Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Like Gold Dust” — Extremely Rare Book of Gregorian Chants (315 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · October 23, 2024

EADERS WILL WANT to download this stupendously rare book containing 315 pages of Gregorian Chant edited by Canon Ferdinand Tourte (Choirmaster of the famous Cathedral of Verdun) assisted in this work by Monsignor Maurice Kaltnecker (d. 1959). The feast of CHRIST THE KING is fast approaching, and this book—beginning on page 12—contains four (4) versions of “Dignus Est Agnus” I never knew existed. Also in honor of CHRIST THE KING, the book provides intriguing melodies for “Christus Vincit” which I’d never seen before. The holy season of Christmas is also approaching, and the book’s APPENDIX provides a delightful arrangement for two voices of “O Come All Ye Faithful” (in Latin). My choir will be singing this arrangement!

* PDF Download • “Chants Divers” (315 pages)
—Chants Divers Pour Les Saluts Du Très Saint Sacrement (1934).

Remarkable Music • This collection contains magnificent surprises; “Christus Resurréxit” (set to the Christ Ist Erstanden melody which has achieved so much success in the Brébeuf Hymnal); a piece I never knew called “Prostérnimus Preces” for Passiontide; “Vírginis Maríae Laudes” set to the tune of Víctimae Pascháli Laudes; the Marian antiphons set to melodies I’ve never heard before, including two versions of the Salve Regína; special chants for the feast of the PURIFICATION; special chants for Our Lady of Lourdes; hymns for Saint Thomas Aquinas; a special version of “O Salutaris” which is allowed (!) to be sung during the elevation at REQUIEM MASSES; a chant asking the Blessed Mother’s intercession for priestly vocations; and so much more!

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

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).

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will ever persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“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

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