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Views from the Choir Loft

Reader Feedback • “Reform of the Reform”

Corpus Christi Watershed · March 14, 2025

The following came from Chad H.
[We usually redact names for anonymity’s sake.]

LOVED YOUR RECENT ARTICLE about the “Reform of the Reform,” however to my mind it just adds more “fuel to the fire.” I co-ordinate our Sunday only TLM Mass and try to engage with the pews as much as possible. We are a sub-group of a Novus Ordo parish with our own chapel. We try diligently to be part of the overall parish structure. However, once the word “Latin” is mentioned, everything shuts down. As an elderly person, I grew up with the TLM and experienced 40 years as an amateur choir leader before going back to my liturgical roots. Throughout those 40+ years, I designed the music liturgy according to my sense of entertainment—without realising what it was supposed to be until much later. In that time, I’ve come to realise that ‘entertainment’ instead of ‘liturgical reverence’ is the attraction for most who are fulfilling their Sunday Obligation via the Ordinary Form. I’m convinced that if we had the ability to have Solemn High Masses—regularly or irregularly—our attendance would soar. To the average Catholic, all this bickering about what is ‘traditional’ and what is ‘pseudo’ traditional is irrelevant. If the TLM or OF makes it internally worthwhile for me to go to a Mass, then “count me in.” There is a TLM Mass Centre in another local suburb that was rather rabid several years ago—and still is to a lesser degree—about the meaning of Traditional Liturgy. It came close to destroying their community. Is there a clear answer? In my opinion OF verses EF has gone on too long. The hierarchy are at sixes and sevens, the priesthood is not very supportive, and most attendees at Mass have only ever known the Ordinary Form … therefore anything ‘else’ must be an aberration. Change has to be driven at the lowest level that engages the non-TLM generations. How do you eat an elephant? A mouthful at a time. God Bless you and your work.

The following came from Mateo B.
[We usually redact names for anonymity’s sake.]

ENJOYED YOUR ARTICLE about the “Reform of the Reform.” I have two thoughts: (1) I do feel that the ROFR might be running out of steam, as far as fixing the Novus Ordo goes. I think people have had enough time to realize that the “juice ain’t worth the squeeze”—that their efforts are subject to episcopal or presbyterial whim, houses built upon sand. I recall the exact moment I felt this: We were doing sung Novus Ordo Vespers at my parish for a while. I was really trying to have the music be as traditional as possible: I would diligently look up the correct antiphon in official (or no?) books; find the chant for it; it there was no chant for it, I’d try to make my own simple rendition in Gregorian tones; I’d find music for the hymn; I’d set the English of the hymn to the proper hymn tune from the Liber Hymnarius, fending off requests for Taizé music; etc. It took me hours the first time I did it, and only after weeks of this did I get the preparation time down to maybe 30 minutes. I found myself constantly making my own personal calls as to what the antiphon tune was even supposed to be, what translation of the hymn even matched the hymn tune, flicking from PDF to PDF, learning and practicing these novel chants, etc. And I realized one day, as I prepared: No one cares. Certainly not the bishops. And all my work would be as tears in the rain when next they shift their ponderous bureaucracy to drop a new translation … which will have typos, errors, and a shifting sand dunes of options. My printing hard-wrought Vespers packets—with an expiration date of a decade or so—no longer seemed like a good use of time. I have a wife and many children to think of. The TLM Vespers were so much easier to put together. Usually there was already a fully-complete packet somewhere. We started gathering at a friend’s house once a month to do that instead. It feels nice to practice an antiphon that’s a thousand years old, and that—I truly believe—will be sung until He comes again. (The post-1910 breviary has untraditionalism too, but I couldn’t convince anyone to go full-monastic with me.) My smart-guy quip to my sympathetic pastor: “Preparing for the Novus Ordo is like dealing with a surly teen: it hates when you pay too much attention to it but also hates being ignored—and it’s exhausting either way.” (2) Re: Poorly informed traditionalists. Since I’m in my early 30s, so I never experienced TLM in the olden days, nor even in a parish with people who remembered the olden days. My ideals of tradition are totally contradictory. For instance, celebrating first Vespers of a saint’s day followed by Mass doesn’t bother me at all, because that’s what I can actually attend. And also, give me 1950 Holy Week now, but Holy Saturday in the evening because fire is awesome in the dark. A mess, I know. Basically, I want to get away with as much fun tradition as I can—even if that means ignoring traditional rubrics as regards time. Perhaps I’m a troglodyte, but I just want to do what I’m able, with as much tradition as possible, when it’s possible to do it, with as little infection as possible from destroying, rationalizing men like Bugnini. (That’s the drive, for me, of wanting to return to the older Holy Week. You’re right: I don’t know what I’m asking for. But I don’t like anything Bugnini had a hand in creating.) Thank you for reading my rambles.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: CCWatershed Feedback, Reader Feedback Corpus Christi Watershed Last Updated: March 17, 2025

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. However, on the feasts website, the chants have been posted for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C), which is this coming Sunday: 6 July 2025.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    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

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

“It introduces us to a still and serious world, deserted and rigid, without colour, without light, without motion; it does not gladden, does not distract; yet we cannot break away from it.”

— ‘Schweitzer on the THEME from Bach’s “Art of Fugue”’

Recent Posts

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  • 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
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  • Boston Auxiliary Bishop: “In offering the Traditional Mass for the first time, after removing the vestments, I knelt in the back pew and wept.”
  • Now Available! • “Hymns of Cardinal Newman: Kevin Allen’s Legendary Choral Settings”

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