Views from the Choir Loft

Veronica Brandt • Article Archive

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.—Read full biography (with photographs).

Veronica Brandt · May 24, 2014

Connection, empowerment and raffle tickets

Is selling raffle tickets a form of almsgiving? Or is it more like begging? Or is it just playing a game?

Veronica Brandt · May 17, 2014

Gregorian Chant in Star Wars

Dies Irae, Day of Wrath, a 13th century hymn that just won’t die.

Veronica Brandt · April 12, 2014

Working on a Compline booklet

A booklet for Compline, 95% finished, ready for Holy Week.

Veronica Brandt · March 29, 2014

Learning the Latin of the Pater Noster

You need to have even just a little bit of understanding to help you love something. You can’t love what you don’t know.

Veronica Brandt · March 15, 2014

Hymnal of St Pius X

Free download, a hymnbook from 1952, the organ edition, simplified Latin propers, English hymns, especially one for St Patrick for Monday!

Veronica Brandt · March 1, 2014

Preparing for Lent

Renewing the adventure of exploring Gregorian chant by making recordings.

Veronica Brandt · February 22, 2014

Color by “Neum”ber

A Gregorian chant workbook for kids (there’s one for adults too).

Veronica Brandt · February 15, 2014

Farewell to Alleluia

Kids singing Gregorian chant with puppets. Don’t worry, it’s a non-liturgical setting.

Veronica Brandt · February 8, 2014

Browsing Illuminated Manuscripts in Switzerland

Thank you internet! Browsing Swiss libraries of medieval manuscripts from home. Life doesn’t get much better than this.

Veronica Brandt · January 25, 2014

Extending a music lesson

Would you like to help people make the connection between the Latin and the English translations?

Veronica Brandt · January 18, 2014

Introducing polyphony in a round about way

Canons are a handy way to introduce singing in harmony. Here are some picks from the Choral Public Domain Library.

Veronica Brandt · January 4, 2014

Interleaving Latin and English on the page

Most books place Latin and English in parallel columns or on facing pages. Let’s look at the less common approach of interverse translations.

Veronica Brandt · December 28, 2013

Epiphany Proclamations

On Epiphany and calendars – proclaiming dates for 2014 and wondering why Eastern Orthodox dates are different.

Veronica Brandt · December 14, 2013

Mode 3 Antiphon for the party season

Translating English carols into Latin, always good for a laugh, especially where scarlet nosed deer are concerned.

Veronica Brandt · November 30, 2013

Trimmings on Advent

Cards, gifts, wreaths, trees and candles. How do you keep Advent?

“Music List” (4th Sunday of Advent, Year C)

This coming Sunday—22 December 2024—is the 4th 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. The English version of “Roráte Cæli” we’re singing for the ENTRANCE CHANT is magnificent.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • 4th Sunday of Advent

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the 4th Sunday of Advent (22 December 2024). Set in the first mode—just like the authentic version—this setting manages to capture the “essence” of the Gregorian setting in quite an admirable way. 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

Communion (4th Sunday of Advent)

The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (PDF) we’re singing for the 4th Sunday of Advent has a particularly gorgeous melody. The text (from the prophet Isaiah) is also quite beautiful and is cited toward the beginning of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It certainly seems like most of the Advent antiphons come from the book of Isaiah…

—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

“Although the Mass contains much instruction for the faithful, it has nevertheless not seemed expedient to the fathers that it be celebrated everywhere in the vernacular. The holy synod commands pastors and everyone who has the care of souls to explain frequently during the celebration of the Masses, either themselves or through others, some of the things that are read in the Mass, and among other things to expound some mystery of this most Holy Sacrifice, especially on Sundays and feastdays.”

— ‘Council of Trent, XII:8 (1562)’