Views from the Choir Loft

Hymn by Professor at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary

Jeff Ostrowski · October 30, 2017

ONSIGNOR Ronald Knox (d. 1957) translated six verses of “Ave Vivens Hostia”—and the full version will be included in the St. Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal. The original hymn (by Iohannes Pecham, Archbishop of Canturbury, who died in 1292AD) has fifteen verses, and was discussed during the 2017 Sacred Music Symposium. The choir sang the Knox version, conducted by Dr. Alfred Calabrese.

A different translation was made by Msgr. H. T. Henry (d. 1946), who taught Gregorian chant at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania: ¹

* * PDF Download • SCORE (Latin, Literal English, and Rhyming English)

I declare to you: No microphone can capture choral sound.

Consider the rehearsal video we recorded yesterday:

REHEARSAL VIDEOS for each individual voice await you at #4148.

It’s okay, but let me assure you it’s absolutely nothing compared to what I heard when it was sung at the 2017 Symposium. I sat in front while Dr. Calabrese was conducting, and I was (quite literally) shaking. I’d never heard anything so beautiful. I came close to tears—the sounds were out of this world.

For the second time: No microphone can capture choral sound.

Now listen to a recording from the 2017 Symposium, using the version by Msgr. Ronald Knox. What comes through on the microphone doesn’t come close to an accurate reproduction of the choral sound:

* * Mp3 File • “Live” Version (30 June 2017)

A third time I proclaim: No microphone can capture choral sound.

NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1 Read the literal translation at the top of the score (by Fr. Valentine Young, OFM) and notice how skillfully Msgr. Henry matches the meaning. Bravo!

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).

“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

“Silent Night” • Easy Organ Arrangement

Here’s an organ accompaniment (PDF) in three different key signatures: MIDDLE, HIGH, and LOW. The Latin lyrics (“Silens Nox”) are courtesy of Father Valentine Young, OFM (d. 2020). The organ harmonies are very simple, yet beautiful. Those who desire such a thing may also download a Singer’s Version. Choirs will ‘pick up’ this piece up with minimal rehearsal time. Here’s a live recording from Midnight Mass from a few years ago: LIVE RECORDING.

—Jeff Ostrowski

PDF Download • “Chart For Each Mode”

On 13 December, Dr. Weaver posted an article about the EIGHT CHURCH MODES. I thought it might be helpful to create this mode chart (PDF) which gives the various names for each mode of Gregorian Chant. If you notice any errors, please let me know!

—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

“Only against this background, of the effective denial of the authority of Trent, can one understand the bitterness of the struggle against allowing the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Missal after the liturgical reform. The possibility of so celebrating constitutes the strongest, and thus (for them) the most intolerable contradiction of the opinion of those who believe that the faith in the Eucharist, as formulated by Trent, has lost its validity.”

— Cardinal Ratzinger, 2001