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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 · October 28, 2021

“Hymnals Compared” • with PDF files!

Mr. Daniel Craig, an accountant, comes from a musical family. His sister is a nun, and his brother is currently a seminarian. He has put together a detailed comparison of fifteen traditional Catholic hymnals. Many PDF files are included. Click here to view the article.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 28, 2021

Not A Parody! • “The Global Warming Hymn” (2021)

“We pray for the animals here in our midst | who cannot defend their own right to exist.”

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 26, 2021

“Breathtaking Beauty” • Hymn for Christ the King

John Newton—who wrote “Amazing Grace”—was a slave trader, but ended up being caught and made a slave himself!

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 25, 2021

Incorrect Statement (July 2021) by Pope Francis

Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis insisted that others correct him “when he gets off course…”

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 23, 2021

22 October 2021 • “Sad & Unnecessary”

The USCCB has completely deleted a section of their website which (before they deleted it) contained helpful resources for the classical Roman Rite. Something cool they had included (before they deleted it) was a link to the new prefaces, approved by Pope Francis on 25 March 2020. Will this madness never end?

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 22, 2021

PDF Download • “Wedding Booklet” (22 pages)

A word about “Kleptomaniac Choirmasters.”

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 21, 2021

PDF Download • “Did Vatican II Reform The Mass?”

Three (3) bullet points, written on a single sheet of paper.

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 19, 2021

Huge Announcement! • “Three Voiced Polyphony”

Once these songs get into your head, they won’t leave easily—but that’s okay!

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 14, 2021

Seriously?? • An Anglican “Halloween Hymn”

Actual hymn lyrics: “Is it spooky? Is it weird?”

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 13, 2021

Seven Solutions • “Getting Catholics Singing Again”

At the conservatory, we’re surrounded by hundreds of professional musicians; but stepping into a Catholic parish the situation is quite different.

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 11, 2021

11 October 2021 • “Sing All Verses?”

Some claim Catholics deserve condemnation because (unlike Protestants) Catholics often omit verses when singing hymns at Mass. Is that true? The wonderful Sophia Institute Press—as part of a series on authentic sacred music—has provided an answer (PDF) to this question.

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 10, 2021

A Puzzling Assertion by Bishop Arthur Roche (Congregation for Divine Worship)

Is backroom bowdlerization of Sacred Scripture truly irreversible?

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 5, 2021

Two Hymns Loved By Everyone … Except Purists!

Fulton J. Sheen: “In those days there were no scandal columns, but there were scandalmongers.”

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 5, 2021

What Can Be Done With Only Two Cantors?

What do you do for Quinceañera Masses, Anniversary Masses, Funerals, and Birthday Masses?

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Jeff Ostrowski · October 1, 2021

Brave Schola Director Posts Live Recording

This is a beautiful melody worth learning, worth singing, and worthy of the temple.

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Knox. Has. No. Equal.
    Dr. Finberg (of the University of Leicester) famously said: “No living writer possesses a greater command over the English language than Monsignor Ronald Knox.” A lifetime spent among his works would not exhaust them; always another thing to see, never once a reason to look away. Consider the marvelous way Knox Englished the famous VERBUM SUPERNUM of Saint Thomas Aquinas. The 4th verse (in Latin) means: “By being born, He became man’s companion; at this supper, He became man’s food; in dying, He became man’s ransom; in reigning, He is man’s reward.” Knox brilliantly makes the English fit the Latin meter: The manger, Christ their equal made, | That upper room, their souls’ repast, | The Cross, their ransom dearly paid, | And heav’n, their high reward at last. I believe the meaning of the French word “manger” was not absent from his thoughts when he penned that stanza.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Proportionalist Plainchant • (Documented)
    On this website, we believe: “If we don’t know where we came from, we can’t know where we’re going.” As a result, we often spend hours scanning old books of GREGORIAN CHANT (and organ accompaniments). We don’t claim those items are useful or desirable for today’s circumstances; the goal is understanding where we came from. Here is a fascinating musical score from the 19th century. At that time, it was believed that MENSURALISM (a.k.a. “proportionalism”) was the historically correct way to sing plainsong.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Garnier Alleluias • “Have They Moved?”

    We received an email asking whether the “Garnier Gospel Acclamations website” has…

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    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Predictable Rhymes?” • A Follow Up
    We received considerable correspondence regarding my article, Two Ways to Defile a Hymn. More specifically, what really raised certain people’s hackles was its follow-up article dealing with the keyboard accompaniment for the CHRIST THE KING HYMNAL. But to quote Eliza Doolittle: “Have I said anything I oughtn’t?” Please examine this PDF file and see whether you agree. Were the editors of the BRÉBEUF HYMNAL incorrect to insist upon sophisticated and clever rhymes, rather than mind-numbingly predictable rhymes?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    ‘Ould’ But Not Good
    Dom Samuel Gregory Ould (note the spelling) was a Benedictine monk at FORT AUGUSTUS ABBEY in Scotland. As musician, organist, and composer, Dom Ould was highly regarded. Moreover, he was considered an authority on Gregorian Chant. But not everything found in an old book—or, in this case, an “Ould” book—is necessarily praiseworthy. Consider this page from Dom Ould’s hymnal. Do you see the rhymes? They offend severely by ABR (“Abuse By Reuse”) and are utterly predictable. In my recent article—Two Ways to Defile a Hymn—I addressed this topic.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Reader Feedback” • 22 June 2026
    A reader wrote to us from Virginia: “I really appreciate the 23 harmonizations that you posted on CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED for the Daily, Daily, Sing to Mary hymn. I hope to find willing voices in our small Schola Cantorum to try the three-voice version. Carry on, sir! You’re doing the Lord’s work.” While we don’t know this gentleman personally, we note that he earned a Ph.D. (which demonstrates that our blog has something for everybody). 😊
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

At papal Masses, the regulations against tardiness were more stringent than at Masses celebrated by cardinals or bishops. Giovanni Maria Nanino records that any singer who is not in his place—and in his vestments—by the end of the repetition of the “Introit” will be fined eight vinti. At papal Vespers, the singer who is not present at the “Gloria Patri” of the first psalm pays a fine of fifty balocchi.

— Giovanni M. Nanino (d. 1607), Papal “Maestro di Cappella”

Recent Posts

  • 1,187 Pages • “Dripping With Color, Craft, and Splendor” (Missale Romanum, 1933)
  • Knox. Has. No. Equal.
  • “Plainsong Propers” • Fascinating 1980s Recordings
  • Proportionalist Plainchant • (Documented)
  • “First Things First” • The Order We’ve Reversed: Seven (7) Points for Consideration

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