Views from the Choir Loft

Guest Author

Guest Author · January 3, 2017

New! • Easy Choral Extension Mass (Ordinary Form)

How to make polyphony work for your Ordinary Form Choir.

Guest Author · December 22, 2016

Opening Our Hearts At Christmas

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is…

Guest Author · November 7, 2016

Catholic Liturgy in Secular Sweden

How does a tiny Catholic community in a secularized country celebrate Mass with the Pope?

Guest Author · October 28, 2016

What you didn’t realize about World Youth Day…

Guest article by the co-director of music for the English liturgies at WYD 2016.

Guest Author · October 27, 2016

PDF Download • “Mass of the Alabaster Jar” (2016)

These settings were written to be easily played by pianists and organists of an intermediate skill level.

Guest Author · September 5, 2016

Guest Article: “Why That Hymn Doesn’t Work”

Twelve Criteria to Help Explain Yourself

Guest Author · April 6, 2016

Musical and Liturgical Life at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

Praising our Extraordinary God in the Ordinary Form

Guest Author · March 5, 2016

“To Sing With The Angels” • A History Of The Twin Cities Catholic Chorale

A guest article by Dr. Virginia A. Schubert.

Guest Author · January 25, 2016

Reflections on the Change of the Mandatum Rite

A guest article by Mr. Michael Chan, who lives in Hong Kong.

Guest Author · December 14, 2015

Benedict XVI Institute Seeks Executive Director

Are you an entrepreneur?

Guest Author · November 7, 2015

Sermon on Poor Souls • Based on Wisdom 2:23—3:9

A guest article by Fr. Valentine Young, OFM

Guest Author · October 12, 2015

“Saving” Gregorian Chant In The Ordinary Form

Daniel Craig’s review with a “signs of the times” digression.

Guest Author · September 9, 2015

PDF Download • SAB Setting of “Jesu Rex Admirabilis”

Including an update on wonderful things happening for Sacred Music in Colorado!

Guest Author · September 1, 2015

The Responsorial Psalm: What You Never Knew!

…including recent documentation from the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy (USCCB).

Guest Author · August 31, 2015

Adapting Chant To The Vernacular

“The more closely a composition approaches the Gregorian melodic form, the more sacred it becomes.”

“Music List” • (Christ the King Sunday)

This coming Sunday—24 November 2024—is Christ the King Sunday (a.k.a. “Final Sunday in Ordinary Time”). 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. And the the Mode 3 ENTRANCE CHANT is utterly sublime.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • Christ the King

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the Solemnity of Christ the King (24 November 2024). It mimics the Mode III Latin version in a truly spectacular way. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • (33rd Sund. Ordinary Time)

This coming Sunday—17 November 2024—is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. 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. For the record, our opening hymn is particularly beautiful. So is the Mode 6 ENTRANCE CHANT.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

Liquescent Notes in the Official Edition

The official edition—the EDITIO VATICANA itself—is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes. If you wish to see a perfect “apples-to-apples” comparison, click here. Such “inconsistency” was not owing to ignorance on the part of Abbat Pothier: the manuscripts themselves are inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes.

—Jeff Ostrowski