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Corpus Christi Watershed

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Views from the Choir Loft

Dr. Tappan • Article Archive

Dr. Lucas Tappan is a conductor and organist whose specialty is working with children. He lives in Kansas with his wife and four children.—Read full biography (with photographs).

Dr. Lucas Tappan · October 3, 2017

A Silver Jubilee

Many things have changed over the last quarter of a century in the field of church music and thankfully most of them have been for the better.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · September 26, 2017

Liturgical Education

Perhaps I am just a Benedictine at heart but I feel the *Opus Dei* (Work of God) must truly be given pride of place in our personal lives…

Dr. Lucas Tappan · June 13, 2017

Forming the Next Generation of Church Musicians

Until we start forming our youth in the Church’s treasury of sacred music we will continue contracepting our musical future to death.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · June 6, 2017

Scientia Linguæ Latinæ Voluptatem Et Gaudium Affert!

Unfortunately my avocation of church musician doesn’t allow me to sidestep the Latin vs. vernacular issue any more than a house painter is able to avoid paint.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · May 23, 2017

An Unpleasant Task

I realize it is hard, but perhaps this is the balance we are called to live—truth in charity.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · May 16, 2017

Recruiting and Auditioning Choristers

The audition itself is very straight forward and usually takes about 10 minutes, although I know within the first minute if I plan to accept the child into the choir.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · May 12, 2017

Ten “Ave Maria” Settings from Different Lands

Live recordings—music in honor of Our Lady of Fatima.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · May 2, 2017

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

If the Holy Mass really is the unbloody sacrifice of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, then the music we use will be radically affected.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · April 26, 2017

Take 2 Voice Lessons and Call Me in the Morning

I watched in fascination as one of the tenors strained to reach notes obviously out of his range. I had never heard the chest voice *forced* so high in the male register.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · April 18, 2017

Chorister Training • Regensburg Cathedral Choir School

Here we see the result of so much hard work, one of the great Cathedral Choirs of the world!

Dr. Lucas Tappan · April 4, 2017

Family Life and the Sacred Liturgy

I can’t imagine my family playing such an intimate role in the ceremonies of Holy Week, but it surely made an awesome impression on the von Trapps.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · March 28, 2017

The Fully Sung Mass

if St. Augustine was right and “singing belongs to the one who loves,” then it behooves us to once again learn to love and thereby take up the Church’s eternal hymn of praise.

Dr. Lucas Tappan · March 15, 2017

Do we need hymns, when we already have Psalms?

The Psalter, as Esolen notes, is the prayer book of the Church and the Psalms constitute the “foundational poems of Christian praise.”

Dr. Lucas Tappan · March 7, 2017

Let Everything That Hath Breath Praise the Lord!

Point us once again to God Who is Beauty Itself!

Dr. Lucas Tappan · February 21, 2017

Music and the Imagination

Along the “via pulchritudinis” (the way of beauty) they will come to know Him Who is Beauty itself.

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “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
    Proof Which All Can Immediately See!
    “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing,” as the famous maxim goes. Over the years, I’ve observed malicious attacks on the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal. Rather than scoring a ‘hit’ on the Brébeuf Hymnal, its attackers often reveal profound ignorance. I’ve been advised never to reply … but I break that rule today. Certain voices online assert that the Brébeuf Hymnal is “untraditional” because it includes both the Urbanite and pre-Urbanite versions of the hymns. But if only they would glance at a copy of the 1913 VESPERALE (printed by order of Pope Saint Pius X) they would see how mistaken such statements are.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “8 June 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for the parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article includes a few anecdotes about Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Abraham Lincoln.
    —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

When a friend speaks of his accomplishments and triumphs, he stands at a distance from our heart. When he shares his weaknesses and failings, he’s very near.

— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

Recent Posts

  • “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
  • “Re: Vigil Masses” • Reader Feedback (3 June 2025)
  • Proof Which All Can Immediately See!
  • New Bulletin Article • “8 June 2025”
  • “The Adalbert Propers” • Six (6) Quotations

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