Selections from a Pontifical Divine Liturgy of Thanksgiving for the 25th ordination anniversary of Bishop Stephen Kocisko, celebrated at St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Cathedral in Passaic, NJ on September 25, 1966.  The service is celebrated in a mix of Church Slavonic and English. Congregation plain chant is led by Professor John Petach.

This is a classic recording of congregational chant, and is used at the Metropolitan Cantor institute as an example of pacing and coordination between cantor and faithful. Any assistance in identifying individual voices on this recording would be greatly appreciated!

1966 - Divine Liturgy for the 25th Ordination Anniversary of Bishop Stephen Kocisko

This is a reconstructed musical liturgy (not sung for a real Mass, of course), a complete soundscape except for the two lessons, for the Sunday after Ascension, 1898, as it may have sounded in a mid-western, German-American Catholic parish, in 1898.

The Vidi Aquam, Ordinary, Regina Caeli, and O Salutaris are by Fr. Ignatius Wilkens, OFM, (1856-1934), a prolific composer and Cincinnati native, whose works achieved considerable local renown, even being performed in Music Hall. 

The chants are taken from the 1896 Pustet Graduale Romanum, the last Ratisbon chant books published according to the old method, prior to the reforms of St. Pius X in 1903 (with the new Graduale issued in 1908). They are accompanied with period accompaniments, taken from Fr. Witt's collection.

The choir's responses, Paternoster, and Preface accompaniments are taken from a book published by J. Fischer, also in about 1890. The Prelude, Epistle Sonata, and other interludes were taken from the collection of "100 Short and Pleasing Voluntaries" contained in the back of this book, which we discovered in the choir loft at Ss. Philomena and Cecilia in Oak Forest, Indiana.

The closing hymn, "Das Grab ist Leer," is taken from the ubiquitous "Katholisches Gesang und Gebetsbuch" so widely used in German-American Catholic congregations, with an accompaniment adapted from the older Gotteslob to fit the historic melody.

The style of singing deliberately ignores the recommendations that would be made in 1903 by St. Pius X in his reform of church music. The full-voiced, operatic style as it was probably heard ubiquitously at that time has been embraced, even in the chanting. We were all surprised by the natural, robust way in which this style fit the music of the time, and understood well why improving it proved so difficult to sell among amateur choristers.

The recordings were made in the historic St. John's Church in Dover, Indiana (chosen for the low traffic volume), by the kind permission of its pastor, Fr. Jonathan Meyer.

The organ, an 1894 I/8 Pilcher, was played by Sean Connolly, who was also project coordinator.

The Cincinnati Latin Mass Schola Cantorum and Friends, founded by Mr. John Schauble, were conducted by Mrs. Anna Little for this recording.

The part of the "Celebrant" was taken by Br. Brent Stull, C.O., of the Cincinnati Oratory.

The solo quartet were: Mrs. Anna Little, Miss Beth Lichter, Br. Brent Stull, C.O., and Mr. John Schauble.

The recording engineer was an anonymous friend.

Valuable historical research in the Franciscan archives was provided by Fr. Valentine Young, OFM (R.I.P.)

The Cincinnati Latin Mass Schola Cantorum & Friends

Soprano:
Mrs. Lisa Bloomfield
Mrs. Anna Daily
Miss Mary Kate Daily
Mrs. Anna Little
Miss Sarah Monnin
Mrs. Fatima Spoor

Alto:
Mrs. Delia Berry
Mrs. Chelsea Connolly
Miss Julie Koch
Miss Beth Lichter

Tenor:
Mr. Albert Bloomfield
Mr. Benjamin Bloomfield
Mr. Timothy Fox
Br. Brent Stull, CO

Bass:
Mr. Sean Connolly
Mr. Andrew Finck
Mr. Michael Lohman
Mr. John Schauble

Recording (c) 2015, Preserving Cincinnati's Heritage of Sacred Music

Mass 1898

Exaudi Domine, Introit (Graduale Romanum 1896)

This project was initially conceived in 2015, as an attempt to record much of the heritage of sacred music composed for Catholic worship prior to the Second Vatican Council by Catholic church musicians active in the Cincinnati area. Not only is so much mof this large body of this music, an exciting part of local history, unrecorded, but we also felt that these recordings could shed light on the actual practice of Catholic sacred music as it would have been heard prior to the Council in this heavily German-American Midwestern region.

The concept was to record a reconstructed liturgy for each decade from the 1890's to the 1950's. The first recording was completed in 2015, but never distributed. It has now, at last, been made available here. It is our hope in making this recording available, that the project will be in a position to move forward towards completing the remaining five recordings in the future.

Exaudi Domine, Introit (Graduale Romanum 1896)

Reconstructed Masses

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