Views from the Choir Loft

Video Demonstration Of Polyphony

Jeff Ostrowski · June 26, 2013

LL MY MASS SETTINGS were composed under certain constraints. It was necessary for them to be (1) relatively simple; (2) able to be sung with or without organ accompaniment; and, (3) within a “congregational” vocal range. Some might quibble with the notion that my Masses are “polyphonic,” since polyphony usually has more rests and slightly more independent vocal lines. A fairly nice definition of “polyphony” says that each voice has its own melody. In any event, I would submit that my Masses are as polyphonic as possible, given the restrictions I’ve already mentioned.

Below, I will provide links to everything required — SATB scores, organ scores, practice videos, and so forth. But first, please listen to these extremely short video demonstrations of polyphony:

* * Short Video Demonstration (1)

* * Short Video Demonstration (2)

Hopefully those videos provided a “taste” of the richness that is (I hope!) contained in each phrase of my Mass settings. You probably noticed that each phrase is “layered” — so there is always plenty to “listen for” no matter how many times the Mass is sung.

AS I PROMISED, below are the files for the SATB “Glory to God” in honor of Saint Edmund Arrowsmith. If you would like to download all four (4) of my Mass settings for the New Translation of the Roman Missal, please click here.

St. Edmund Arrowsmith “Glory to God” • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition

Cantor & Organist: (VIDEO)

SATB choral version: (VIDEO)

SATB choral score: (PDF).

Congregational score: Melody-Only (PDF)

            SATB Training Video SOPRANO:  (VIDEO)   •   (Mp3 audio)
            SATB Training Video ALTO:  (VIDEO)   •   (Mp3 audio)
            SATB Training Video TENOR:  (VIDEO)   •   (Mp3 audio)
            SATB Training Video BASS:  (VIDEO)   •   (Mp3 audio)

Finally, as I mentioned above, you can also download complete PDF scores for this entire Mass.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

“Yahweh” in church songs?

My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“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

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