Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Daily Missal with Vespers for Sundays” by Dom Lefevbre (2,007 pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · February 16, 2021

VERY DAY, IT SEEMS we hear news of exciting liturgical projects! On Sunday, Father Friel revealed a “TLM Magnificat Magazine” being launched by SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS. In a moment, I’m going to tell you about a 2,007 page hand-missal by Dom Lefevbre now available as a free PDF file. Furthermore, we have received electrifying news regarding the 3rd edition of the Saint Edmund Campion Missal; this website has all the detials. In a nutshell, SOPHIA INSTITUTE PRESS will soon release a new version of the Campion Missal which has been in development for four years: and the improvements are mind-blowing. If anyone is interested in proofreading the 3rd edition, please write to this email address.

Now, let me share with you a terrific PDF file: “The Daily Missal with Vespers for Sundays” (1925), produced by Dom Pierre Gaspar Lefebvre (d. 1966). The book has a double IMPRIMATUR: (1) The Abbat of Saint Andrew’s Abbey (Bruges, Belgium); (2) Most Rev’d Daniel A. Dowling (d. 1930), Archbishop of the “Twin Cities” (Minnesota). Whoever scanned this massive book did a fabulous job:

* PDF Download • Dom Lefevbre Hand-Missal (2,007 pages)
—Dom Pierre Gaspar Lefevbre’s Daily Missal with Vespers for Sundays (1925).

Before downloading, feel free to view sample pages. Notice how—similar to the scores on the Saint René Goupil Website—English translations are provided underneath the Latin Gregorian Chant:

Thirteen years ago, we scanned the 1937 hand-missal by Francis Xavier Lasance (d. 1946). You can download it at the Saint Jean de Lalande Library, but we didn’t know very much about scanning in those days. I wish somebody would “clean up” that 1937 scan, because it’s quite a valuable reference book. The hand-missal by Father Lasance (1,879 pages) doesn’t include any music. However, the hand-missal by Dom Lefebvre (2,007) does include some musical notation:

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