I have to admit a propensity to read and consider the thoughts of that particularly difficult (Catholic) historian, Garry Wills. Oddity of oddities, sometimes I’ll read a chapter or two of his while listening to Immaculate Heart Radio. Anyway, the near simultaneous release of Will’s latest book and the surely magnificent tome of Fr. Samuel Weber’s English Propers presents an interesting notion as well as coincidence: is Anglophone Catholicism conceding the “universality of Latin” argument by attrition? Will’s first premise in his “Future…” centers around contentions about the conditions (well documented) by which Latin was promulgated as the sacral language initially and its evolution as a binding agent well into the 21st century. Of course, his position isn’t in concert with the magisterial dialectic through the course of centuries of official consideration and examination. But one has to ask if many of our most ardent proponents of the reinvigoration of the use of Latin chant and the restoration of the Propers are essentially conceding the argument (echoed by Wills’ characterization) of the principal place provided Latin Chant ratified via Vatican II and resuscitated by Summorum Pontificum?
To be fair, I think one ought to at least read the Will’s book, or at least reviews of the portion deliberating Latin as both catholic and Catholic, in light of the ever-growing cottage industry of English chant resources such as Frs. Kelly and Weber et al have afforded us
Liturgy and Sacred Music: Metanoia and Christian Viability
This is not likely the optimal time to review the effect of all our efforts to navigate, invigorate and evaluate the evangelical validity and success of our Paschal Time efforts as regards liturgy and its servant, sacred music. Having felt, heard and cogitated over four decades of Palm to Easter Sunday celebrations, it’s obvious that this effect manifests itself on at least three levels: the obligatory, perfunctorial level (not unlike attending someone’s birthday or anniversary to whom your affection is rarely demonstrated); the emotional, temporarily enthusiastic reaction to the ritual and artistic performance; and (perhaps less likely) transcendent, life altering metanoia-realization that will forever define and shape one’s remaining existence in this life.
In the clever colloquialism of the great band, REM, I’ve not lost my religion as regards CMAA, the RotR, Summorum Pontificum, or the simple recovery of a sensibility of both reverence and solemnity that the Roman Catholic Church traditions have cultivated over millenia. However, in what twilight years await many of us and myself, I am compelled to call the question (invented by my sister G), picked up by Fr. Z and associated with Pope B, 16: can “Save the Liturgy, Save the World” actually have any meaning, much less effectiveness among a disparate sect of believers in Christ Jesus, Son of God and Savior of all worlds, in an era when the obvious and ultimate salvivic power of the His redemptive sacrifice and resurrection is mitigated by factionalism, fundamentalism, strictural rigorism and internecine intolerance? The Gospel clarion to mercy, reconciliation, unity, personal salvation and the establishment of the Kingdom here waxes and wanes under the distractions of relenting tolerance, unrelenting intolerance, doctrinal uncertainty, indecision and ambiguity and other modern maladies.
A few years ago I caused a volatile imbroglio with my friend Jeffrey Tucker’s Café article extoling of the apparently seductive chants of the muezzins from minarets while on a conference in Turkey. I rather unflinchingly could not divorce my sentiments regarding the tenets of Q’uranic Islam from the exotic beauty that Jeffrey was describing and emulating were we Roman Catholics enabled to have our call to worship in such a coherent and unified manner as practiced by Muslims.
But hence have come the scimitars and scythes, crucifixions and immolations that, though medieval throwbacks, still nonetheless lead to genocide and likely a shoah for all humanity in addition to Middle Eastern and Indo/Asian Christianity should nuclear options become prevalent in the region.
So, how much do our ordos of ritual music actually affect and transform Holy Mother Church into a veritable, vital and truly valued force for all the nominally Christian/Catholic souls to behave and actualize the Church Militant? A recent news segment had a respected hymnologist declaring what most of us would call a Praise and Worship song, “In Christ Alone,” as the most important and potentially long-lived Christian hymn composed thus far in the 21st century. But often I am compelled to wonder to what end does our incessant arguing over the merits and cultural beauty and credence of our sacred treasury and our identified congenital musical forms actually have towards any Christian’s soul’s, be s/he a daily communicant or a C&E congregant, change in metanoia and missio to discipleship, commission and agape-based love so that each believer’s baptismal promises have substance as well as meaning?
In looking over all of the Paschal-tide Ordos posted at MSF and elsewhere, one has to consider whether Solomon’s resignation about vanity holds some sway over our deliberations. And I am looking in the mirror figuratively while asking about that. “Sometimes it causes me to tremble…” Yes, we are all in need of the existential purity of praying/chanting the “Dies irae” for all souls, particularly those of not only martyred, but each and every Christian of this and all ages. But if we are more concerned about the propriety and insistence upon that over someone exercising a fourth option like OEW or somesuch, we may be guilty of a myopia and judgmental posture that puts our own souls at peril. I am well aware that is a harsh position to defend. However, we cannot afford to miss the forest for the trees.
Semana Santa in Popayán: 4. Tuesday of Holy Week
[Professor emeritus J. Richard Haefer continues his letters from the Festival of Religious Music in Popayán, Colombia.]
What a marvelous day for traditional Catholic music and Baroque music in general. Syntagma Musicum, a professional ensemble from Costa Rica, presented the noontime concert. All of the members except two are faculty at the University of Costa Rica and the flautist and oboist perform in the San José symphony. Baroque flute and oboe and a natural 4’ trumpet were used though the other instruments were modern. The concert consisted of several trio sonatas by Purcell, Loeillet, de la Guerre, and Mancini any of which would be suitable as special music before or after Mass. Of vocal interest were the several villancicos.
Ausente del alma mía by the New Spain Antiguan (today Guatemala) Rafael Antonio Castellanos (1727-1791) is a villancico for the Ascension for two violins, voice and continuo. Doctor María Clara Vargas Cullell, the director of the ensemble, performed on the harpsichord and a bassoon added the bass to the continuo. They chose to add castanets and tambourine as percussion, acceptable for the style of the times but for paraliturgical use (I would not add the percussion in church). The text is predominantly Spanish but with several africanisms. The syncopated style of the villancicos was well done. Castellanos was a prolific composer of villancicos and sacred compositions in Latin text and many are available in recordings today.
Three additional villancicos were performed in the same style: Alto mis gitanas (anonymous from the Cathedral Archive in Bogotá), Niño mio by José Francisco Velázquez (active in Caracas 1755-1805), and Atención a la fragua amorosa (anonymous, Ecuador, New Granada, 17th century). The first two are religious in nature, both for the birth of Our Lord while the latter is secular. The gitanas refers to the “Guitana” of the 16th chronicle of Juan de Castellanos, a character who is cruelly evil against all things or people who are good. The villancico text asks for Our Savior to free the people from the “Evil One,” and from the evil caciques in New Spain. The piece was found in the Archivo Musical de Chiquitos in Bolivia (Nueva Granada). Atención, also called a tonadilla, speaks of the meeting of lovers.
The motet Deus Meus by Francisco Antonio Godoy (late 18th century) was arranged for the entire ensemble including a small marimba (instead of the natural trumpet). The original was found in he archive in Antigua. Ignacio [de] Jerusalem (1710-1769) was one of the most important composers in 18th century Mexico City. Although recruited to lead the music at the Coliseo de México he was soon recruited to provide compositions for the Cathedral but many of the priests resisted the modernity of his music. Finally in 1750 he was appointed Maestro de Capilla. Cherubes y pastores is an aria for the nativity season. Among the secular music performed was a Costa Rican Indian dance tune promising service to the Santo Cristo de Esquipulas, the crucified Christ depicted in a renowned image in Guatemala. (Videos of the ensemble from a festival of early music are here.)
The five p.m. concert by the German ensemble Calmus (four men and one woman) provided an excellent presentation of Baroque music by German composers. All with German text (unsuitable for the Latin mass), the theme of the program was centered on Vulgate Psalm 116.The concert per se was by far the best of the series with the expected Germanic precision and control of all elements of the music. The texts were clearly understood and the intonation impeccable. The blend between soprano, countertenor, two tenors and bass provided a soothing sound. The only disappointment was the opening Canto Gregoriano, Dilexi quoniam audies Domine (Ps 116) that was sung on a psalm tone as an entrance procession. The mixture of male and female voices was most disturbing to a traditionalist.
Waiting now (11:00 PM) for the Procession to reach our hotel. It left the church of San Augustin some three hours ago.
Semana Santa in Popayán: 3. Monday of Holy Week
[J. Richard Haefer reports on the Festival de Música Religiosa in Popayán, Colombia:]
Popayán is one of Colombia’s oldest Colonial cities founded in 1537 by Sebastián Belalcazár and is located on the way between Bogotá (a one hour flight to the East) and Quito (about 20 hours by road to the Southwest). An important religious and cultural city (the university was founded in 1827) Popayán is today a curious mixture of Indito, Mestizo, and Hispanic culture and lifeways.
Monday of Holy Week featured the Misa del Cargueros. The cargueros are the men who carry the large palios or platforms with the life size statues and scenarios during the nighttime processions. It takes eight strong men to carry each platform that is about six feet by eight feet in size, many with three or four life-size statues. The Mass was prayed in honor for those who had died since last year and to honor those with up to fifty years of service.
At noon in the rebuilt 18th-century style church of San José with an audience of more than 150 the choir with the funny name “Las Gatos — Coro” (“Cats Choir“) presented a stunning concert of sacred motets from the 16th and early 17th centuries. Director Félix Córdoba Galvis showed a clear understanding of Renaissance motet style conducting the mixed choir of thirteen singers in an aesthetically pleasing presentation. Professor Córdoba from Cali, has a very relaxed conducting style but with an obvious control over the choir exhibiting carefully measured dynamics and tempi.
Of the fourteen motets (complete list follows at end) all would be suitable for use at a Mass. Most were “old war-horses” such as Lasso’s Super flumina Babylonis and Palestrina’s O bone Jesu and Sicut cervus, and most were for four part voices, though two were @5 with an SSATB chorus. Others such as Victoria’s Vere languores and O lux et decus Hispanie are less well known. Purists (or priests) might object to the Palestrina Haec Dies at the Gradual of the Mass for Easter but it is a wonderful composition.
The blend of the group was excellent for the most part, though frequently one soprano voice “stuck out” due to her vocal quality. Contrasts between homorhythmic sections and the contrapuntal points of imitation represented the style nicely and the choir managed the modal harmonies with little trouble.
Presented chronologically, the motets well represented the sacred music of the Renaissance from Lasso to Victoria. With the exception of the Franco-Flemish Rolando de Lassus (as Orlando di Lasso he wrote in the Italian style) and Francisco Guerrero and Tomas Luis de Victoria, the composers were all Italian though the latter represent the best of Spanish Renaissance music.
The program concluded with two secular villancicos by Manuel Machado and two madrigals by Claudio Monteverdi. One must carefully check the texts of villancicos to determine if they are secular or religious in nature. Some villancico texts may seem on the surface to be secular but they may well have been used for para-liturgical celebrations. More about that tomorrow, as we will hear more villancicos then. Some villancicos were also used in Colonial times to replace Responses at Matins for particular feasts. These two, however, are definitely secular compositions.
Machado was born and trained in Lisbon but moved to Madrid where his father was harpist at the Royal Chapel. In 1639 he became a musician at the palace of Felipe IV for the rest of his life. Although he wrote several sacred compositions, he is best known for his secular cantigas (@3 or 4) and villancicos.
Monteverdi’s two madrigals appeared to come as a shock to the audience with his harsh dissonances contrasting with the smooth, readily resolved dissonances of the rest of the program. However, to a musician who loves Monteverdi they were a pleasant ending to an excellent concert.
The evening concert was strictly secular music for a group of ten violas and an actress (with a pedagogical aspect suitable better for elementary school children). However, tomorrow promises to be another day of excellent religious, if not sacred, music.
List of compositions performed:
Orlando di Lasso: Super flumina Babylonis
Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina: O bone Iesu, Sicut cervus, Haec Dies, Adoramus te
Felice Anerio: Ave Maris Stella
Francisco Guerrero: Ave Virgo Sanctissima
Tomas Luis de Victoria: Vere languores, O lux et decus Hispanie
(Intermission)
Tomas Luis de Victoria: O quam gloriosum, Popule meus, Estate forte in velo, Iesu dulcis memoria, Gaude Maria Virgo
Manuel Machado: Bien podeis corazón, [O]Escurece las montañas
Claudio Monteverdi: Lasciate mi moriré, Ecce mormorar fonde
New Directions for the CMAA
As we begin a new year here at the Chant Cafe, I am pleased to announce that the Church Music Association is venturing into exciting new territory as we seek to further the cause of the New Evangelization within the context of the New Liturgical Movement while singing a New Church into being. These new developments are inspired, of course, by our beloved Papa Francis, whose humility and personal holiness are perfectly communicated by the clarity of his thinking and public discourse. It is truly an exciting time to be “Catholic!”
The most important new initiative concerns the curriculum for the Sacred Music Colloquium, the annual gathering of the CMAA, which (according to our recently improved slogan) promotes music for the liturgy which is “Relevant, Pastoral, and Oddly Specific.” The main sessions on Gregorian chant will, of course, continue. However several additional sections will be added to provide training in reading the traditional music notation of Folk Mass (lead sheet), along with master classes in dance, harmonica, and holy clowning.
For logistical reasons, the Winter Chant Intensive will no longer be a stand-alone event. This will be moved forward into March of 2016 and held in Daytona as a part of Bike Week. This will cut down on travel expenses for our instructors who will already be in Florida during that time. Additionally, it is hoped that this will (at least in part) satisfy the Holy Father’s call that our pastors “smell like sheep.”
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| Communist. |
Finally, with the palpable absence of Jeffrey Tucker likely to become a definitive withdrawal from our organization, it has been decided that his crypto-communistic influence can now safely be purged. As a matter of economic justice, there will no longer be any free downloads of music scores from the MusicaSacra website. Beginning tomorrow, all PDFs in the music section of this site will be available for a reasonable fee. We will NOT be accepting Bitcoin.
Semana Santa in Popayán: 2. Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday)
[J. Richard Haefer continues his observations on the Festival de Música Religiosa in Popayán, Colombia:]
In one of Colombia’s most provincial towns we are delighted to find a marvelous theatre, beautifully decorated with four balconies and excellent acoustics. The Teatro Municipal Guillermo Valencia is home to the Festival de Música Religiosa de Popayán, for the last 52 years a “supplement” to the 456-year old Processions of Semana Santa. While the latter activity is what attracts hundreds of people to Popayán each Holy Week, any cultured person would be happy to attend the two concerts held daily in the town.
On Palm Sunday the first of the twice-daily concerts featured a youth orchestra from the city of Cali on the opposite side of the state of Cauca. Unfortunately the group presented a less than auspicious start to the festival, though I will say nothing more as their entire repertory was secular music. After an couple of hours of local cuisine (marvelous papa relleno, empanada con ají de maní, jugo de curuba) and a tour of the beautiful house of the famous Colombian poet Guillermo León Valencia Castillo (1873-1943), we returned to the theatre named for him to be delighted by a concert featuring the local University of Cauca Orchestra, the Coro Cámara de Popayán (Popayan Chamber Choir), and guest soloists, with every seat in the house filled. An interesting Catholic aside is the fact that Guillermo’s parents added his second name, León, in honor of Pope Leo XIII who became Pope in 1878, a tradition continued with his son, Guillermo León Valencia Muñoz who became president of Colombia in 1962.
After an hour of Rossini and Mozart (an early piano concerto), the second half of the concert featured Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass. I leave it to each individual to decide if this is “sacred” music or “religious” music, suggesting that one keep in mind what Pope St Pius X says about multiple text repetitions in his 1903 motu proprio, especially the repeated Benedictus. I have heard it performed many times as the Ordinary of the Mass, but only for very important occasions. In this concert presentation, as is often the case in concerts, too large an orchestra often obscured the text. If you choose to use this piece in a Mass, be sure to have an appropriate Mozartean size (or even smaller) orchestra. Quality soloists are necessary, especially in the Kyrie, the fugal Amen of the Gloria, and the wonderful Et incarnatus est quartet of the Credo. The soprano solo in the Agnus requires an excellent singer. Unfortunately the soloists in Popayán did not perform as well as expected. One should also keep in mind tempo considerations as a concert presentation requires some different tempi than those used at the Mass.
The local Coro de Cámera de Popayán was founded in 1967 by Maestra Stella Dupont, a native music educator and director of the entire music festival. The thirty members of the chorus are amateurs but performed with precision the moderately difficult mass. It is a tribute to the love of music in this provincial town to find such a fine chorus. They have performed throughout Central and South America and sang at the Mass when Pope Juan Pablo II visited Popayán in 1986. At that time the local cathedral was still in partial ruins following the 1983 earthquake. Interesting is the fact that the earthquake during Holy Week did not stop the Processions as the statues were carried through the rubble of the city.
Semana Santa in Popayán: 1. Looking ahead to the festival
(The Chant Café welcomes J. Richard Haefer, professor emeritus of music, Arizona State University, for a series of articles. This week, Dr. Haefer is writing to us from Popayán, Colombia, where he is observing Holy Week and attending the 52nd year of the Festival de Música Religiosa.
Here he gives us some background on the event.)
For centuries Holy Mother Church has used and encouraged drama as a means of catechizing the people. Witness the recitation of the Rosary and the Via Crucis known to nearly all Catholics, though today rarely presented in dramatic fashion. Less well known are the mystery or miracle plays prevalent in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, and still practiced in many out-reaches of Catholic missionary territory. Musicians would know the “Play of Daniel” with its monophonic melodies, and Catholics in the Southwest of the United States may have participated in Los Pastorelas or Las Posadas (the latter encouraged by the Knights of Columbus throughout the U.S., though with little musical information). Also known in the Southwest and in northern Mexico are the Lenten festivities of the Yaqui and Mayo (not Maya) Indians where members of the cults of Phariseos and Chapayacas make promises or vows such as not speaking during the 40 days of Lent, as an offering of penance to Our Lord.
All of the dramas mentioned above and more owe their origin in the New World to the Hispanic missionaries of the 15th – 19th centuries. Such is Semana Santa in Popayán. The Holy Week processions and celebrations in Spanish cities such as Seville, Salamanca and Murcia are well known, featuring large floats of statues organized by fraternities portraying Passion Week in the life of Christ and offered as a penance each year. The priests who accompanied the Conquistadors and later colonizers brought this tradition to the New World which continue in many locations in one form or another. The town of Popayán in southwestern Colombia has presented the tradition of religious processions for more than 450 years. As the most developed of Holy Week activities in Colombia, the festivities were added to the UNESCO list of Intangible World Heritage in 2009.
Some five decades ago a festival of religious music was added to the Holy Week
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| The Teatro Guillermo León Valencia in Popayán (credit: Telepacifico) |
celebrations in Popayán, now one of the longest continual festivals of religious music. In the next few days I will review some of the musical activities of that festival for the readers of The Chant Café.
Perhaps this is an opportunity for us to reflect on the difference between “sacred” music and “religious” music. Holy Mother Church has given us not only distinct criteria to define such music, but also several centuries of examples in the treasury of Catholic sacred music, which unfortunately have been forgotten by most. There exist, however, many examples of religious music appropriate for concerts during Holy Week, which although not “sacred” might direct our thoughts and hearts to the Passion of Our Lord: for example, the music of Bach comes to mind. We will see in the next few days what Popayán has to offer.
One final thought for today refers to the music of the processions. Though not part of the music festival per se, it might be that the alabados and alabanzas sung during the processions may prove to be the most “sacred” music of the overall festivities. The procession of last night, Viernes de Dolores (Friday of Sorrows), had only secular music, as two local bands led and concluded the procession that featured ten beautiful “pasos” with life-size statues, each carried on the shoulders of eight young men. The religious significance of each Holy Week procession, the statues, and other elements, such as the flowers featured on each paso, indicate that more than 450 years of visual catechism has successfully developed a Catholic culture within this part of Hispanic America.