Views from the Choir Loft

Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children. Read more.

Litany of St Joseph

Veronica Brandt · January 28, 2020 ·

The Litany of St Joseph in Latin chant with an English translation.

Introduction to the Latin Mass For Kids, By Kids

Veronica Brandt · January 13, 2020 ·

Take a look at this new introduction to the Latin Mass from the Trad Kids TV.

Chant any Psalms and Antiphons

Veronica Brandt · July 13, 2019 ·

Liturgy of the Hours and Divine Office books become enormous when they include all the music for singing the psalms. Fortunately here are the tools to bring the music to your screen.

Shortcuts with GrandOrgue

Veronica Brandt · June 8, 2019 ·

Setting up keyboard shortcuts to setting the stops on a virtual pipe organ using the free software GrandOrgue.

Oreste Ravanello’s Easy Pieces for Organ

Veronica Brandt · April 13, 2019 ·

A dozen easy little pieces for organ.

How to Install Compline in Your Home

Veronica Brandt · March 30, 2019 ·

A first step to planting the timeless prayer of the Universal Church in your home. Plus a four part setting of the prayer just because.

Upgrading to a Missa Cantata for Singers

Veronica Brandt · March 23, 2019 ·

One of those fantastic diagrams of the structure of the Mass, expostulated in under 9 minutes.

A German Franciscan Soldier who Sang

Veronica Brandt · March 16, 2019 ·

Excerpts from the life of Fr Gereon Goldmann – bombs, concentration camps, espionage and Gregorian chant.

Every Church Musician Deserves Music Lessons

Veronica Brandt · March 9, 2019 ·

In which Veronica describes some unexpected benefits of taking up music lessons.

God of Mercy and Compassion

Veronica Brandt · March 2, 2019 ·

Two hymns with the same opening line, but very different content. A mystery rewrite symptomatic of an avoidance of personal contrition.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski