Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”
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I have attempted to record the Introit for the Feast of Christ the King according to the official rhythm of the Catholic Church. You can view the YouTube recording of my attempt. Traditionally, our Savior’s “kingship” was celebrated as part of the Epiphany—but in 1925, Pope Pius XI created the “feast of Christ the King” […]
Good morning! My name is […] and I write to you from Chile. Just a short note to say: thank you for your wonderful website “Corpus Christi Watershed.” As a Catholic organist, I truly appreciate the marvelous work you have done. Your website is a tremendous library open to everyone. Thanks so much, and God […]
I can’t think of better way to learn Gregorian chant than to download this 651-page PDF file, containing the marvelous Gregorian Vesperale (1915) by Father Karl Weinmann (d. 1929) printed on five lines. If you accompany Vespers directly from the plainsong notation, this makes life easy! It’s also fun to compare the Gregorian chant inside […]
Our Schola Cantorum members prefer to hear recordings of chants we’re learning. This morning I attempted this recording of the INTROIT for this coming Sunday, which is the 19th Sunday after Pentecost. My voice was groggy, but I suppose we singers can’t expect to have a recording studio follow us around all day waiting for […]
On 22 November 1963, Pope Paul VI established the “Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae.” On 16 July 1966, the Vatican reiterated that the Consociatio was “the only international association of sacred music approved by the Holy See.” It’s very difficult—at least for me—to figure out what happened to that organization, and whether it still exists. One […]
“My name is *******. I wanted to share with you my thoughts on your recent blog post. I was very displeased with this article. […] I’ve have been a supporter of the Latin Mass since I was 14 years old. I’m now 26 and a seminarian; and I very much hope (in the near future) […]
Download my “choir warm-up” at this link. Have your singers pause on different chords. As choirmaster, see if you can identify each seventh chord in real time (and which position it’s in). You can hear my volunteer choir attempting this. You will notice that we still have work to do, because the singers must be […]
Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) started out as an assistant to Father Guerrero (d. 1599). In the book by Stevenson—which I never grow tired of praising—we find this wonderful excerpt which provides fascinating details vis-à-vis musical performance circa 1600AD. I like how it says that on Easter the prosa “must be the one composed by Morales.”
Why do hymns in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal give so many optional “text only” versions of the hymns? It’s easier to demonstrate than explain. Consider Hymn #24, which allows the director to choose a wonderful melody and easily apply it to the text. Hymnal editors knew about the value of “text only” versions […]
If you enjoy eavesdropping, here’s a rehearsal excerpt (mp3) of my volunteers singing the exercise I posted last week. This is the second time we’ve used it, and I can definitely hear improvement. You can download this choral warm-up for free.
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In graduate school, one is taught a valuable lesson: if you emphasize everything, nothing is emphasized. In other words, putting every other word in bold or italic (or both) wrecks your paper. I never to use the word “best”—but today I make an exception. The book of organ interludes released today by my colleague is […]
Last week, I posted an SATB choral setting of the SANCTUS in a ‘contemporary’ style. You might want to consider this piece for two reasons: (1) It’s extremely brief; (2) Free rehearsal videos are available for each individual part. The piece is by Father Lhoumeau.
In spite of its imperfections, creating this (draft) booklet required much more effort than I had anticipated.
