Wilfrid Jones

Wilfrid Jones in a PhD student in the theology faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, studying the theology and practice of sacred music. He studied music at New College, Oxford; theology and the University of Birmingham; and education at Hughes Hall and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Cambridge. He teaches at St Bede's Inter-Church School, Cambridge. Read more

Beyond performing and listening

Wilfrid Jones · February 20, 2020 ·

The way we do music says a lot about how we see ourselves and our relationship to those around us. What does that say about music in the liturgy?

Stepping off the hamster wheel

Wilfrid Jones · January 11, 2020 ·

We can be so caught up in the cycle of planning, delivering and marking lessons, that we never have time to step back and consider the bigger picture in a way that would improve how we do our jobs.

Wilfrid Jones

Wilfrid Jones · January 11, 2013 ·

Having grown up singing in the London Oratory School Schola Cantorum, Wilfrid Jones went on to a choral scholarship at New College, Oxford, where he read music before completing a masters Theology at the University of Birmingham and in Education at Cambridge, where he sang at Sidney Sussex College. He now teaches theology at St […]

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