Category: Uncategorized

It’s wonderful to see the internet, for all its faults, being apostolically employed for the new evangelization.

The Chosen, a rather hip life of Christ complete with an on-the-spectrum tax collector is filming its second season and crowdfunding its third.

Meanwhile, Fr. Mike Schmitz  is setting podcast box office records with his Bible in a Year series from Ascension Press. Every day a new podcast is dropped, each containing passages from Scripture, prayer, and commentary.

The effects of the podcasts are Catholic, unifying: they bring together people, writings, events–and us.

In a time when so much seems locked down, it’s great to notice once again that the Word of God is not chained.

O seas and rivers, bless the Lord,
The maker of all things.
Today creation is restored:
O bless him, all you springs.

Behold: the Son of God baptized
In waters He makes new.
The Father’s voice above the skies–
Bless Him, you rain and dew.

All natures, let His grace increase–
O Jordan, fill the earth!
In Him the Father is well pleased.
In Him, the world’s rebirth.

Copyright © 2005 CanticaNOVA Publications. Duplication restricted.
Meter: CM (8.6.8.6) Suggested tune: Winchester Old, or others:
Azmon Richmond Saint Flavian
Dundee Saint Agnes Saint Magnus
Graefenburg Saint Anne Saint Peter
Land of Rest Saint Columba Saint Stephen
Newman

The Sacred Music Institute of America (SMIA) will offer three 10-week online courses during the Spring 2021 semester, which begins on 18 January.

Each course includes ten video lectures, plus weekly opportunities to ask questions and gain additional experience through live Zoom sessions. For more information on the courses, as well as the Institute’s certification tracks for church musicians and chant training program for clergy, visit www.sacredmusicinstitute.org.

Chant II (taught by Dr. William Mahrt): A ten-week intermediate course in Gregorian chant for singers, directors, and lovers of the liturgy and its music. It will presume a rudimentary knowledge of reading Gregorian notation, and will proceed from the reading and singing of chants in Latin from the antiphons of the Divine Office to the chanted propers of the Mass.

Review of notation and Latin pronunciation will be the foundation for the discussion of textual and musical the chants: mode, tessitura, contour, density, text expression, and co-ordination with liturgical action. Beginning with the simpler chants, psalm antiphons, musical, liturgical, and spiritual aspects of each genre will be studied in turn: introits, communions, offertories, graduals, alleluias, and tracts, with emphasis on the processional propers.

Some chants of the Ordinary of the Mass will be included as well. Aspects of the liturgical year will be addressed, with an emphasis upon the upcoming Holy Week.

History of Sacred Music (Taught by Emily Lapisardi): A ten-week course which will be taught by Emily Lapisardi, director of music at the Catholic Chapel at the United States Military Academy (West Point, NY).

This ten week course provides a survey of the historical role of music in worship from its roots in the Old Testament to the present day, exploring landmark repertoire within the framework of turning-points in ecclesiastical history. While the class will focus primarily on Christian music in the western world, cross-cultural influences will also be explored.

Music Theory II (Taught by Emily Lapisardi): This course builds upon the fundamental skills and concepts explored in Theory I; therefore, some prior knowledge of the subject matter is required.

Topics include: harmonic analysis, seventh chords, harmonization of melodies, transposition, modulation to closely related keys, non-harmonic tones, modes and neumes, basics of counterpoint, and musical forms.

Tuition for each course is $850. Register now by visiting the SMIA website.

 

As Janet Gorbitz mentions below, Charles Cole and the London Oratory Schola Cantorum has just dropped a gorgeous new Christmas album.

Here Charles and two of his choristers speak with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN about the album, Christmas polyphony,  and the challenges and blessings of the past year.

 

 

Our partner for print-on-demand books, Lulu, is offering 30% off purchases made this weekend: that is, from November 27 to 30, 2020, so a lot of CMAA’s reprint editions will be available at a great price; just use the coupon code BFCM30 at Lulu’s checkout:

Chant editions:

• Chants of the Church, a handy anthology
• Communio with English Verses: Latin communion antiphons with psalm verses in English
• Evangelia Cantata (fully notated Gospel readings for the Ordinary Form in English): approved by the USCCB for liturgical use
• Graduale Romanum 1961 edition: volume 1, volume 2
• Kyriale
• Officium Majoris Hebdomadae at Octavae Paschae (Holy Week services, according to the 1923 edition)
• Versus Psalmorum et Canticorum (Latin psalm verses for the Extraordinary Form, for the Introit and Communion chants)

Music instruction

• Justine Ward: Music First Year, Music Second Year, Music Third Year, Music Fourth Year (Gregorian Chant), Advanced Studies in Gregorian Chant
• Mary Antonine Goodchild: Gregorian Chant for Church and School
• Dominic Johner: A New School of Gregorian Chant

More books about Gregorian Chant

• Matthew Britt: A Dictionary of the Psalter, The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal
• Joseph Gajard: The Rhythm of Plainsong
• Alan McDougall: Pange Lingua: Breviary Hymns of Old Uses
• Marie Pierik: The Spirit of Gregorian Chant

We even have one more instructional book coming out soon! I’ll announce it as soon as I inspect the proof copy that’s in the mail on its way to me, but I wanted to give you this note about the ones already available.

AVAILABLE NOW FOR IMMEDIATE SHIPPING at the CMAA ONLINE SHOP.

SACRED TREASURES OF CHRISTMAS is a new recording from the boys of the London Oratory Schola, directed by Charles Cole. The Schola is one of the top boys’ choirs in the world and sings at the London Oratory. The boys, aged 8-18, are all pupils at The London Oratory School.

The Choir’s Director, Charles Cole said: “We are delighted to present our newest album which we recorded earlier this year. ‘Sacred Treasures of Christmas’ focuses on some of the most iconic polyphonic works written for the Christmas liturgy. These motets, rendered so beautifully by the greatest masters of the Renaissance, capture the awe, mystery and effusive joy of the Nativity.”

Sacred Treasures of Christmas, a sequence of music for Christmas, Epiphany and Candlemas, continues the ‘Sacred Treasures’ series, an anthology of sacred repertoire drawn from the liturgical motets which the boys sing at the London Oratory.

Order now for immediate shipment.

For more information, see our earlier post.