Catholic musicians gathered to blog about liturgy and life
Please remember in your prayers Father Cody Unterseher, an Anglican Priest, who contributed at the Praytell Blog who died as a result of an aneurism he had over a week ago. Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. Comfort his family and friends. Amen.
Were it April 1, 2012, this last Resurrection Sunday, and I were to say these two words, “Christmas and Easter,” what word association would you most likely first make? Most likely something like “Twice a year Catholics” or “Chreasters” or some such reaction about the high holy day obligations.
Well, that’s not where I’m-a goin’ with this here post.
On Easter Monday I went to our office and found three cases of the CATHOLIC CHOIRBOOK ANTHOLOGY by Noel and Ellen Jones eagerly awaiting my attention. And using the nearest key on my holder I vorasciously sliced into the tape of the top case like it was a Caspian Sea sturgeon hiding twenty pounds of Beluga caviar! And yay, verily, it was literally CHRISTMAS MORNING at EASTER. This first volume of motets, ordinaries, hymns and chants is unlike any other compendium for choirs and scholae that I’ve ever come across from a Catholic publisher.
And the sheer breadth and variety that is in this first volume alone took my breath away. Sure, every setting of Ave verum corpus (except mine! But’s that’s my bad…) and Tantum ergo (except Kevin Allen’s now universal setting) is there! O wait, Kevin’s IS in there, too! But who would have expected Henry Ley’s PRAYER OF KING HENRY VI? Who would have expected to find the Byrd Mass for Three Voices set for mixed choir? Who could have thought to include John Goss’s “See amid the winter’s snow” carol that among many others, have never crossed the pond into “popular” Catholic hymnals dating prior to the Sts. Gregory, Basil and Pius X editions?
In reply to Kathy Pluth’s great observation in “Brick by Interminable Brick” Randolph Nichols offered a very astute counterpoint to someone’s comment:They’ve been laying down heavy amounts of fertilizer for nearly 50 years, and the grassroots have still not taken hold. Nichols: “It seems to me it very much has taken hold. Where do those enthusiastic 24,000 LA Religious Education Congress attendees come from if not individual parishes across the nation. Brick by Interminable Brick indeed.”
+1 Mr. Nichols. Quite right you are to point out the obvious. I think we underestimate the hermeneutic of consumerist convenience and overestimate, probably for psychological self preservation, the rapidity and progress of CMAA/NLM/RotR advocacy in our own local and internet domains. I will advance an analogy, using a favorite medium of mine: films. It’s called “The Gracchus Theory” from the Ridley Scott film, GLADIATOR. Gracchus and an ally senator, Gaius, are sipping wine when Gaius bemoans Caesar Commodus’ instituting of months of gladiator spectacles at the Collosseum under pretense of honoring Commodus’ late father, Marcus Aurelius, upon whom Commodus committed patricide to boot.The senator derides Commodus’ leadership as inept. Gracchus reminds his fellow that, au contraire, Commodus knows exactly what he’s doing catering and pandering to the true spirit of what Rome “is,” namely “the mob.” Gracchus observes that, right or wrong, a leader’s ability to read and satisfy “the mob” reflects and indicts the moral or ethical vacuum of both the leader and the people. Here is the actual dialogue:
Gaius and Gracchus are at a restaurant, discussing the games which Commodus revived to lure the mob. Outside can be seen a juggler, merchants calling out their wares (wine), and the crowd visiting and moving about.]
GAIUS: Games! 150 days of games!
GRACCHUS: He’s cleverer than I thought.
GAIUS: Clever. The whole of Rome would be laughing at him if they weren’t in fear of his Praetorian.
GRACCHUS: Fear and wonder. A powerful combination.
GAIUS: Will the people really be seduced by that?
GRACCHUS: I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. He will conjure magic for them and they will be distracted. He will take away their freedom, and still they will roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble floor of the Senate, it is the sand of the Colosseum. He will give them death, and they will love him for it.
I haven’t read it, but I believe this is also the premise of Anne Coulter’s latest book as well. What astounds me, and I’m a broken record about this, is that all that glitters and is gold in Anaheim is celebrated by the same folks who then decry pontifical EF Masses and j’accuse good and faithful bishops such as like Cdls. Burke, Arinze and Bp. Slattery for “mincing and prancing” like Florentine Doges in Cappa Magnas and the like.
Oh yeah, “LAREC’s got rhythm, there’s division, have we schism? WHO would ask for anything more?”
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| Father Allan, ala in Rose, at St. Jos.’s Hall |
Deep readers of this blog will already be familiar with this priest (pictured nattily this last Sunday afternoon after Sunday Mass and during his city’s Cherry Blossom Festival!). I must admit that I’ve so identified with his perspectives for two reasons. First, he approaches the profound issues facing the Church and her liturgies with an almost unbridled optimism. Second, he channels that optimism often in an unfettered and ironic iconoclasm while still respecting his philosophical opponents’ integrity and opinions.
This is my way of introducing and recommending Cafe visitors to also frequent Father Allan McDonald’s blog SOUTHERN ORDERS. You can read his bio and the sundry articles and take in his passion for life and all things liturgical there.
He came to my attention during the advent of our fellowes over at Fr. Ruff’s PRAY TELL BLOG, where Father Allan has attracted quite a share of detractors as well as supporters. Too many of the former likely regard him as the southern Fr. Zed, but I would debunk that by simply saying Father labors and chronicles pretty much in his own vineyard, and applies the “global” perspective to what matters in Macon!
I don’t know that he is a gastronome of Fr. Z’s stature, but he is tons of fun.
What is it about the South and the Catholic renaissance in the US? Auburn, AL., Macon, Raleigh, Charleston, Naples…. I keep telling m’ bride that if I go to the market and am not back in an hour to phone North Carolina!
On the grand scale, the five Oscar’s awarded to the neo-Silent Movie “The Artist” last night attests to the beauty of invention, or the letting in of the spirit to creative innovation, a sort of break-through, Eureka!-evolution.
But yesterday provided my parishes and others with another unique moment. We have a brand new bishop, installed just two weeks ago. As both the “mother church” of our parish cluster and our deanery, we hosted the Rite of Election yesterday. So, we would be hosting both a good shepherd visiting in the “getting to know you” mode and a true assembly (as the congregation comes from many parishes) of people comprised of neophytes to the Faith, and their sponsors. As a sidebar, as we were leaving the morning Masses we spied our new bishop arriving alone (no entourage!) carrying only his vestments, a small case and a big smile.
Here’s the small move-breakthrough aspect- we chose to use the Introit for the day, Invocabit me, actually sung by our “true” schola of a few men as Bishop et al made their entrance. The Introit bells signaled the moment (no announcement) and the schola chanted beautifully. At the moment Bishop reached the intersection of the nave and sanctuary, the choir AND congregation took up the singing of Adam Bartlett’s Simple English Proper “When He calls to me…” with the men and women chanting the versicle psalm tone in alternatim.
This marked the first occasion in twenty years of being in our parish that the entrance was accompanied only by the processional proper, without the grafting or stuffing of a companion hymn or such. I cannot describe the feeling of rest, of “coming home” that many of us felt as we chanted.
Prior to the service, I did “rehearse” the congregation with the SEP, each phrase sequentially modeled and repeated with ease, and then thanked the people for “singing like Catholics.” And I took a bit of liberty to let them know that the chanting of the original Latin that would precede their taking up the Introit would provide them with the opportunity to visually “take in” Bishop’s entrance, and that doing so was also a means of participation to be encouraged. (My wife commented that she appreciated that I mentioned that.)
I pray that no one think I’m crowing out here. To the contrary, I am humbled by the opportunity we’ve been provided by God leading us to CMAA, and then more occasions to spread the seeds of “sacred, beautiful and universal” in our parishes and now the deanery. There are so many “pockets” that are so far ahead of us on the curve of shifting the paradigm. But along with celebrating those examples of leadership, I am still gladdened for this small moment of grace that filled our hearts with joy.
Soli Deo gloria
As I recently reviewed portions of the current Psalter cycle composed by Jeffrey Ostrowski, our friend and president of Corpus Christi Watershed, I thought I’d follow up with some excerpts from all three years that JMO has posted on their website. They can be found here, CCW Chant Selections for your consideration
