Views from the Choir Loft

Mass and Motets

Veronica Brandt · March 18, 2023

When we were starting a schola at Lawson, a retired priest gave me a copy of this little booklet, Mass and Motets for Mixed Voices, By Polyphonic Masters. This was printed by The Advocate Press, 143-151 a’Beckett Street, Melbourne, Australia. I had assumed it was an Australian compilation, but someone has found parallels with offerings by Kalmus, which I haven’t been able to confirm. Then I noticed the German notes in a few places.

It was printed before printing publishing dates was a thing, so I’m guessing it’s about 1940-ish.

In the past, I had sung from photocopies from this booklet with different choirs, without knowing the source. So many pieces are familiar, I look forward to getting to know the remainder.

Someone asked me to scan it, but if Kalmus is selling it, then maybe that’s not the best. Also, it’s quite a cramped typesetting to shoe-horn as much music as possible into 32 pages. Also, the pieces are available elsewhere on the internet, all except the Gloria from Antonio Lotti’s Missa Brevis for 4 voices in C. The booklet calls it Missa (dorisch), but Lotti’s Masses get many mixed up names in different editions.

So, here are all the pieces with links.

Missa (dorisch) – Mass and Motets includes the Gloria, but this link doesn’t.
Adoramus Te Clemens non Papa
Adoramus Te Francesco Rosselli
Ave Regina Caelorum Antonio Lotti
Ave Verum Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Cantate Domino Giuseppe Pitoni
Christus Factus Est Felice Anerio
Ecce, quomodo moritur, Jacob Handl Gallus
Hodie nobis coelorum Rex Giovanni Bernardino Nanino
In nomine Jesu Jacob Handl Gallus
Istorum est Claudio Casciolini
Jesu, dulcis memoria Tomás Luis de Victoria
O bone Jesu Marco Antonio Ingegneri
O Domine Jesu Christe Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
O Jesu Christe Rinaldo del Mel
O Redemptor Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
O vos omnes Giovanni Croce
Popule meus Tomás Luis de Victoria
Regina Caeli Antonio Lotti
Tantum Ergo Giovanni Matteo Asola
Tantum Ergo Palestrina? – printed in the English Hymnal Clearer pdf from Musescore
Veni sancte Spiritus Sethus Calvisius
Veni Creator Spiritus Claudio Casciolini

And here are some photos:

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

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(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