Views from the Choir Loft

Jogues Illuminated Missal Lectionary Gradual

Improve Your Parish Liturgy … Instantly!

Jeff Ostrowski · March 17, 2015 ·

Have you noticed the change in atmosphere when people dress fancy, as opposed to tank tops with jeans?

“What Must Be Sung Is The Mass” • Susan Benofy

Jeff Ostrowski · February 16, 2015 ·

“For decades there were virtually no musical settings for the Propers in English.” —Susan Benofy

“The best I have ever seen. Anywhere. In the world. Period.” —Mr. John Sonnen

Jeff Ostrowski · January 8, 2015 ·

“The vitality of the Classical Rite is as fresh as ever.”

Fr. Christopher Smith Weighs In

Jeff Ostrowski · November 4, 2014 ·

“Why am I excited? Well, every year we spend about $4,000 on those paperback missalettes…”

The Society for Catholic Liturgy

Fr. David Friel · October 12, 2014 ·

Two Contributions from CCW Bloggers

How Dare We Complain?

Jeff Ostrowski · August 2, 2014 ·

Can you imagine trying to feed your family in the year 1300AD?

Like Eve in the Garden

GuestAuthor · July 23, 2014 ·

“The fruit in my hands was not forbidden but simply forgotten.” — Fr. Brent Maher

Sensational Review Of The Jogues Illuminated Missal By Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

Jeff Ostrowski · June 19, 2014 ·

Rigorous and Resplendent Review of the Jogues Illuminated Missal.

HOME VIDEO • Jogues Illuminated Missal

Corpus Christi Watershed · May 22, 2014 ·

Jeff discovered that making an impromptu video is harder than he thought!

SAMPLE PAGES • Jogues Illuminated Missal

Corpus Christi Watershed · May 21, 2014 ·

These Mass texts are “3L” : Large, Lovely, Legible … silly sounding, but true!

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