Views from the Choir Loft

Biographies

William J. Fritz

William J. Fritz · January 22, 2020 ·

William Fritz is a composer, pianist, organist, liturgical musician and director of music at St. John the Baptist Parish in Costa Mesa, CA.

Patrick Torsell

Patrick Torsell · January 14, 2020 ·

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.

Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt · January 16, 2013 ·

Veronica has published a wide variety of Catholic publications . . .

Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · January 15, 2013 ·

Alfred holds a doctorate in choral conducting from Indiana University…

Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark · January 14, 2013 ·

Richard serves as Music Director and Organist at Holy Cross Cathedral . . .

Aristotle A. Esguerra

Aristotle A. Esguerra · January 12, 2013 ·

Aristotle has served since 2009 as music director of two churches . . .

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 masters degrees in theology at the University of Birmingham and in education at the University of Cambridge, where he sang at Sidney Sussex College. He now […]

Rev. David M. Friel

Fr. David Friel · January 10, 2013 ·

Father Friel was ordained to the Catholic Priesthood in May 2011 . . .

Veronica Moreno

Veronica Moreno · January 10, 2013 ·

While at UCLA, Veronica earned an undergraduate degree in Ethnomusicology and went on to study special education at Cal State LA.

Gwyneth Holston

Gwyneth Holston · January 9, 2013 ·

Gwyneth is a sacred artist who works to provide and promote good quality Catholic art…

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