Participatio Actuosa

Participation Booklet (Spanish) for Extraordinary Form Baptisms

Fr. David Friel · October 21, 2018 ·

Un recurso para facilitar una participación más profunda

Participation Booklet for Extraordinary Form Baptisms

Fr. David Friel · October 6, 2018 ·

A resource for facilitating deeper participation

Cardinal Sarah “Reform of the Reform” (5 July 2016) • Full Address in French & English

Corpus Christi Watershed · July 7, 2016 ·

Breathtaking statements from the Vatican’s chief liturgist who—while on retreat—goes 72 hours without food or water.

An Antidote For Clericalism: Sung Vespers

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · December 17, 2015 ·

The public singing of Vespers is an antidote to the kind of clericalism frequently condemned by Pope Francis.

EWTN Classic • “Theology of Worship” with Fr. Robert Skeris (1998)

Jeff Ostrowski · June 22, 2015 ·

Mother Angelica sat down for a wonderful interview with a famous Theologian.

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