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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Patrick Torsell • Article Archive

Patrick Torsell is the Director of Music and Organist at Mater Dei Latin Mass Community in Harrisburg, PA, an apostolate of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. He began playing the organ at age 8, and has held organist and choirmaster positions across the nation.—Read full biography (with photographs).

Patrick Torsell · August 26, 2020

(Installment #1) “Catholic Hymnals” • Patrick Torsell

Five tips for rousing, inspiring hymn playing!

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Patrick Torsell · April 2, 2020

Repeating Repertoire? • Patrick Torsell

The Church’s patrimony of sacred music is so rich, so replete with material for most any occasion, that it seems on the surface we ought not need to repeat. But there are good reasons to repeat repertoire tastefully.

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Patrick Torsell · March 29, 2020

8 Tips • “Improving Live Stream Audio Quality”

Many churches have turned to live streaming during these difficult times. But getting the audio quality right is challenging. Here are some tips!

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Patrick Torsell · February 10, 2020

Youth Choristers – Formation Beyond Singing

If we want young people to help restore and promote sacred music, we must get beyond the “what” and the “how” and dig in to the “why.”

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Patrick Torsell · January 25, 2020

The Organ Postlude: Distraction, or Powerful Aid to Devotion?

The organ postlude is a powerful way to cultivate dispositions of rejoicing, thanksgiving, and awe before the greatness of God at the conclusion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

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Patrick Torsell · January 14, 2020

Youth Choristers: Get Them While They’re Young

Here’s how our parish is working to fill the ears, hearts, and minds of the youth with truly sacred music from a young age.

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Patrick Torsell · January 14, 2020

Biography • Patrick Torsell

Patrick Torsell began playing the organ at age 8, and has held organist and choirmaster positions across the nation…

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski
6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Iconographic tradition has theologically interpreted the manger and the swaddling cloths in terms of the theology of the Fathers. The child stiffly wrapped in bandages is seen as prefiguring the hour of his death: from the outset, he is the sacrificial victim, as we shall see more closely when we examine the reference to the first-born. The manger, then, was seen as a kind of altar.”

— Pope Benedict XVI (2012)

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