Views from the Choir Loft

Jeff Ostrowski’s Symposium Talk • Released!

Jeff Ostrowski · June 8, 2016

ARLIER THIS WEEK, I promised to release my 98-minute speech online if we could garner enough pledges to donate $30 to Corpus Christi Watershed. I’m so grateful to everyone who made a pledge, and we met our goal. This talk was delivered live at the 2016 Sacred Music Symposium, and here’s the recording:

* * 98-Minute Mp3 • “FIFTY TIPS FOR TRAINING AMATEUR CHOIRS”

These solutions may not work for everyone; I can only share what I have done. You can use my suggestions or discard them.

YOU’LL WANT TO DOWNLOAD the following fifty “bullet points” to help you follow the speech:

* * PDF • 50 Bullet Points From This Speech

During the speech, I talked about the musical scores, which were designed to give choirmasters inspiration for “shape” programs:

* * PDF • Symposium Score Booklets (128 pages)

It’s important give your singers and congregation literal translations:

* * PDF • Congregational Booklet (47 pages)

Finally, I promised to release the “cheat sheet” from my talk about sacred music resources online, and here it is:

* * PDF • Cheat Sheet

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

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

Year’s End Appeal • “Asking for Help”

We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment; we have no major donors; we run no advertisements; we have no savings. As 2024 comes to a close, we could really use your financial support—especially if you have never donated before. Click here to securely donate with any major credit card. Thank you very much!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Feast of the Holy Family

Some have expressed interest in perusing the “ORDER OF MUSIC” I prepared for the Feast of the Holy Family. If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. This feast has fallen on many different days over the years. Originally, it was celebrated on the 3rd Sunday after Easter. According to the current calendar, it’s celebrated this coming Sunday.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • Midnight Mass (Christmas)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the “ORDER OF MUSIC” we followed for our Christmas Midnight Mass. If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The English version of “In Splendóribus” we’re singing for the COMMUNION CHANT is short but striking.

—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