Views from the Choir Loft

Archives for December 2014

Jeff Ostrowski · December 23, 2014

PDF Download: Rossini “Parochial Hymnal” (1936)

Your Christmas present from Corpus Christi Watershed!

Guest Author · December 23, 2014

More On Secular Music At Mass … John Lennon?

It might just be my imagination, but isn’t the John Lennon’s “So this is Christmas” the same as that Alleluia?

Jeff Ostrowski · December 22, 2014

Pope Paul VI • “Sacrificum Laudis” (15 Aug 1966)

The most progressive pope imaginable who’s given the Church a new direction? Are they aware of this letter?

Aurelio Porfiri · December 22, 2014

Remembering Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci

My teacher and inspiration…

Guest Author · December 22, 2014

PDF Download: Father Charles Dreisoerner’s “Graduale Romanum” In English (202 pages)

Did you know the entire Roman Gradual was set to English texts in 1984?

Fr. David Friel · December 21, 2014

Progressive Solemnity

A Reverse Concept?

Corpus Christi Watershed · December 20, 2014

Sixteen (16) Christmas Carols … In Latin!

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer … Hark! The Herald Angels Sing … Jingle Bells … White Christmas … and more!

Richard J. Clark · December 19, 2014

I am a fraud: A Life of Service

The richness of liturgical worship is what draws may of us in –- for life.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 19, 2014

Musical Resources • 4th Sunday of Advent

Christmas draws nigh!

Jeff Ostrowski · December 18, 2014

Solemn High Christmas Midnight Mass • Hollywood

Oh, please help us spread this exciting news!

Jeff Ostrowski · December 18, 2014

PDF Download: Dominican Breviary From 1967

The book is so large, it must be downloaded in sections.

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · December 18, 2014

A Fond Farewell

Changes in my personal life have made it necessary for me to curtail my blogging activity, and so this blog will be my last—at least for a time.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 17, 2014

How Well Did Your Parents Know The Mass?

PDF Download: Order of Mass (Latin & English) printed in THE CROWN HYMNAL of 1911.

Jeff Ostrowski · December 17, 2014

PDF Download: Hymns of the Dominican Missal & Breviary • Fr. Aquinas Byrnes (1943)

Containing literal and poetic translations, author biographies, meter explanations, and much more!

Cynthia Ostrowski · December 16, 2014

Catholic Line Art, Black and White • Installment #62

Today’s installment is a rare image of the Last Supper.

“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