Views from the Choir Loft

More On Secular Music At Mass … John Lennon?

Guest Author · December 23, 2014

AT TIP to Jeff Ostrowski for his exposé on Dan Schutte’s “Missa My Little Pony.” As soon as I heard it, I told my fiancée, “He’s right—it’s the same song. And there’s more music like that.” As in, there’s more church/liturgical music stolen from… errr… similar to secular music.

I told her I couldn’t think of precise songs at the moment, but I knew there were more. Now that it is Advent, with Christmas music blaring from radio stations and every department store’s overhead speaker, I have remembered one of the songs.

I was fortunate to go to World Youth Day 2008, where I saw His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, and where I heard an Alleluia song by Guy Sebastian. It might just be my imagination, but isn’t the supporting vocalization/background music of John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas” the same music as that Alleluia? Judge for yourself:

* * Mp3 Excerpt: Guy Sebastian and Paulini’s “Alleluia”

* * Mp3 Download: John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas”

Listen to the “Alleluia” first, and then listen to the Lennon song. You will hear the “Alleluia” music slowly coming up from the background. If you go to the original YouTube video versions, you can set the “Alleluia” to 1:04 and “So this is Christmas” at 1:03, playing them simultaneously. (Sebastian sings slower, but he fits in so well as things progress.)

So this is Alleluia! Happy Advent to my fellow Catholics and Merry Christmas to the secularists who are already saying that. Try not to think of Sebastian’s Alleluia every time you hear Lennon’s Christmas song!

We hope you enjoyed this guest article by A.W. Smay.

Editor’s Note: It would be important to know whether this song was sung DURING an actual liturgy, or whether it was used outside of Mass only.

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

“Music List” • (Christ the King Sunday)

This coming Sunday—24 November 2024—is Christ the King Sunday (a.k.a. “Final Sunday in Ordinary Time”). Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. You’ll notice we’re learning Moreau’s “Congregational Polyphonic Enhancement” for the OUR FATHER. And the the Mode 3 ENTRANCE CHANT is utterly sublime.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • Christ the King

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the Solemnity of Christ the King (24 November 2024). It mimics the Mode III Latin version in a truly spectacular way. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • (33rd Sund. Ordinary Time)

This coming Sunday—17 November 2024—is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. You’ll notice we’re learning Moreau’s “Congregational Polyphonic Enhancement” for the OUR FATHER. For the record, our opening hymn is particularly beautiful. So is the Mode 6 ENTRANCE CHANT.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

Principles vs Preferences

I ran into this idea recently: principles vs. preferences in planning out a curriculum or music lineup. In this idea, it is imperative to not misconstrue personal preferences into principles—that the music (or subject matter) is great because: “I have good taste, and I like it.” De gustibus… Education, study and docility to the Magisterium of the Church on matters of liturgical music must be present in those who make the music at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Hours. Who knows? Maybe you might start to prefer the music that is fitting according to the principles Catholic Sacred Music?

—William J. Fritz

Liquescent Notes in the Official Edition

The official edition—the EDITIO VATICANA itself—is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes. If you wish to see a perfect “apples-to-apples” comparison, click here. Such “inconsistency” was not owing to ignorance on the part of Abbat Pothier: the manuscripts themselves are inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes.

—Jeff Ostrowski