Views from the Choir Loft

MMV melismatic mora vocis

Jeff Ostrowski · December 3, 2024

PDF Download • Pristine Scan: Father Mathias’ 1905 Kyriale Organ Accompaniment (186 pages)

Father Mathias served as organist for Strasburg Cathedral, where he founded the “Saint Leo Institute for Church Music” in 1913.

Jeff Ostrowski · September 29, 2024

An Anglican “Mess”

If I live to be 100 years old, there’s something I’ll never understand.

Jeff Ostrowski · March 11, 2024

“Response to Dr. Weaver” • 11 March 2024

“It would be a barbarous archaism to adopt this ancient custom in our time.” —Dom Guéranger

Jeff Ostrowski · December 1, 2023

My Response to Dr. Weaver’s Latest Article

Is it fair to forever bind Dom Guéranger to what he wrote about “barbarous archaisms” in 1855?

Jeff Ostrowski · October 16, 2020

The “Mora Vocis” • What is that?

The “Pre-NOH” editions have quite an idiosyncratic way of lengthening the neumes. • Fulsome illustrations are included examining and explaining the mora vocis of the Vatican edition; also mentioned is Dom André Mocquereau, Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val, and Pothier’s Liber Gradualis (1883)+

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The “Secret” Prayer

It would be difficult to imagine more holy prayers than the “orations” at Mass: i.e. the Collect, Secret, and Post-Communion. Consider the Secret Prayer for Trinity Sunday: “Hallow, we pray thee, Lord our God, by our invocation of thy holy name, this sacrificial offering, and work upon us until we too become an eternal offering to thee: through our Lord.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 4th Sunday of Lent

Some have expressed interest in perusing the “ORDER OF MUSIC” I prepared for the 4th Sunday of Lent (30 March 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Propers are particularly beautiful, especially the INTROIT (“Lætare Jerúsalem”).

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (4th Sunday of Lent)

You can download the Communion Chant for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Year C). Its opening phrase calls to mind the authentic version. I have created a rehearsal video to assist volunteer choirs.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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

The Lofty Nature of This Goal

It is important above all that we never lose sight of our true goal as church musicians: the right worship of Almighty God. This is not a pious sentiment that should cause us to be lax about technical elements of music. Rather, the lofty nature of this goal is should motivate and inspire us to pursue the techne of musicianship with even greater zeal.

—Dr. Samuel Backman