• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Dom Mocquereau

Jeff Ostrowski · April 9, 2024

PDF Download • Responsorial Psalm for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

“This argument from silence is wildly improbable.” —Father John Parsons (2001)

Dr. Charles Weaver · November 25, 2023

Accent and Gregorian Melody

The idea of the tonic accent in Gregorian melody runs through the entire Solesmes tradition from Gontier to Pothier to Mocquereau to the present.

Dr. Charles Weaver · November 9, 2023

Report • “Musical Shape of the Liturgy Conference”

This week I attended part of an excellent academic conference in honor of William Mahrt.

Dr. Charles Weaver · October 21, 2023

Two Ways of Singing the Easter Sequence

Two recordings of the same chant from the Sacred Music Symposium 2023.

Dr. Charles Weaver · October 5, 2023

PDF Dissertation • “Dom Mocquereau and Music Theory” (282 Pages)

My thesis on how Dom Mocquereau relates to other theories of musical rhythm is now available for download.

Patrick Williams · October 2, 2023

Vollaerts Revisited

“The time is ripe to reconsider the contributions of Fr. Jan Vollaerts to Gregorian musicology.” —Patrick Williams

Jeff Ostrowski · May 2, 2023

Should Chant Be Accompanied On The Organ?

As late as 1924, Dom Mocquereau mentioned Dom Desrocquettes “whose beautiful and discreet accompaniments I hear every day at Solesmes.”

Follow the Discussion on Facebook

Jeff Ostrowski · March 15, 2023

“Solesmes Ictus” • Can It Be Justified? (Examples)

“If you begin by telling a man that in a word like 𝐷𝑒𝑢𝑠 the first syllable corresponds to the weak beat, the second to the strong beat of a modern bar, the only thing accomplished will be to bewilder him thoroughly.” —Father Bewerunge

Jeff Ostrowski · January 14, 2023

Video • “Counting Gregorian Chant” … according to Dom Mocquereau’s Method

The example chosen is the strenuous offertory (“Jubiláte Déo”) for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.

Jeff Ostrowski · January 5, 2023

“Solesmes Method” • Where was it developed?

Father Ralph March wrote: “If any single man could deserve the title father of the renewed chant it would be Dom Joseph Pothier.”

Jeff Ostrowski · December 13, 2022

Who Can Guess This Melody? • (Rorate Mass)

… from the “Roman Gradual” (1912) edited by Max Springer, a famous Gregorianist of the Beuron school.

Follow the Discussion on Facebook

Dr. Charles Weaver · November 26, 2022

Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “On the Nuance Theory of Plainchant”

A brief historical survey of free rhythm in plainchant, as practiced from the modern monastic foundation of Solesmes (1833) to the present.

Dr. Charles Weaver · August 26, 2022

PDF Download • Mocquereau on Trochee Trouble

This can seem like a dry topic, but it actually often deals with practical issues faced by every choirmaster who wants to promote plainchant.

Jeff Ostrowski · July 22, 2022

PDF Download • Professionally-Scanned “Graduale Romanum” (Schwann, 1908) • 1,129 pages!

This is the “pure” Vatican Edition—technically the only version of the rhythm allowed by Church documents!

Jeff Ostrowski · July 8, 2022

“I’ll be back next year … but with my entire choir!”

“The symposium exceeded all of my expectations.” — Pediatrician, Choirmaster, and Mother of Six Children

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III: a.k.a. “Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne.” This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. Feel free to download the score, generously made available—free of charge—to the whole world by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“Urban VIII appointed four Jesuits to reform the hymns, so that they should no longer offend Renaissance ears. These four, in that faithful obedience to the Holy See which is the glory of their Society, with a patient care that one cannot help admiring, set to work to destroy every hymn in the office.”

— Fr. Adrian Fortescue (1916)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

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)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up