Views from the Choir Loft

Videos • Church Music Association of America

ACRED, BEAUTIFUL, AND UNIVERSAL is a 60-minute movie directed by Jeff Ostrowski (current President of Watershed) with footage from Sacred Music Colloquium XIX. The documentary explains why the Catholic Church uses sacred (not secular) music at Mass. It has been broadcast on three major networks and is played thrice each summer on EWTN. You can purchase the DVD or view the entire 60-minute film online (with the exception of the DVD bonus material):

Additional Links: 01 • 02 • 03 • 04 • 05 • 06 • 07

Some additional sacred music films produced by Watershed:

+  2011 Trailer • Colloquium XXI (YouTube)

+  2010 • Colloquium XX Trailer (YouTube)

+  Interviews (1)

+  Interviews (2)

+  Maestro Scott Turkington

+  Maestro Wilko Brouwers

+  Cor Jesu (Winter Intensive)

+  Christus Vincit (Winter Intensive)

+  Chironomy excerpt

+  Can You Tell The Difference?

+  Can Propers Replace Hymns At Mass? (cartoon)

+  Sacred Vs. Secular Music (cartoon)

+  2008 Trailer (YouTube)

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