cathedral music

Richard J. Clark · January 10, 2020

Chant, Mighty Pipe Organs • Two Sundays, Two Cathedrals

Gregorian Chant and mighty pipe organs will be front and center at two concerts: Boston’s Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.

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“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Lent

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Lent (6 April 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. I love the INTROIT (Júdica Me Deus) from the well-known PSALM 42. Since Lent reduces pipe organ usage, I marked with an “X” all the selections being sung a cappella. This Sunday is traditionally called “Passion Sunday.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Best-Kept “Secret” of Church Music?

Some have called this feasts website “the best kept secret” of church music. My personal belief is that once we get through an entire year, more will begin to discover it. Already, it contains more than 400 scores and videos. The OFFERTORY CHANT for this coming Sunday uses a truly gorgeous melody as well as PSALM 118, one of my favorite psalms!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Cool Symbolism

The Year A readings, orations, & propers may be chosen during Lent instead of Year C. I notice that the Communion Antiphon which talks about our Lord raising Lazarus from the dead uses the same exact melody as the REQUIEM MASS. That’s pretty awesome! To assist volunteer choirs, I created this rehearsal video. It’s a complicated piece … but what should one expect with a text speaking about our Lord crying and “sighing deeply” within Himself?

—Jeff Ostrowski

When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962

There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop

—Veronica Brandt

The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum

Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.

—Daniel Tucker

Antiphons Don’t Match?

A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music).

—Corpus Christi Watershed