Category: CMAA Colloquium

On Friday evening of the Sacred Music Colloquium in Philadelphia, Vespers were celebrated for the feast of St. Anthony Maria Zaccaria according to the traditional Roman office, with Fr. Robert Pasley, chaplain of CMAA, presiding. The choir was conducted by the Rev. Mr. Edward Schaefer, and the organist was Professor Ann Labounsky.

• Frescobaldi: Variations on Iste confessor
• Deus in adjutorium
• Psalm 141
• Interlude
• Psalm 143
• Interlude
• Psalm 144
• Chapter
• Brief responsory
• Hymn: Iste confessor
• Versicle
• Interlude
• Magnificat: antiphon and verses
• Interlude
• Magnificat: conclusion
• Litany
• Pater noster
• Oratio
• Benedicamus Domino
• Prayers at the end of the Office
• Salve Regina
• Final prayer
• Adolph Marty: Variations on Iste confessor and Ave maris Stella

On Wednesday, July 3, liturgical scholar Dom Alcuin Reid, prior of the Monastère Saint-Benoît in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France, gave the second plenary lecture at CMAA’s Sacred Music Colloquium, at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. His talk on authority in liturgy recalls the teaching of Pope Pius XII in Mediator Dei that

“Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy and living Tradition.” The liturgy, the liturgical rites themselves, are an intrinsic part of the handing on of the faith received from the apostles. They are not mere decoration or ornament. The rites and prayers that have developed in the life of the Church are sacred vessels which bring apostolic tradition to us. Thus they are privileged sacramentals worthy of profound respect.

That is why Catholic liturgy is sacred. That is why Catholic liturgy is not that which any individual or group ‘likes’ to do, but is what we do ecclesially, in accordance with what is handed on to us in tradition. That is why the Sacred Liturgy enjoys a theological objectivity and cannot be altered without the greatest of prudence and due proportionality.

Against a subjectivism that would make the liturgy depend on “whatever the priest wants” or whatever this or that particular pope wants, according to personal opinions, Reid proposes principles of “liturgical integrity”. A text of his lecture appears in Catholic World Report.

Here are some sample recordings from the Sacred Music Colloquium held in Philadelphia this month.

Tuesday, July 2

In the morning, Sr. Maria Kiely, OSB, an instructor in Greek at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, presented a talk on the six vesper hymns long associated with the name of St. Gregory the Great: Lucis creator optime, Immensae caeli conditor, Telluris ingens conditor, Caeli Deus sanctissime, Magnae Deus potentiae, and Plasmator hominis Deus. The themes of the six hymns reflect the unfolding of creation in the six days of the Genesis account. (approx. 60 min.)

Tuesday afternoon, after the first rehearsals of the various choirs that formed for the week, a votive Mass of the Holy Angels was celebrated in English. Here are a few excerpts (please note that these are my amateur recordings, so there is incidental noise):

Procession (improvisation by Michael Olbash, organ):

Introit (plainchant by Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB):

Responsorial Psalm (George Elvey, arr. Mahrt):

Communion (plainchant by Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB):

Motet (Richard Farrant: “Call to Remembrance”):

Motet (Richard Terry: “Richard de Castre’s prayer to Jesus”):

Postlude (Bach: “Fantasia in G”, BWV 572)