Views from the Choir Loft

Archives for January 2015

Jeff Ostrowski · January 5, 2015

Reflections On Marty Haugen’s “Mass Of Creation” (Revised Version)

Before the revision, Haugen’s Gloria “worked” much better, but I still had serious reservations about it.

Fr. David Friel · January 4, 2015

Preparing Funeral Liturgies

Who Should Pick the Readings?

Jeff Ostrowski · January 4, 2015

Musical Resources • Most Holy Name Of Jesus

…including a special PDF version (Singer + Organist) of “Corde Natus ex Parentis.”

Veronica Brandt · January 3, 2015

Easy Organ Hymns for Catholics

There is a built in tendency for nervous musicians to rush things – I think as your heart beats faster, your perception of time is dilated. As you build more confidence your sense of timing improves too.

Richard J. Clark · January 2, 2015

Christmas Season and the New Year

This is a profession that is in fact, unfriendly to families, i.e., working all weekend long, nights, holidays, low pay, etc. Yet we persist through an act of will as much as an act of loving service.

Cynthia Ostrowski · January 1, 2015

Catholic Line Art, Black and White • Installment #64

Today’s installment is a picture of the angel Raphael.

PDF Download • “Easter Sunday Introit”

Some may wish to download the EASTER INTROIT (PDF) in accordance with the official edition. You can hear this live version sung by women. The ‘thumbnail’ image on that video is particularly beautiful, as it shows our Savior as a gardener. (If you don’t understand why, cf. John 20:15: Illa exístimans quia hortulánus esset.) You can also hear a rehearsal video wherein I simultaneously accompany myself on the pipe organ while trying to sing it.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Holy Thursday

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the Holy Thursday (17 April 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Since Holy Week reduces usage of the pipe organ, I marked with an “X” all the selections being sung a cappella. The name “Maundy Thursday” comes from MANDATUM a.k.a. “the washing of the feet.” — For the record, anyone so inclined can download our music list for Good Friday; formerly called Missa Praesanctificatorum (“Mass of the Presanctified”).

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Ubi Caritas” • Knox Translation (1950s)

It seems gems in the SAINT EDMUND CAMPION MISSAL Third Edition can never be exhausted. In 1952, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen declared the Bible translation by Monsignor Ronald Knox as “the best” (his words). I took the elegant & rhyming translation created by Monsignor Knox for “Ubi Cáritas”—courtesy of the CAMPION MISSAL—and placed it next to the musical notes.

—Jeff Ostrowski

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum

Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music).

—Corpus Christi Watershed