Views from the Choir Loft

Contemporary Sacred Music

Fr. David Friel · July 24, 2022

Free Folio of New Sacred Music for Parish Liturgies

A gift from The Catholic Sacred Music Project and the Benedict XVI Institute

Fr. David Friel · May 9, 2021

Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium 2021

Alongside many familiar faces, several new presenters are joining the faculty this year.

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Fr. David Friel · December 16, 2019

Liturgica • Interview with Chris Mueller on the Release of New CD

Mueller discusses his recently released recording of original compositions and Renaissance masterworks.

Fr. David Friel · October 24, 2019

“Mass of the Americas” • Solemn Pontifical High Mass in DC

Archbishop Cordileone will offer Mass November 16, 2019 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Jeff Ostrowski · September 15, 2017

“O Sanctissima” • SATB Contemporary Setting!

I bet you haven’t heard this arrangement!

Jeff Ostrowski · November 22, 2016

Resplendent Christmas Piece for Two Voices!

This gem by Fr. Nicolas du Peron (d. 1963) incorporates Christmas carols in a most ingenious way.

Jeff Ostrowski · July 6, 2016

Sensational Hymn for St. Joseph … with Modern Polyphony!

We’ll be singing this piece a lot because our priest has a special devotion to St. Joseph.

Jeff Ostrowski · March 5, 2016

“Ave Maris Stella” • Take II

Have you ever changed your mind with regard to tempo?

Jeff Ostrowski · January 14, 2016

Staggering Canonic Setting • “Gloria” from Mass III

By the French Roman Catholic composer, Raphaël Mercier (d. 1953).

Jeff Ostrowski · October 30, 2015

“Te Saeculorum” • Simple, Sensational, SATB

Were you aware of this amazing piece by Raphaël Mercier?

Jeff Ostrowski · July 7, 2015

Short, Fresh, & Beautiful • SATB “Ave Maris Stella”

This piece by Fr. Antonin Lhoumeau will knock your socks off!

Music List • (2nd Sunday of Lent)

Readers have expressed interest in seeing the ORDER OF MUSIC I created for this coming Sunday, which is the 2nd Sunday of Lent (1 March 2026). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. This feast has magnificent propers. Its somber INTROIT is particularly striking—using a haunting tonality—but the COMMUNION with its fauxbourdon verses is also quite remarkable. I encourage all the readers to visit the feasts website, where the Propria Missae may be downloaded completely free of charge.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Like! Like! Like!

You won’t believe who recently gave us a “like” on the Corpus Christi Watershed FACEBOOK PAGE. Click here (PDF) to see who it was. We were not only sincerely honored, we were utterly flabbergasted. This was truly a resounding endorsement and unmistakable stamp of approval.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Which Mass?

In 1905, when the Vatican Commission on Gregorian Chant began publishing the EDITIO VATICANA—still the Church’s official edition— they assigned different Masses to different types of feasts. However, they were careful to add a note (which began with the words “Qualislibet cantus hujus Ordinarii…”) making clear “chants from one Mass may be used together with those from others.” Sadly, I sometimes worked for TLM priests who weren’t fluent in Latin. As a result, they stubbornly insisted Mass settings were ‘assigned’ to different feasts and seasons (which is false). To understand the great variety, one should examine the 1904 KYRIALE of Dr. Peter Wagner. One should also look through Dom Mocquereau’s Liber Usualis (1904), in which the Masses are all mixed up. For instance, Gloria II in his book ended up being moved to the ‘ad libitum’ appendix in the EDITIO VATICANA.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Extreme Unction

Those who search Google for “CCCC MS 079” will discover high resolution images of a medieval Pontificale (“Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079”). One of the pages contains this absolutely gorgeous depiction of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

PDF Chart • “Plainsong Rhythm”

I will go to my grave without understanding the lack of curiosity so many people have about the rhythmic modifications made by Dom André Mocquereau. For example, how can someone examine this single sheet comparison chart and at a minimum not be curious about the differences? Dom Mocquereau basically creates a LONG-SHORT LONG-SHORT rhythmic pattern—in spite of enormous and overwhelming manuscript evidence to the contrary. That’s why some scholars referred to his method as “Neo-Mensuralist” or “Neo-Mensuralism.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF • “O Come All Ye Faithful” (Simplified)

I admire the harmonization of “Adeste Fideles” by David Willcocks (d. 2015), who served as director of the Royal College of Music (London, England). In 2025, I was challenged to create a simplified arrangement for organists incapable of playing the authentic version at tempo. The result was this simplified keyboard arrangement (PDF download) based on the David Willcocks version of “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Feel free to play through it and let me know what you think.

—Jeff Ostrowski