Views from the Choir Loft

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PDF Download • “Cheat Sheet” for Easter Vigil

Jeff Ostrowski · April 20, 2019 ·

Releasing this is probably a bad idea…too late!

PDF Download • Organ Interludes for Manuals!

Jeff Ostrowski · April 19, 2019 ·

I will most definitely be playing these pieces—based on hymn tunes—by Georg Philipp Telemann!

PDF Download • Spectacular “Tenebrae” Booklet

Jeff Ostrowski · April 8, 2019 ·

Mr. Albert Bloomfield has done us a breathtaking favor.

PDF Download • Mystery Kyriale (100 Pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · April 4, 2019 ·

Nobody knows the author or date of publication.

PDF Download • “Chant Service Book” (208 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · January 22, 2019 ·

An extremely rare book from 1941, containing all your favorite Gregorian chants!

PDF Booklet • Christmas Midnight Mass (36 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · December 22, 2018 ·

It looks so simple when placed in a booklet like that…

PDF Download • “Easy Organ Interludes” (229 pages)

Veronica Brandt · December 1, 2018 ·

Enjoy this treasure trove of organ music from almost 400 years ago! Plus a few highlights from along the way.

PDF Download • Mass Hymns by Fr. Seed, SJ (1906)

Jeff Ostrowski · November 15, 2018 ·

How utterly strange to see such items!

PDF Download • “Pope Pius XII Hymnal” (1959)

Jeff Ostrowski · November 6, 2018 ·

Very few people have a copy of this incredibly rare Catholic hymnal.

PDF Download • “Sanctus” (SATB) by JS Bach!

Jeff Ostrowski · October 15, 2018 ·

Wow … I bet you’ve never heard this piece before!

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