Views from the Choir Loft

Resources for training in Church music

Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast

Fr. David Friel · March 10, 2019 ·

Dedicated to exploring the teaching and vision of the Church on the topic of liturgical music

New Resource! • Chant Videos for Treble Voices

Fr. David Friel · February 23, 2019 ·

A new website seeks to record the full Gregorian propers each week using a treble voice.

Square Note App

Fr. David Friel · April 9, 2017 ·

Bring your “Graduale Digitalum” wherever you go.

Recordings for A New Book of Old Hymns

Veronica Brandt · February 20, 2016 ·

A little book of Gregorian chant hymns for the every occasion, with a collection of recordings for those unfamiliar with chant notation. Now more than a decade since the first edition and still going strong.

Is Recorded Music Okay for Children?

Fr. David Friel · July 27, 2014 ·

There is a prevalent notion that young people somehow need to be accommodated in the work of divine worship. As a former child, I find this to be an errant hankering.

“Cannot” vs. “Will Not” in Sacred Music

Jeff Ostrowski · January 26, 2014 ·

Maybe I should have used the annoying little saying I learned as a kid: “I would if I could, but I can’t, so I won’t.”

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