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Corpus Christi Watershed

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Views from the Choir Loft

Jeff Ostrowski • Article Archive

A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).

Jeff Ostrowski · March 8, 2018

4th Sunday of Lent (“Laetare Sunday”)

“Grant us, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that we may treat with unfeigned veneration and ever receive with heartfelt faith Thy holy rites which we constantly celebrate…”

Jeff Ostrowski · March 6, 2018

PDF Download • Rare German Hymnal (879 pages)

Most German hymnals we’ve come across contain words only—but this one has harmonies!

Jeff Ostrowski · March 2, 2018

3rd Sunday of Lent (Extraordinary Form)

“Be merciful, O Lord, we beseech Thee, and free us from all sins and dangers…”

Jeff Ostrowski · February 28, 2018

Contemporary “Stabat Mater” (SATB) • by Gustaaf Nees (d. 1965)

You’ve never heard this arrangement before—perfect for Lent.

Jeff Ostrowski · February 25, 2018

“Tu Es Petrus” (Rec. 2017 Symposium)

No matter how many people imitate John Denver on the guitar in our churches, Palestrina and Victoria will always be loved and sought by serious Catholics.

Jeff Ostrowski · February 22, 2018

“First Run Through” • Guerrero’s Kyrie

“To put it simply, I was pierced by the beauty of the liturgy in a way I have never before experienced.” —2017 participant

Jeff Ostrowski · February 19, 2018

Rare Lenten Hymns You’ve Not Sung

“Our hymnbooks know nothing of such a treasure as this, and give us pages of poor sentiment in doggerel lines by some tenth-rate modern versifier.” —Fr. Fortescue

Jeff Ostrowski · February 15, 2018

Phone Interview • Fr. Guy Nicholls, Cong. Orat.

The Blessed John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music (England) has a big announcement!

Jeff Ostrowski · February 13, 2018

Hymn Tunes That Are Actually The Same

Look carefully at this image…

Jeff Ostrowski · February 12, 2018

“Live Excerpts” … With One Rehearsal

This is something we will do again, because I think there’s great potential here.

Jeff Ostrowski · February 9, 2018

How Medieval Books Were Made

Absolutely *fascinating* beyond words!

Jeff Ostrowski · February 8, 2018

Brave Schola Director Posts “Live” Recording 1

…recorded on 28 January 2018.

Jeff Ostrowski · February 1, 2018

Sexagesima Sunday (Extraordinary Form)

“Now they upon the rock are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy…”

Jeff Ostrowski · February 1, 2018

Video • Ratzinger made a Cardinal by Paul VI

Quite beautiful, but I prefer a different harmonization of “Holy God We Praise Thy Name”…

Jeff Ostrowski · January 28, 2018

PDF Download • “Agnus Dei” … for Lent

…including rehearsal videos for each individual voice!

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
    I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.
    —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

Dom Vitry never claimed chant could not be used successfully with English words. No one need take my word for it. He was a pioneer on the matter of vernacular adaptation, and I need only refer you to the many publications of his own “Fides Jubilans” press. What he said was that adaptation involved some mutilation, and that we were faced with one or the other.

— Monsignor Francis P. Schmitt (1963)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension
  • “Breathtaking Photographs” • First Mass of Father Michael Caughey, FSSP (Muskegon, MI)

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