Views from the Choir Loft

Sacred Music Symposium

Jeff Ostrowski · February 12, 2025

“Register Today!” • Sacred Music Symposium 2025

A generous benefactor has agreed to cover 50% of the tuition for those who register before a certain date.

Corpus Christi Watershed · January 8, 2025

“Prelim. Details” • Sacred Music Symposium 2025

Too many parish choirs don’t sound as nice as they could. We’re here to help!

Corpus Christi Watershed · June 28, 2022

“I Found Myself Weeping, Almost In Disbelief…”

“Your faculty may never know the depth of how you affected each person there. For my part, I am forever changed…” — Symposium Participant (Texas)

Jeff Ostrowski · May 10, 2022

“Big Reveal” by the Symposium Committee

We are so pleased to welcome this priest!

Corpus Christi Watershed · May 3, 2022

“Repertoire Page” • Sacred Music Symposium 2022

Sign up today! A few voice parts still have openings.

Richard J. Clark · July 5, 2019

In Gratitude for Choral Singers

I am deeply grateful to faith-filled choral singers because of their willingness to understand these 10 things

Guest Author · July 30, 2018

Expectations Exceeded at the Symposium!

“If you occasionally share a habit of mine for getting stuck in one style, take new inspiration here!” —Miss Phoebe Wing

Fr. David Friel · May 7, 2017

Fota X Conference (and other Summer Opportunities)

Summer 2017 looks to be a blockbuster period for sacred music activity.

Fr. David Friel · April 16, 2017

Introducing the Wethersfield Institute Chant Workshop

A new chant workshop in upstate New York in June 2017.

Jeff Ostrowski · June 9, 2016

Rehearsal Videos • Masterpiece w/ Cantus Firmus

Can you tell which voice is not mine?

Jeff Ostrowski · May 24, 2016

O Salutaris Hostia • Do You Like This Version?

Download this 47-page booklet … and please pardon any typos!

Jeff Ostrowski · May 18, 2016

May Crowning • The Official Antiphon

Do you agree this is a dark antiphon?

Jeff Ostrowski · May 7, 2016

A Special “Gaudeamus” For 31 May

Nobody has been able to explain why they changed the psalm verse…

Jeff Ostrowski · February 5, 2016

2016 • Sacred Music Symposium (Last Year’s)

We’re approaching capacity—if you’re interested, we need to hear from you soon!

Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!

A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)

I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“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

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