Views from the Choir Loft

Summorum Pontificum

Tenth Anniversary Celebration • “Summorum Pontificum”

Fr. David Friel · August 13, 2017 ·

A Solemn Pontifical Mass will be offered in Philadelphia on September 14, 2017

Pope Francis to Cardinal Sarah: Investigate an Official Reform of the Reform

Fr. David Friel · July 6, 2016 ·

Highlights from Cardinal Sarah’s Lecture at Sacra Liturgia UK 2016

Baptisms in the Extraordinary Form

Fr. David Friel · March 20, 2016 ·

Reflections on a Recent Experience

Sacra Liturgia UK — Registration Now Open

Fr. David Friel · January 17, 2016 ·

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

Whose Responsibility Is It To Establish New EF Communities?

Fr. David Friel · January 10, 2016 ·

We must respect the vision of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

An Extraordinary Event: NCYC 2015

Fr. David Friel · November 23, 2015 ·

Traditional Mass offered at National Catholic Youth Conference

Assumption Mass 1

Fr. David Friel · August 3, 2015 ·

A Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form next Friday evening in Philadelphia.

Sacra Liturgia USA 2015

Fr. David Friel · April 12, 2015 ·

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

Assumption Mass

Fr. David Friel · August 13, 2014 ·

Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth will celebrate a Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form this Friday evening in Philadelphia.

Liturgy & Clericalism

Fr. David Friel · June 1, 2014 ·

Love of liturgy—and, specifically, employment of its traditional forms—is not clericalism.

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