Author: Mr. C

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Is P&W Music “More Than a Feeling?”

I mentioned over at the Musica Sacra Forum that between visiting two Masses as “Music Director” not leader on Trinity Sunday I had the inclination to walk across the boulevard to check out the 9am Service at the megachurch Assembly of God. I didn’t actually enter their sanctuary, but observed from cozy nooks with large flat screens and state of the art audio setups that ostensibly serve as cry rooms in the main “narthex.” I have to simply say that I was underwhelmed by the couple of songs that were stretched beyond their usefulness for P&W in my estimation, and then by the less than deft transition to the opening prayer by the pastor who serves as the church’s CFO. So I was relieved when a couple and their infant pulled up in their Escalade-like stroller and slinked out and back to the second Mass. I didn’t want to really fisk out what little I’d observed there, it wouldn’t be fair. But this morning my eye caught a headline link to an article at the eminent Catholic blog/magazine, First Things: “In Praise of Praise Music” by Stephen H. Webb, one of their contributing columnists. As First Things is primarily a subscription-based publication, I won’t reprint much of the article at all. However, Mr. Webb made four rather pointed concerns that compel me to respond. I was mildly surprised that his article was accepted by the editorship for its content alone, but hey, who am I to question authority? He does qualify the context of his premise by this quote:

A note to the trads no doubt already heading for the comments: I am not talking about liturgical music.

Let’s look at his concerns. I will try to be brief with my remarks.

So why do so many Christians have such a condescending attitude toward praise music?

Because, for the most part, within or without it’s context as a congealing agent in a worship serve, it barely qualifies as “music” in the first place. Even the maligned (on YouTube) Kanon in D has melodic expeditions that are purposeful attempts to demonstrate how many layers of clothing the otherwise naked emperor can bear to wear. Webb makes a comparison between the “authenticity” of Stairway to Heaven trumping “Here I am to worship” without realizing that the Zepplin staple is a cornucopia of harmonic fruits versus the praise tune’s “Heart and Soul” progression of chords, over and over. Pachelbel, where are you when you’re really needed? Kanon is for many an anesthetic itself even fully realized. “Here I am….” is an ever increasing morphine drip when what the soul needs is an adrenaline shot to the heart; John Travolta, where are you when we need you?

All I am saying is that praise music should have a significant place in every Christian’s heart—or at least in their iPods.

This declaration has a much legs as the equally ineffective plea of my teen hero John Lennon’s plea “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” No, no, no. Praise music, to continue the above analogy, at best should be a mild and occasional palliative to be used to alleviate stress and strain, maybe. But if my heart is aching for any reason, depending upon what my mind and my soul determine ought to be the direction my emotional needs should take, on one extreme I’d rather have Barber’s “Adagio” express empathy for my angst, or Prokoviev’s (how im-Modest of me! H/T to John O) Mussogrsky’s* “Great Gate of Kiev” filling my eardrums as a sympathetic relief. Heck, even if I’m at peace, great chant such as from Heilingenkreuz Abbey, is a much better accompaniment to my soul through my earphones than MW Smith’s “Breathe.”

The words are too simple, direct, and demanding, the emotions too transparent.
Mr. Webb almost acts as the prosecuting attorney against himself with the obvious realities of his own quote here. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of the joke about Texas justice: Judge:“Son, why’d you shoot that man dead?” “Well, yer honor, he needed killin’!” Judge: “Well alright then.”
But even though I’ll allow that not all P&W songs are created equal (Hillsongs’ composers have better vocabularies in their compositional stables, for example) the other emotional reality is that the songs are narcissistic underneath the masque of words that are Theo-centric at a primary level. The Praise Team with all the amplification is the ultimate “end” of this modality, but the folks in the theatre with raised, swaying arms and tortured/ecstatic (you make the call) visages are trying like all heck to enter into a “ME and JESUS” moment, not we and Jesus.
For those who say rock and praise can’t coexist, listen to Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
Please, Mr. Webb, tell us you were joking when you wrote that inanity. If you weren’t but want to have a rock anthem that actually bolsters your premise, try Boston’s great mid-70’s power hit, “More Than a Feeling.” There’s more genomic code in common with true P&W with Boston than the morose Mr. Cohen.

*Darn Russki’s, can’t keep ’em straight unless they’re Armenian! Oh, wait a minute, was the film scorer Dmitri Tiomkin or Dmitri Potemkin? Fuggedaboutit, I’m gonna go Khatchaturian, if I can find one.

Posted on by Mr. C

The Good Shepherd as the Agnus Dei

I mentioned in my first review of select pieces from Dr. Peter Kwasniewski’s SACRED CHORAL WORKS that I would review three pieces that though obviously deigned for choral performance, might be rendered with the soprano voice serving as the congregational melody if a worship aide were provided to all. The next piece in that vein is his “Agnus Dei III” found on page 24 in the volume. Without belaboring the theoretical harmonic progressions in as detailed a manner as the first review (Kyrie III) I’d like to simply restate that Peter possesses an uncanny, modest but powerful knack for creating ever so slight moments of pure bliss that makes analysis almost unseemly. And he does so with a larger intent in mind because his prepared and multi-suspended cadences are examples of sheer beauty and sometimes surprise. The structure of this setting is AAB. In “A” one of those transient moments (key signature, four flats) is though the work starts in F minor (Brief suggestion, have the tenor start on middle C on beat three) upon the second beat of m2 on “Dei” he resolves a suspended V chord with a dominant 7th in root position but sub-cadences to the relative major, Ab. It’s like the first bite of a really good Scottish shortbread, it unwinds rapidly and smoothly on the palate and then it’s gone! He has a couple of other passing moments, first in m4, beat 2 (pec-ca-ta) and beat 4 of m6 (mi se re re) that make life very much fun every Sunday for choristers, but the last three measures of section A, “nobis,” features a cascade of suspension/resolutions that seem to prepare for a cadential finality on the V of Fminor, his bass lands and holds on VI until beat four, and then reposes on major I, Ab in close position. Now we’re not talking cookie tasting, but wine tasting!

And the getting through the “hints” to the sublime finish is smooth and leaves you wanting another, thank you.

In the “B” section I’ll briefly mention that tracking tonality shifts and centers is counterproductive for this review. Peter expands the tessitura and employs chromatic voice leading in the bass and alto voices to beat the band. And that sets up an impetus for another three measure section (the first “Dona nobis pacem”) that uses counterpoint in the outer voices exquisitely. He then provides two possible coda like reiterations of “Dona…”, the first of which is more austere, and the second more consistent with the two previous three measure cadences. I could easily see this used in parishes where the fraction rite occupies more time because of congregation size, local custom or whatever. As modest a setting it is lengthwise, it is still longer than what congregations normally expect. But don’t let that keep your choir from offering it up. Finally, after you hear this piece, I hope you’ll get the connection between the famed catacomb fresco and the tenderness of this setting.

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Time for a new Pentecost? Let it happen!

First as I forwarded an annotated version of this article to my pastor and administrator this evening, I ask you to go to the link first and read, let its wisdom take hold in good ground, and bloom in your hearts. Then I offer the letter of my thoughts about its sentiments that accompanied my memo to the pastor.

http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2014/jun/8/pentecost-babel-tongues-latin/

This is the memo forwarded to our pastor:

Please read the attached and I ask prayerfully consider the wisdom it . We may be on the cusp of seeing this potential great vessel of worship, the mother tongue and mother ship of the Barque of Peter cross the horizon never to return to our city. Liturgy is not about literal comprehension alone. As Fr. Friel and CS Lewis recognize that vernaculars are temporal, then would it be too much for us here to consider redressing the absence of the only timeless tongue of our Roman Rite? One Mass a week, one Mass a month? Or better yet one in each parish under the Missal of Paul VI? As Chesterton once said I now paraphrase, “Latin has not been tried (in the Ordinary Form) and failed, but has failed to be tried.” The readings and homily (even the Universal Prayer) in our vernaculars can move our minds and then our wills to leave the doors after Mass and try to bring both the Word and the Great Commission to fruition. But the status quo, the Mass which is expedited by the ease of words that become formulaic and thusly subject to unconscious distraction or worse, antithetical to the deeper Word that lies with the Ritual, the real locus of worship and mystery, will cripple ritual worship’s very viability and future in my estimation. There, I’ve said my words about my intuition and inclination. If it’s not in the cards, then “amen, so be it.” Blessings, C. 

Can it be done? Really?

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Is it nappy time?

“Behold, he shall never sleep nor slumber….”

Having endured my own capricious behaviors over nearly 63 years, I realize my exit from the Cafe a few years back was an annoyance to many, for which I accept responsibility but don’t necessarily apologize.

Having confessed that, I would like to know before re-engaging as a regular columnist for the Cafe, if there are subjects, protocols, methodologies that those who visit here would prefer that contributors address in order to engage connectivity?

I daily read the Cafe, and have done so since my own self-exile. The readership has been provided, by my estimation, sufficient grist (thanks, Liam) for consumption and digestion. However, if you examine the worthy content of the last two weeks’ worth of posts, there is virtually zero response from passersby. It’s like the staff and the habitues are keeping vigil looking for a rejuvination from above. Well, folks, you are the raison d’etre for this blog enterprise. Where’s the love?

Have we capitulated to sheer provocation? Okay, I can do that, if that’s what you want. I can compose an article defending ON EAGLES’ WINGS solely based upon its musicality to theological content, for which everyone’s dander will rise, guar-an-teed. But that is a “cheap trick,” really, isn’t it? (But if you respond daring me, don’t think I can’t or won’t.)

But the Cafe from its inception was meant to be a conversation haven.
Where have all the flowers gone?

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A Most Worthy Collection for Every Catholic Choir

A few months ago our CMAA colleague, Peter Kwasniewski, debuted his SACRED CHORAL WORKS compendium to the public. I first met Dr. Kwasniewski at the 2012 CMAA Colloquium (in Salt Lake City) during the daily sessions hosted by Dr. David Hughes in which composers shared their select works for review by their peers. In addition to being a composer of sacred music, Dr. Kwasniewski’s primary occupation, Professor of Philosophy at Wyoming Catholic College, is also known as a columnist, contributor and commentator at a host of liturgical and sacred music blogs (including this site, MusicaSacra, Corpus Christi Watershed, New Liturgical Movement and even Pray Tell Blog), Peter’s principal mission is to call fellow Catholic musicians to a life of holiness and sanctity through the discipline of acknowledging and practicing our art with only the finest, the truly beautiful, the worthiest of musical expressions by which we honor and worship our Creator.

I purchased enough copies for our schola out here in California and before our hiatus after Pentecost for the summer, we read through as many pieces as we could and performed one of his Marian hymns on the last Sunday of May, “Thee, O Mary, will we praise.” I had some personal correspondence with Peter on a number of occasions, and he graciously asked if I would be interested in reviewing the collection at the Chant Café. Having resigned as a contributor from the Café, Peter also approached our friend Jeffrey Tucker for his imprimatur for my return, and JT, as always, provided the gentlemanly invitation for that, and with Richard Chonak’s help, this is my first column review. I would refer the reader here to purchase a copy just to read the preface to the book. Perhaps that can be accessed at the CCW website (I’m not sure.) But Peter’s passion for his mission is only matched by his philosopher’s eloquence in the preface introduction.

For now and this first review I will just confine myself to a very narrow scope of one work. The one we’ll examine I have chosen for its accessibility to the schola and/or choir whose choral capabilities likely range from modest or even nascent, to accomplished or even professional levels. I realize until I acquire the skills to post the scrolling score video that would match the superbly incredible talent of Matthew Curtis (who sings each voice part on the three CD demonstration albums) you will not be able to ascertain how accurate my descriptions totally.

I – KYRIE (III, p.20)
Among the variety of Mass Ordinary movements in the volume, I wanted to first examine how Peter approaches settings that could possibly be introduced not only in the choral setting, but perhaps even intended for congregational use. This concept of mine I could illustrate by citing the example of Tallis’ famed “If ye love me,” which employs a primary sort of homophony within the polyphonic structure for the most part, but which an attuned congregant could actually “hum” melodic motives by memory. So, textually, this Kyrie keeps the text more or less unified vertically. But he uses very subtle inner voice movements to exact some exquisite moments that use 20th century harmonic “innovations” such as the simple minor v in second inversion (m.6) on the first beat which then employs the tenor moving to the minor 7 on beat two to land us back to a brief tonic moment on beat three. The movement to a new “tonal” center keeps going into the final bar of the first Kyrie with a prepared double suspension on beat one of m.7 that eventuates in a very satisfying shift from the original F minor to its relative major Ab at the first major cadence. Keeping that center at a slower (meno mosso q=80) tempo, after “Christe” Kwasniewski opens up the close root position Ab Major chord to what one could deem either an EbM6th in first inversion or a Cm7 in second inversion for “le-i” throughout the entire measure to move back to F minor on “-son.” So sublime and the time is afforded singer and listener to savor this “mercy.” Mm.11-13 reiterate “Christe eleison” again using a brilliantly prepared alto suspension below the soprano which is ornamented with a 16th note couplet that harmonically cadences, though over more time, in the same fashion as did the first “Kyrie cadence.” And in m.12, the altos are afforded the lovely moment to imitate that soprano ornament in their voice part’s resolution of the suspension.

Just to wrap this “first toes in the water” review up, Peter has such an affinity for “eleison” that in the return to Kyrie he employs a descending parallel thirds motive in the two inner voices. That’s why elegance is in simplicity! And a couple of other surprises closes this movement with his use of another minor v chord on the second “Kyrie” and then that is followed by a transitional cluster chord that’s essentially a Major 9th chord upon Bb that prepares the final cadence with a sequence of secondary dominants and a lovely plagal final cadence. And like Tallis, or even Palestrina, the voice part movements are quite accessible and intuitive for an amateur choral singer.

Next article will look at his AGNUS DEI (III) and the aforementioned Marian hymn.
Posted on by Mr. C

Children, teach your elders well…

Marc Barnes, the prodigal purveyor of his amazing blog BAD CATHOLIC (Patheos), is not unlike our young lions and lioness’ known to us in CMAA, a white hot beacon of light that portends a revival of Catholic sensibility that, to some, has escaped the consciences of perhaps two generations of 21st century professed Catholics. Because we in CMAA adhere to these three judgments, “sacred, universal and beautiful,” to discipline our repertoire decision processes, I thought this essay by Mr. Barnes would be of some interest. Here, a portion:

Readers, allow me to speak to the Catholics reading this blog, for I do not plan upon justifying my claims. Catholics, allow me to establish two principles which — if you’re a regular reader of my blog — you already know I hold. 1. The world sucks. 2. The way to end said suckage and thereby save the world (and for those who doubt it needs saving, I offer you the popularity of Nicki Minaj) is the way of Beauty. I’ll certainly be the first to admit that Beauty is under attack, for such is the nature of the Transcendental roads — one is the other is the other. But Beauty is not a thing easily rejected by the human person. It invades him. No matter what the elite might say, there exist very few proclaiming the ultimate subjectivity of the sunset, and for those that do — in that semi-conscious reflex of “each to his own” — their proclamations are negated by their experience. No one experiences Beauty as finite. No one experiences Beauty as relative. Everyone — having made it to the top of the mountain, having woken up after their wedding night to gaze on their spouse, having heard Mozart’s Requiem — would be offended by the comment, “it’s not actually beautiful, you just think it is.” The dominant philosophies that makes it so very difficult for modern man to know and love God, and thus experience the satisfaction of his yearning heart — I speak of relativism and materialism — fade. The human person experiences Beauty as infinite and a universal, independent of the opinions of a particular man. It awakes within him a desire for the infinite and an agreement with C.S. Lewis, that “we do not want merely to see beauty… we want something else which can hardly be put into words- to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses, and nymphs and elves.” It leads man to wonder — which is only ever to worship — to lift up his hands, cry, laugh, sing, and moan. As Catholics then, we have a duty to be well versed in Beauty. We have a duty to experience Beauty, to be formed in it. We have a duty to know, love and serve Beauty, to recognize it when we see it, to call out its impostors, to lead others to communion with this glorious Transcendental — who is only ever The Holy Trinity making Himself known to His children.

For the entire article click HERE.

Posted on by Mr. C

This is what Occupy Oakland should mean!

Some long-standing Cafe habitues know of my undeniable affection for the city across the “City by the Bay,” my beloved Oakland, California. It was at its former, exquisite cathedral that its founding bishop, Excellency Floyd Begin (RIP) slapped my face into full communion with the OHRA Catholic Church on an Easter Vigil night at St. Francis de Sales when I was in college and a musician/chorister on staff.
And having left the diocese in ’87, I still thirst to know of its well-being and progress. Of course, wondering if the joyeous appointment of Abp. Cordileone to San Francisco would again result in Oakland’s weak sister situo status being again prolonged, it came as even better news that “The Lion” would, for now, continue over-seeing both SFO! (Just like the airport.)
My mentor, Frank LaRocca, Prof. Emeritus of Composition at CSUEB, let us all in at MSF on the completion of a commissioned work for the very upcoming 50th anniversary of the founding of the Oakland Diocese, Diffusa est gratia. Frank forwarded this rehearsal video of one of the bright stars of the present and future, Rudy de Vos (who wowed at his SLC organ concert, and IMO is “so Wilko!” ) and the schola cantorum (of Christ our Light?) in their final rehearsal of Dr. LaRocca’s opus. And may I say that those who have questioned the new cathedral’s acoustic ambience, please take note of the obvious heard here.
Without further adieu,


To access the score-
http://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/7288/video-of-new-work-for-oakland-diocese-50th-anniversary-jubilee-mass-aug.-22.#Item_2