Views from the Choir Loft

Marian Meditations on RJC Cecilia Music

Richard J. Clark · December 5, 2014

HEN I WAS YOUNG I never viewed the Blessed Virgin Mary as a great source of inspiration for composition. How wrong I was. Mary has been an enormous artistic inspiration to me. Aside from the fact that the rosary was a big part my life growing up, I believe it was Mary’s “Yes!” to God that is the overwhelming inspiration. I have no words to express this gift of “Yes!” to us all. Let music express this joy instead.

Some of these have been featured (even more than once) on this blog, but I leave offer it here for meditation and perhaps inspiration:

Ave Maria, Performed around the world by the American Boychoir – score available for digital download with RJC Cecilia Music

* * 1 • YouTube: Ave Maria | SSAT | The American Boychoir, Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Director

* * 2 • YouTube: Ave Maria | TTBB | Schola Cantorum Sanctorum Angelorum, Andrew Leung, Director

Gaudens Gaudebo – I Will Greatly Rejoice!, performed by organist, Rosalind Mohnsen at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C. Based on the Introit for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, this work also includes several Marian themes quoted throughout.

Score available for digital download with RJC Cecilia Music

Finally, another setting of Ave Maria from a larger nine movement work, called “Woman.” This movement was performed by the Seraphim Singers.

Score available for digital download with RJC Cecilia Music

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

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

“Music List” (4th Sunday of Advent, Year C)

This coming Sunday—22 December 2024—is the 4th Sunday of Advent (Year C). 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. The English version of “Roráte Cæli” we’re singing for the ENTRANCE CHANT is magnificent.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • 4th Sunday of Advent

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the 4th Sunday of Advent (22 December 2024). Set in the first mode—just like the authentic version—this setting manages to capture the “essence” of the Gregorian setting in quite an admirable way. 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

Communion (4th Sunday of Advent)

The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (PDF) we’re singing for the 4th Sunday of Advent has a particularly gorgeous melody. The text (from the prophet Isaiah) is also quite beautiful and is cited toward the beginning of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It certainly seems like most of the Advent antiphons come from the book of Isaiah…

—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