Views from the Choir Loft

Archives for December 2024

Richard J. Clark · December 9, 2024

Announcement of Easter & the Moveable Feasts • El Anuncio de la Pascua y Fiestas Movibles • 2025

Epiphany Proclamation scores and practice videos in English and Spanish

Jeff Ostrowski · December 8, 2024

“Entrance Chant” • 3rd Sunday of Advent

This Introit is in the first mode.

Veronica Brandt · December 7, 2024

Epiphany Proclamation 2025

Each year, without fail, someone asks me to typeset the Epiphany Proclamation, an announcement of moveable feasts chanted each year on the feast of the Epiphany. As a result, you may now find an archive of 23 such proclamations in PDF ready to print HERE.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 7, 2024

For The Record …

It strikes me as quite “Adventy”—for lack of a better term.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 7, 2024

PDF • “Advent Kyrie Accompaniment”

Kyrie XVII: “In dominicis Adventus et Quadragesimae.”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 6, 2024

Music List • (Immaculate Conception)

Readers have expressed interest in perusing the “music list” I’ve prepared for this feast.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 6, 2024

PDF Download • “Musical Outline” for the Feast of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception

Rachmaninoff said: “Nine hours? That’s nothing. For a period of my life, I used to practice 17 hours a day.”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 4, 2024

“A Peculiar Discrepancy” • Immac. Concep. (8 Dec.)

Who can explain this?

Jeff Ostrowski · December 3, 2024

PDF Download • Pristine Scan: Father Mathias’ 1905 Kyriale Organ Accompaniment (186 pages)

Father Mathias served as organist for Strasburg Cathedral, where he founded the “Saint Leo Institute for Church Music” in 1913.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 3, 2024

Organ Accompaniment • “Kyrie IV”

This was inspired by Florentinus Peeters (d. 1986).

Jeff Ostrowski · December 2, 2024

“Promptly, Firmly, & Persistently Repressed.”

The book is called: “Cantica Sacra: Hymns for the children of the Catholic Church.”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 2, 2024

Which Gospel Acclamations?

Some have asked which version…

“Simplified” Keyboard Accompaniment (PDF)

I’d much rather hear an organist play a simplified version correctly than listen to wrong notes. I invite you to download this simplified organ accompaniment for hymn #729 in the Father Brébeuf Hymnal. The hymn is “O Jesus Christ, Remember.” I’m toying with the idea of creating a whole bunch of these, to help amateur organists. The last one I uploaded was downloaded more than 1,900 times in a matter of hours—so there seems to be interest in such a project. For the record, this famous text by Oratorian priest, Father Edward Caswall (d. 1878) is often married to AURELIA, as it is in the Brébeuf Hymnal.

—Jeff Ostrowski

‘Bogey’ of the Half-Educated: Paraphrase

Father Adrian Porter, using the cracher dans la soupe example, did a praiseworthy job explaining the difference between ‘dynamic’ and ‘formal’ translation. This is something Monsignor Ronald Knox explained time and again—yet even now certain parties feign ignorance. I suppose there will always be people who pretend the only ‘valid’ translation of Mitigásti omnem iram tuam; avertísti ab ira indignatiónis tuæ… would be “You mitigated all ire of you; you have averted from your indignation’s ire.” Those who would defend such a translation suffer from an unfortunate malady. One of my professors called it “cognate on the brain.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Father Cuthbert Lattey • “The Hebrew MSS”

Father Cuthbert Lattey (d. 1954) wrote: “In a large number of cases the ancient Christian versions and some other ancient sources seem to have been based upon a better Hebrew text than that adopted by the rabbis for official use and alone suffered to survive. Sometimes, too, the cognate languages suggest a suitable meaning for which there is little or no support in the comparatively small amount of ancient Hebrew that has survived. The evidence of the metre is also at times so clear as of itself to furnish a strong argument; often it is confirmed by some other considerations. […] The Jewish copyists and their directors, however, seem to have lost the tradition of the metre at an early date, and the meticulous care of the rabbis in preserving their own official and traditional text (the ‘massoretic’ text) came too late, when the mischief had already been done.” • Msgr. Knox adds: “It seems the safest principle to follow the Latin—after all, St. Jerome will sometimes have had a better text than the Massoretes—except on the rare occasions when there is no sense to be extracted from the Vulgate at all.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Reminder” — Month of November (2025)

On a daily basis, I speak to people who don’t realize we publish a free newsletter (although they’ve followed our blog for years). We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and refuse to run annoying ads. As a result, our mailing list is crucial to our survival. Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Gospel Options for 2 November (“All Souls”)

We’ve been told some bishops are suppressing the TLM because of “unity.” But is unity truly found in the MISSALE RECENS? For instance, on All Souls (2 November), any of these Gospel readings may be chosen, for any reason (or for no reason at all). The same is true of the Propria Missæ and other readings—there are countless options in the ORDINARY FORM. In other words, no matter which OF parish you attend on 2 November, you’ll almost certainly hear different propers and readings, to say nothing of different ‘styles’ of music. Where is the “unity” in all this? Indeed, the Second Vatican Council solemnly declared: “Even in the liturgy, the Church has no wish to impose a rigid uniformity in matters which do not implicate the faith or the good of the whole community.”

—Corpus Christi Watershed

“Our Father” • Musical Setting?

Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?

—Jeff Ostrowski