Views from the Choir Loft

PDF • “Music List” for the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Jeff Ostrowski · December 14, 2024

HIS COMING Sunday—15 December 2024—is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Year C. Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. You’ll notice we’re learning Moreau’s “Congregational Polyphonic Enhancement” for the OUR FATHER. We also have a polyphonic extension (by William Byrd) for the KYRIE, a polyphonic extension (by Zipoli) for the AGNUS DEI, and a polyphonic extension for the SANCTUS (by Father Cristóbal de Morales). For the record, our Offertory hymn is particularly beautiful, as is the ENTRANCE CHANT in the first mode. I really wish I could find time to provide some audio examples of my choir here in Michigan, because they’re sounding so beautiful.

Wonderful Website • My choir relies heavily upon the “feasts” website, which I add to each week:

* https://www.ccwatershed.org/feasts/

If you’ve never clicked on that website, here’s a sample of how it looks:

Search:

Advent (“Tempus Adventus”)
- 3rd Sunday of Advent (Year C)
Ordinary Time (“Tempus Per Annum”)
- 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)
- 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time: “Christ the King” (Year B)
Solemnities (“Festivitates Praecipuae”)
- 15 August • Our Lady’s Assumption (ABC)
- 8 December • Immaculate Conception (ABC)
- November 1st • Feast of All Saints (ABC)

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).

CCW • Appeal at Year’s End

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

Re: Sacred Music Symposium 2025

If you aren’t subscribed to our (free) mailing list, you missed last week’s huge announcement vis-à-vis the SACRED MUSIC SYMPOSIUM. Its dates and location have been announced. If you haven’t yet signed up for our newsletter … what are you waiting for? It contains important information and announcements. Subscribing couldn’t be easier: just scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • 3rd Sunday of Advent

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the 3rd Sunday of Advent (15 December 2024). Set in the first mode—just like the authentic version—this setting manages to capture the “essence” of the famous Gaudete Introit, which Father Valentine Young loved because of the nihil sollíciti sitis text. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, this morning I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

Principles vs Preferences

I ran into this idea recently: principles vs. preferences in planning out a curriculum or music lineup. In this idea, it is imperative to not misconstrue personal preferences into principles—that the music (or subject matter) is great because: “I have good taste, and I like it.” De gustibus… Education, study and docility to the Magisterium of the Church on matters of liturgical music must be present in those who make the music at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Hours. Who knows? Maybe you might start to prefer the music that is fitting according to the principles Catholic Sacred Music?

—William J. Fritz