Views from the Choir Loft

Recording

Keven Smith · May 26, 2020

The Fastest, Cheapest, Painfulest Way to Get a Voice Lesson

You know your own sound so well. You know your strengths, and what you need to work on. Why not suck it up and become your own vocal coach for a while?

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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 · January 28, 2018

The Hillbilly Thomists

A New Dominican CD

Fr. David Friel · January 21, 2018

Dedication of the Cathedral Basilica of Mary, Queen of the World

Three new choral works featured during this celebration on 13 October 2017.

Fr. David Friel · December 24, 2017

Lux Fulgebit: Mass at Dawn of Christmas Day

New recording by the Schola Cantorum of St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, CT

Fr. David Friel · September 24, 2017

Album: Sacred Treasures of England

Reflections on a recently released album of English choral music

Veronica Brandt · March 11, 2017

A CD from on High for Benedictines in Tasmania

A new CD you don’t have yet full of beautiful music raising funds for bringing more beautiful music to Tasmania.

Veronica Brandt · February 25, 2017

Making rehearsal CDs and finding mp3s

Burning CDs may seem old-fashioned, but many people still rely on their CD players. All the shortcuts, plus a free recording of Audi Benigne Conditor.

Veronica Brandt · September 5, 2015

Mind, Senses and Recorded Music

A little pop psychology for your weekend.

Jeff Ostrowski · February 23, 2012

Exsultet Video Recording • Paschal Proclamation • Plus MP3 Recordings!

The Easter Proclamation (“Exsultet”) sung on Holy Saturday Night New Translation (Roman Missal, 3rd Edition)

“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

“Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)

I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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