Views from the Choir Loft

1936 Graduale (Dr. Franz Xavier Mathias)

Corpus Christi Watershed · March 19, 2013

HE FOLLOWING BOOK has been made available for free download courtesy of the Jean de Lalande Library. If you appreciate these efforts, please consider making a donation by using the link at the top of the page.

* * 1936 Dr. Franz Xavier Mathias Graduale (1 of 3)

VOL (1) : : Adventus, nativitatis, Epiphaniae usque ad Dominicam vi. post Epiphaniam. • Pages 1-139 •

* * 1936 Dr. Franz Xavier Mathias Graduale (2 of 3)

VOL (2) : : A septuagesima usque ad feriam VI. post octavam ascensionis. • Pages 141-355 •

* * 1936 Dr. Franz Xavier Mathias Graduale (3 of 3)

VOL (3) : : A vigilia Pentecostes usque ad Dominicam ultimam post Pentecosten. • Pages 357-490 •

• Organum Comitans ad Proprium de Tempore • quod JUXTA EDITIONEM VATICANAM HARMONICE ORNAVIT Dr. Fr. X. Mathias, Regens seminarii et professor musicae sacrae in academia wilhelma argentinensi • Fr. Xavier Mathias • 1936 Editio Quarta • Ratisbonae : Sumptibus Friderici Pustet •

Father Xaver Mathias founded in 1913 the Saint Leo Institute for Sacred Music at Strasburg Cathedral. An Alsatian organist and composer, Father Mathias served as organist for the Strasbourg Cathedral from 1898–1908.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

“Entrance Chant” • Feast of the Epiphany

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the Feast of the Lord’s Epiphany (5 January 2025). The authentic Gregorian version is famous and beloved, but many attempts to create English adaptations for it turn out rather stale and boring. I like this setting because it departs from Mode ii. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, this morning I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF Download • 129 Pages!

As of a few hours ago, you can download The Trapp Family Book of Christmas Songs, arranged by their priest-conductor (Father Franz Wasner) by clicking this link. Some of their arrangements are clever and unique. This entire collection—all 129 pages of it!—is now available as a PDF file.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Reminder” — Month of January (2025)

On a daily basis, I speak to people who have followed our blog for years yet don’t realize we publish a free newsletter. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and refuse to run annoying ads. As a result, our mailing list is crucial to our survival. To subscribe couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Lessons and Carols”

Seen online! Dr. Samuel Backman conducted a “Lessons and Carols” service with his choir, and someone produced this lovely vignette.

—Corpus Christi Watershed

Epiphany Proclamation 2025

Each year, without fail, someone asks me to typeset the Epiphany Proclamation, an announcement of moveable feasts chanted each year on the feast of the Epiphany. As a result, you may now find an archive of 23 such proclamations in PDF ready to print HERE.

—Veronica Brandt

The Breviary in the Life of the Laity

Recently I have been enjoying looking through the inaugural (1927) edition of a 20th-century liturgical magazine called Orate Fratres. The July 1927 issue included an excellent article by a Chicago laywoman named Ellen Gates Starr entitled “The Delights of the Breviary: From the Point of View of a Lay Woman.” As we in the 21st century have recently undergone a (blessed!) re-translation of the missal into English, and as we await with joyful hope (please God, before Jesus comes back!) a similar re-translation of the breviary, the opening of her article reminded me of that old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Nearly a hundred years ago, she penned words that could just as easily have been written today: “It is indeed a privilege to be allowed any participation, however slight, in the liturgical movement in the Church – the movement to bring back the classics of devotion, the Missal and the Breviary, into general use by the laity. The wonder is that they should ever have fallen into disuse. Nothing can take the place of these great universal prayers of the Church, the prayers of the Mass and the divine Office. One has only to know them to find them indispensable. And alas, how few of the laity know them!” I know that I have been tremendously nourished by regular praying of the breviary as of late, and my wish is that you and I, dear reader, may continue to nourish our interior lives with the official prayer of the Church, which present to us (in the Mass) and extend (in the Office) the fullness of Christ’s greatest gift to us – the gift of Himself – in the Most Holy Eucharist.

—Daniel Tucker