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.”
The Solesmes rhythmic markings, which often contradict the official rhythm, do such damage to the antiphons of the Divine Office that—in my humble opinion—they should be abandoned. (In reality, this will never happen.) But sometimes, they do great damage to the melody of the Graduale Romanum, and I would offer the Offertory for the 1st […]
Certain Latin words are constantly mispronounced. For example, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is supposed to be pronounced “Cármina” but people frequently pronounce it as “Carmína”—wrong! Another example: Nova organi harmonia is supposed to be pronounced “órgani” but many people erroneously say “orgáni.” A somewhat tricky word is incipit. In Latin, it would be “íncipit” while […]
A very interesting Missale from 1759AD has a Sequence for the Epiphany, but I don’t know where one could find the musical notation. The Seqence is called: “Prompto Gentes Animo Ferte Nunc Altissimo Honorem Et Gloriam.”
From a priest in the Midwest: “That video by Andrea Leal which explains hymn meters and hymn text exchange is informative and a truly great explanation. Thank you for sending it to me. I hope all is well with you. God bless you as we soon enter into Advent.”
By kind permission of the Trustees of the London Oratory, we have added Mæstro Patrick Russill’s outstanding organ accompaniment for “Salve Regina” to the other versions currently available for free PDF download. Patrick Russill needs no introduction among church musicians the world over, and many consider his harmonization the finest of all.
The director of music at EWTN wrote to us about the Brébeuf hymnal: “I do believe your hymnal has the best harmonizations available. We have used several of your harmonizations on EWTN. I have recommended to other hymnal editors that they get aligned with Corpus Christi Watershed to improve their harmonizations. Take care.”
My colleague, Andrea Leal, recently posted something extraordinary: an English translation of a NOTITIAE document from 1970 which explains why the reformers did such violence to the ancient Proprium Missæ. The author of that document erroneously claims that Gregorian composers changed the wording for musical purposes, but the real reason Missal and Gradual don’t always […]
It sounds strange to Americans, but a very common European tradition is to sing a polyphonic “Agnus Dei” during the distribution of Holy Communion, famously defended by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1995. Monsignor Francis P. Schmitt wrote about visiting Saint Joseph Oratory in Montreal, and says: “A polyphonic Creed was sung during the distribution of Communion.” […]
Perhaps the most significant item we’ve yet had the honor of producing is an English translation of an extremely rare document from 1970. A member of the Consilium—Father Adalbert Franquesa Garrós—explains why the reformers felt it necessary to destroy most of the ancient Mass propers. In particular, this reformer priest claims that unless verses of […]
Mr. Albert Bloomfield kindly sent me “Vespers for the Dead”—which does not fulfill a priest’s obligation to pray the Divine Office, yet is often prayed when a loved one dies. Here is formatting A, and here it is again with formatting B.
Almighty God has given to us the example of the Jesuit Martyrs of North America, whose feast day we celebrated yesterday. Of course, along with those eight martyrs we honor their associates, e.g Father François Bressani. I can’t share with you the torments Father Bressani underwent at the hands of Iroquois: it is too brutal. […]
My “pianist pedigree” goes from my teacher through Wiktor Łabuński through Felix Blumenfeld, who studied with Anton Rubinstein. I always considered myself part of the “Bach-Mozart-Chopin school” as opposed to the “Handel-Beethoven-Liszt school.” (Needless to say, there’s great overlap between these schools.) Before giving a concert, Frédéric Chopin would always shut himself up in a […]
Before a Low Mass, the priest ascends the Altar to place the Chalice, check the altar Missal, and do other “preparing” tasks. The organist must be prepared to play here, and—depending upon the priest—this can be of surprising length! For certain priests, I can easily play all six verses of a hymn while he’s doing […]
Kids these days will never know the adventure of traveling to a special music library, climbing the steps, locating the correct LP record, and placing it into the record player (which had a needle). In the 1990s, this was the only way one could listen to Hofmann’s live recording of Chopin’s 4th Ballade. I have […]
A reader wrote to us: “Thank you for the sample verses of Hymn #869 (Solemn Hymn to the Son of God). I found this music posted to YouTube this morning, and I’ve lost count at of the number of times I’ve replayed it and—no exaggeration!—it makes me tear up each time. This lovely hymn makes […]
The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!
But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”
We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.
Our president has written the following letter:
President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)
