years at Charterhouse and at Cambridge, though he later drifted into a cheerful agnosticism: he was never a professing Christian.”

— Dr. William Mahrt, CMAA President (2021)

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