Views from the Choir Loft

Latin

The Preface of the Holy Cross

Fr. David Friel · March 18, 2018 ·

An eloquent liturgical text worthy of prayerful reflection

JPII: “The Roman Church Has Special Obligations to Latin”

Fr. David Friel · July 9, 2017 ·

This vision of the Church’s relationship with Latin is quite different from the perspective held by many post-conciliar liturgists.

Guide for Large-Scale Celebrations

Fr. David Friel · May 22, 2016 ·

10 Points from a Newly Translated Document

Baptisms in the Extraordinary Form

Fr. David Friel · March 20, 2016 ·

Reflections on a Recent Experience

Sacra Liturgia 2015 — Update II

Fr. David Friel · June 3, 2015 ·

Fourteen (14) practical ideas for how a priest might transform his celebration of the Ordinary Form

A little bit of fun

Veronica Brandt · May 23, 2015 ·

Heads and shoulders, knees and toes, in Latin with square note notation, to the tune well known in Australia.

Sacra Liturgia USA 2015

Fr. David Friel · April 12, 2015 ·

An International Conference on Liturgical Formation in Light of the New Evangelization

Praying the Divine Office This Lent

Fr. David Friel · February 15, 2015 ·

Exploring the Sites & Apps Devoted to the “Official Prayer of the Church”

Restoring A Sense of the Sacred to the Mass

Fr. David Friel · November 12, 2014 ·

A Great Article over at One Peter Five

Pentecost: Babel, Tongues, & Latin

Fr. David Friel · June 8, 2014 ·

Do churchgoers of my generation—who, largely, have no experience of Latin in the liturgy at all—even recognize the gift that has been lost?

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