Views from the Choir Loft

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Jeff Ostrowski · April 4, 2019

PDF Download • Mystery Kyriale (100 Pages)

Nobody knows the author or date of publication.

Jeff Ostrowski · January 22, 2019

PDF Download • “Chant Service Book” (208 pages)

An extremely rare book from 1941, containing all your favorite Gregorian chants!

Jeff Ostrowski · December 22, 2018

PDF Booklet • Christmas Midnight Mass (36 pages)

It looks so simple when placed in a booklet like that…

Veronica Brandt · December 1, 2018

PDF Download • “Easy Organ Interludes” (229 pages)

Giovanni Battista Fasolo published an enormous book of organ interludes without pedals • Pierre Gouin typed them up, bringing you this clear window into renaissance liturgical music for free! • Enjoy this treasure trove of organ music from almost 400 years ago! Plus a few highlights from along the way+

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Jeff Ostrowski · November 15, 2018

PDF Download • Mass Hymns by Fr. Seed, SJ (1906)

How utterly strange to see such items!

Jeff Ostrowski · November 6, 2018

PDF Download • “Pope Pius XII Hymnal” (1959)

Very few people have a copy of this incredibly rare Catholic hymnal.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 30, 2018

“Source Material” • The Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal

We assembled a staggering number of Catholic hymnals and selected only the very best material from each.

Jeff Ostrowski · October 15, 2018

PDF Download • “Sanctus” (SATB) by JS Bach!

Wow … I bet you’ve never heard this piece before!

Jeff Ostrowski · October 2, 2018

PDF Download • SATB Christmas Carol by Peter Lejeune • “Jam Désinant Suspíria”

I recorded all the voices, to demonstrate how it sounds…

Jeff Ostrowski · August 13, 2018

PDF Download • “Leeds Catholic Hymnal” (232 pages)

A hymnal out of print for fifty years has been scanned by Mr. Colin E. Jackson!

Jeff Ostrowski · August 7, 2018

PDF Download • “Sunday Vespers”

…including a failed descant from 1983.

Jeff Ostrowski · May 1, 2018

PDF Download • A “Bright” Eucharistic Hymn

Could there be a nicer hymn than this? It is fresh and glorious.

Jeff Ostrowski · March 27, 2018

PDF Download • Organ Accompaniment for “Vexilla Regis” (Hymn) by Fr. Adrian Fortescue

When I saw this page, my opinion of Fortescue went down—but then I remembered…

Jeff Ostrowski · March 6, 2018

PDF Download • Rare German Hymnal (879 pages)

Most German hymnals we’ve come across contain words only—but this one has harmonies!

Jeff Ostrowski · January 28, 2018

PDF Download • “Agnus Dei” … for Lent

…including rehearsal videos for each individual voice!

“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