Exiguous Performing Forces?
Even something simple can be wonderful.
“Is it not true that prohibiting or suspecting the extraordinary form can only be inspired by the demon who desires our suffocation and spiritual death?” —The Vatican’s chief liturgist from 2014-2021; interview with Edw. Pentin (23-Sep-2019)
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).
A lovely offering by the “Chaumonot Composers Group.”
A serious typo in the Responsorial Psalm for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B.
I believe Catholics have a right to attend Mass without being aurally assaulted.
I hate hearing organists play wrong notes. I invite you to download this simplified organ accompaniment for hymn #699 in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal. The hymn is “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today.” I’m toying with the idea of creating a whole bunch of these, to help amateur organists. The last one I uploaded was […]
Catholic musicians must avoid being viewed as “esoteric freaks” who can’t agree on anything and spend their entire lives fighting about things nobody cares about.
My volunteer choir sang this arrangement during the offertory on Easter Sunday.
In his illustrious 1912 tome—The Mass: A Study Of The Roman Liturgy—Father Adrian Fortescue spoke of sequences, writing: “Strangest of all were the vernacular sequences in France and Germany, or those partly vernacular and partly Latin.” Our volunteer choir experimented with that on Holy Thursday, mixing Latin verses with an English refrain. For the record, […]
Dedicated to my brother, Father Mark Ostrowski.
Visit a random church on Sunday morning and ask parishioners basic questions…
Working with volunteers can be discouraging, but always remember there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Yesterday, during PALM SUNDAY MASS, our 100% volunteer choir pulled out the SANCTUS from William Byrd’s “Mass for Five Voices.” This colossal performance was the result. (They literally didn’t know I was going to have them sing that […]
This version by Father Adrian Fortescue is fascinating!
A disturbing video sent to us from the Diocese of Superior (Wisconsin).
Msgr. Leo Manzetti foolishly wrote: “Church musicians, when experts in vocal art, agree that women’s voices are effeminate, sensuous, and operatic, hence un-churchly.”
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