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Views from the Choir Loft

Released • Jeff Ostrowski’s Seminar: “Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster” (9+ hours)

Corpus Christi Watershed · January 10, 2024

NOWLEDGE IS POWER—at least for the conscientious choirmaster! By popular demand, Jeff Ostrowski has spent six months creating a video seminar based upon innumerable lectures, masterclasses, and tutorials he’s presented over the last decade at the Sacred Music Symposium. Mr. Ostrowski, an organist and choirmaster, was already internationally-known as a composer before the age of thirty. He founded—and still organizes—the annual SACRED MUSIC SYMPOSIUM in Los Angeles. You’re cordially invited to read the glowing reviews by participants of this event, more than a hundred of which have been posted on its website. (They were submitted by choir directors across the globe.) To those who assisted him, Mr. Ostrowski wrote this note.

🔴 Five Crucial Links:

(1) Free Film • SEMINAR INTRODUCTION (51 minutes)
—Don’t miss this INTRODUCTION, available free of charge!

(2) PDF Download • SEMINAR BLUEPRINT
—This is the “outline” or “blueprint” for the entire seminar.

(3) PDF Download • 2023 BOOKLET (330 pages)
—(MASSIVE FILE) given to participants of Sacred Music Symposium 2023.

(4) SEMINAR (9 hours) • “Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster”
—BASIC VERSION ($375 USD) doesn’t include the phone call.

(5) SEMINAR (9 hours) • “Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster”
—PREMIUM VERSION ($425 USD) includes a 45-minute phone consultation.

Telephone Call • If you purchase the “PREMIUM VERSION,” you’ll receive a personal 45-minute consultation (via telephone) with Jeff Ostrowski. If you didn’t understand something during the seminar—or if sufficient attention was not given to a topic of interest to you—this phone call will remedy that. You can also ask Mr. Ostrowski questions which have nothing to do with the seminar; the choice is yours. If for any reason you have difficulty reaching Mr. Ostrowski, send him an email: dom.pothier@gmail.com with the subject heading: Personal Phone Call.

Examples
Jeff’s Volunteer Choir

Jeff Ostrowski selected all his singers from among the congregation. In other words, 100% of the singers he directs came from families in his parish. His choirs contain zero “outside” singers, zero non-Catholics, and zero paid singers. Many members had never sung—in any choir—before he recruited them to sing at Mass.

*  Example • “Veni Creator Spiritus” (sung in English)
—Live recording by Jeff’s volunteer choir.

*  Example • “O Sola Magnarum Urbium” (females only)
—They had never rehearsed this piece before singing it!

*  Example • “Songs Of Thankfulness And Praise” (In Epiphania Domini)
—Live recording by Jeff’s volunteer choir.

*  Example • Pange Lingua Gloriosi (English Translation)
—Studio recording by members of Jeff’s volunteer choir.

*  Example • “Kyrie VIII” (females only)
—Live recording by Jeff’s volunteer choir.

*  Example • “Kyrie VIII” (with a soloist)
—Live recording by Jeff’s volunteer choir.

*  Example • “A Solis Ortus Cardine” (sung in English)
—Studio recording by members of Jeff’s choir.

*  Example • “A Solis Ortus Cardine” (sung in Latin)
—Studio recording by members of Jeff’s choir.

*  Example • “What Child Is This?” (sung in Latin)
—Jeff sings all the voices to his own arrangement.
—Jeff even attempts to sing the girls’ parts!

*  Example • “O Magnum Mysterium” (Tomás Luis de Victoria)
—Recorded ‘live’ by Jeff’s volunteer choir at Midnight Mass.

Click here to read a recommendation from Mr. Roderick Royce.

Click here to read a recommendation from Father Robbie Low (Catholic Priest in England).

Page URL: https://ccwatershed.org/seminar/

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Last Updated: March 5, 2024

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    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

Random Quote

A hymn verse need not be a complete sentence, but it must have completed sense as a recognisable part of the complete sentence, and at each major pause there would be at least a “sense-pause.” Saint Ambrose and the early writers and centonists always kept to this rule. This indicates one of the differences between a poem and a hymn, and by this standard most of the modern hymns and the revisions of old hymns in the Breviary stand condemned.

— Fr. Joseph Connelly

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Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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