Category: Adam Bartlett

His Excellency, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, bishop of Phoenix, has released his third installment in his four-part series on sacred music, entitled “Singing the Mass: Sacred music’s role in evangelization”.

Here is part one, and here is part two.

Bishop Olmsted is the newly appointed vice-chairman of the Vox Clara committee, and has begun to take a leadership role in the renewal of the liturgy in the United States. His series on sacred music appears to be among the first from the American episcopacy to teach so directly on the authentic renewal of sacred music.

Here are a few passages from his recent teaching, with added emphasis:

…

The distinction between religious music and liturgical music (cf. part one of this series) embodies this double movement: religious music is, we might say, the earthly expression of a given culture’s faith in Christ; liturgical music is the sacramental expression of Christ and the true nature of the Church. The former tends to be particular, individual, temporal and profane; the latter tends to be universal, communal, eternal and sacred. Religious music comes from human hearts yearning for God; liturgical music comes from Christ’s heart, the heart of the Church, longing for us.

…

Some might ask: should not the mention of the word assimilation give us pause, or even make us somewhat nervous? If we submit ourselves to this assimilation — with all our musical preferences, tastes, and cultural differences — to the concrete musical sources of the Church’s liturgy (i.e., the Roman Missal itself, Graduale Romanum, Graduale Simplex, vernacular translations and adaptations thereof, etc.), will we not entirely lose ourselves, our individuality and creativity? Is there not a danger of the Church becoming irrelevant and therefore powerless in her liturgical expressions, a mere museum of “old” music?

To answer these concerns, we could extend the Church’s teaching on the new translation to the use of liturgical music: “So the liturgy of the Church must not be foreign to any country, people or individual, and at the same time it should transcend the particularity of race and nation. It must be capable of expressing itself in every human culture, all the while maintaining its identity through fidelity to the tradition which comes to it from the Lord” (Liturgiam Authenticam, 4).

In other words, the Church, though existing in many cultures, has her own authentic culture because she has authentic liturgy… both which come to her from Christ. The unity and integrity of the Roman Rite is embodied in the Rite’s sacred texts and musical forms, as a vine is expressed in its branches. Growth requires pruning and nourishing, but never ignoring or starting from scratch.

…

Please read the entire article, and series.

The Chant Cafe readers who have been following us since the beginning will remember that there was something similar to the current weekly posting of the Simple English Propers that began in September of 2010. This weekly posting, though, was much more organic, and developmental in nature. This weekly post often included much experimental material, and rough engravings and layouts, not to mention typos!

For those who do not know the story, the Chant Cafe was the cradle of this project and it was discussed intensely and fine tuned a great deal through the public “beta” process that led up to the book’s publication in the summer of 2011.

As the composer and editor of this book I can tell you that this experience was very profound. It was almost as though a new generation had emerged around this project with fresh eyes to look at the question of sacred music in our parishes, had access to the greatest scholars and practitioners of the previous generation, and a communication tool (the internet) which enabled exchanges so rich that they might as well have been taking place in the studios of 16th century Florence.

We all know the result. Jeffrey, the Cafe ring leader, has not held back his enthusiasm about this book. I still have a hard time understanding the effects of it, but hear stories that are almost unthinkable, difficult to believe or imagine.

Just today, Jeffrey briefly shared with me a conversation he recently had with Prof. Mahrt, the president of the CMAA. Dr. Mahrt has been directing one liturgy at his parish in Palo Alto, CA, for over 40 years, while most of the other liturgies at the same parish have mostly reflected the status quo. I’m told that one of the parish’s musicians (not in Mahrt’s choir) approached him and said something to the effect of: “Have you seen this new Simple English Propers book? I think we’re going to start using it!”

Why did it take 40 years for this to happen? I certainly don’t understand it, and we may never know.

The reality, though, is that great ideas can pop up almost out of nowhere, and while no one can really take credit for them, they can change life as we know it. Before the idea or thing, no one could have imagined it. But after they see it, there is an intellectual connection between two points and life is forever changed, and life without it cannot be imagined.

Whether the Simple English Propers was really one of these moments, I’m not entirely sure. But I can say that I can’t imagine directing music in Catholic liturgy without it. Perhaps many others feel the same.

What some of you may not know is that the work that was done in the SEP to address the needs of Catholic parish choirs has been carried on into a book that is similarly addressing the needs of Catholic parish congregations. For the past four months I have been editing, full-time, a new publication called the Lumen Christi Missal. 

The Lumen Christi Missal is imbued with the same ethos that permeates the SEP. Its focus is different, though, because it is not intended for use by parish choirs and musicians, but is intended to be in the hands of the faithful. It gives them everything that they need and offers a replacement for the common parish “missalette” that is aimed at the new liturgical renewal, and  is beautiful, permanent and dignified, bespeaking the beauty, permanence and dignity of the sacred liturgy.

The aim of the Lumen Christi Missal is to at once meet parishes where they are at, yet at the same time open possibilities that were otherwise unimaginable.

I am excited to announce that Illuminare Publications (the publisher of the LCM) has launched a new website and is now taking Pre-Orders for the Lumen Christi Missal. Pre-orders are being taken for individual copies as well as in bulk, and during the pre-order period we will be offering a discounted price.

There are generous sample (draft) contents on the site, and we will soon offer sample copies for those who are interested in purchasing for their parish. If you pre-order now you will also assist us in getting through the first print run. So in the spirit of the SEP, I would like to ask you for your support in making a book available to Catholic parishes throughout the United States that I believe could even surpass the SEP in its paradigm shifting influence.

It is an exciting time to be a Catholic. In the face of public and secular attack, the Church continues to persist in faith and the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The renewal of the sacred liturgy is at the heart of this battle and I consider this work to be at the front lines. The celebration of the authentic liturgy is critical to the task of strongly reasserting our Catholic identity, and in showing forth the truth that only the Church holds in these dark times.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. Let us continue forward toward the “new era of liturgical renewal” that awaits us, and that indeed has already begun.

Bishop Olmsted presents part two in his series “Singing the Mass”:

In the first part of this series on sacred music, I described the meaning of sacred music, the music of the Church’s sacred liturgy, as distinct from “religious music.” In this second installment, I shall explore, from a historical perspective, the Church’s role in guiding and promoting authentic sacred music for more fruitful participation in the Sacred Mysteries by the clergy and lay faithful alike.

The Second Vatican Council proclaimed that “the musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 112). This led the Council fathers to decree that “the treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care” (ibid, 114).

Sacred music in Judaism before Christ

The dual task of preserving and fostering sacred music remains a crucial one for the Church today. But to understand what the Council is asking of us, we must not only know what sacred music is in general (as we explored in the previous installment in this series) but also how the Church has carried out this endeavor in history.

The Church inherited the Psalms of the Old Testament as her basic prayer and hymn book for worship. With these sacred texts she also adopted the mode of singing that had been established during the development of the psalms: a way of articulated singing with a strong reference to a text, with or without instrumental accompaniment, which German historian Martin Hengel has called “sprechgesung,” “sung-speech.”

This choice in Israel’s history signaled a concrete decision for a specific way of singing, which was a rejection of the frenzied and intoxicating music of the neighboring and threatening pagan cults. This way of singing the Psalms, traditionally viewed as established by King David (cf. 2 Sam. 6:5), disrupted only by the Babylonian exile, remained in use at the coming of Christ. Sung with respect to and during sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, the early Jewish Christians assumed this tradition into the sacrifice of the eucharistic liturgy.

Sacred music in the early Church

After Pentecost, the first centuries of the Church’s life were marked by the encounter of what was a Jewish-Semitic reality with the Greek-Roman world. A dramatic struggle ensued between, on one hand, openness to new cultural forms and, on the other, what was irrevocably part of Christian faith.

For the first time, the Church had to preserve her sacred music, and then foster it. Although early Greek-style songs quickly became part of the Church’s life (e.g., the prologue of John and the Philippians hymn, 2:5-11), this new music was so tightly linked to dangerous gnostic beliefs that the Church decided to prohibit its use. This temporary pruning of the Church’s sacred music to the traditional form of the Psalms led to previously unimaginable creativity: Gregorian chant — for the first millennium — and then, gradually, polyphony and hymns arose.

In preserving the forms which embodied her true identity, the Church made it possible for wonderful growth to be fostered, such that centuries after that original restriction, the Second Vatican Council boldly proclaimed that her treasury of sacred music is of more value than any other of her artistic contributions.

. . .

Read the rest here.

Fr. Rob Johansen is offering chant workshops on the chants of Holy Week and Easter through this February and March, and would like to come to your parish or diocese to present one of them.

Fr. Johansen is a priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, MI, and is trained both in music and sacramental theology. His approach to the workshop is billed as “practical and theologically grounded”, which is a very important balance in our times. I’m sure this will be a great opportunity.

If you are interested please contact Fr. Johansen here.

Here’s the flyer (click to enlarge):

RomeReports.com has reported that Pope Benedict has plans to canonize Hildegard von Bingen a to make her a Doctor of the Church.

Hildegard is the earliest known (i.e. named) composer of sacred music in the Roman Catholic tradition and therefore in the Western music tradition, and is the first name you will hear in a music history class. She was born 48 years after the death of Guido d’Arezzo and was one of the first to take advantage of his newly created musical staff for the purposes of composition. Here compositional style was monodic and is, we might say, one of the most organic outgrowths of the Gregorian chant repertoire that we have.

It seems significant that Pope Benedict has made the decision now to canonize and exalt this true patroness of sacred music. Is it possible that he is building up toward a more intensely focused movement for sacred music in the Church? Is it possible that perhaps a new document or motu proprio might await us with the naming of Hildegard as a Doctor of the Church, or sometime following? One never knows, but this is one of many signs that there may be more to come for us in the promotion sacred music from the highest of ranks in the Church.

Here’s the report:
 

And here’s Hildegard’s Caritas abundat in omnia:

From Vatican Information Service:

“In Africa”, the Holy Father explained, “I saw a freshness in the ‘yes’ to life, a freshness of religious meaning and hope, a holistic vision of reality where God is not confined to that positivist perspective which, in the final analysis, extinguishes all hope. This tells us that the continent contains reserves of life and vitality for the future, reserves upon which we can rely, upon which the Church can rely.”

Andrew Hinkley of the Caecilia Project has taken upon himself the task of transcribing the entire Graduale Romanum in GABC code, for use with the virtually industry standard Gregorio Gregorian chant engraving platform.

He has been working on this project for several years now and has begun posting sample engravings from his code in both the style of the 1908 Graduale (no rhythmic signs) and in the manner of the 1961 Graduale (with episemas).  His plan is to post engravings of all five Gregorian propers each week as we proceed through the new liturgical year. Please be sure to bookmark this site, and follow his progress.

Andrew has done all of this work for no payment, and is asking no payment in return for his work. He has undertaken this magnanimous task only for love of the Church and the sacred liturgy.

You can help him by proof-reading these engravings and reporting errors in the comment box at the Caecilia Project blog. If enough eyes pass over these engravings there is great hope that the entire Graduale, accurately engraved, could be available to the world freely in source code that can be processed in endless ways, for use in endless applications. Imagine the possibilities for us and for future generations of Catholics!

I personally would like to see him post the source code each week in addition to the one-off PDFs. You might enjoy playing around with it at Richard Chonak’s online GABC processing tool where you can experiment with different fonts, sizing options, and so on.

Thank you, Andrew, for this wonderful work. Future generations of Catholics will thank you!