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Posted on by Ben

Colloquium 2014: Positive Reactions!

Horst buchholz directing Victoria’s Requiem

This year was my first colloquium, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED it. I met so many new people, made lots of new friends, and met several of the other Café authors too, including Adam Bartlett, Mr. C, Jenny Donelson, Fr. Smith, and lots of other people too from the MusicaSacra Forum. I learned so much from the breakout sessions, and singing chant under the skilled Scott Turkington for the whole week. But I’m not the only one! Many other attendees had great things to say about it as well!

Tommy Myrick, a fellow cantor of mine during the Colloquium in Scott Turkington’s Schola had, among other things, an interesting reflection that struck him during one of the Colloquium liturgies.

On this day, it sunk in why the Church has to be something not of this world. Outside there was loud music (which could be heard inside the church), the hustle and bustle of this fast paced world, and hundreds (if not thousands) of souls wandering here and there. In the midst of this modern chaos, we who were attending the Colloquium were assembling to take part in Holy Mass. Here, we had stepped out of time and space to be with our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. It was not like anything you could find on the streets of Indianapolis at the time.

Fr. James Bradley, who speaks about his experiences in learning more about liturgical music, and his great experiences. Fr. Bradley also wrote more about his experiences here and here in other posts on his blog.

Jeffrey Morse’s daily solfège warmups

Last week’s CMAA colloquium, I think, provided a number of key ways to implement this sound principle in an authentic way. First, we know that liturgical paradigm articulated by the CMAA could be well described as ‘sing the Mass, not sing at Mass’. This is something that has been spoken of before by Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth regarding the revised English translation of the 2002 Missale Romanum, and it is a principle that we should take very seriously.

In the chanting of the proper texts and, where possible, according to the proper chants, the faithful participate at a deeper and more profound level in the liturgy of the Church, than when the prescribed liturgical texts are supplanted by hymnody or, even, silence. I am yet to be convinced by any argument that prefers non-biblical texts at any point in the Mass, over those antiphons and psalms that flow from sacred scripture and which have been an integral part of the western liturgy for hundreds of years.

Fr. David Friel, one of the bloggers at CCW, also wrote about his great experiences in Indianapolis, specifically one of the breakout sessions session given by one off my new friends, Charles Cole, on chant harmonization:

Charles Cole’s chant harmonization breakout session

Yesterday, I chose to attend the breakout session led by Charles Cole in Christ Church Cathedral. The topic was how to accompany chant on the organ for which Charles gave us a number of “rules” to follow. He also acknowledged that not all of these rules must always be strictly followed.

First among the “rules” is the need to stay within the notes of the scale pertinent to the mode. Also, as in all composition, parallel octaves and fifths are to be avoided. Perfect cadences are not advisable. Registration and harmonization, we were taught, ought to serve the melody and text (which are always paramount in chant), striving to remain unobtrusive. It seemed to me that the underlying thrust of the presentation was this: a skillful organ accompaniment can actually help to reveal facets of modality within a particular chant.

Father Friel wrote several posts about his experiences that you can find in 4 parts: I II, III and IV.

Were you there? Did you enjoy it? Share your experiences below too!

Posted on by Mary Jane Ballou

Liturgy of the Hours Hymnal

New on Lulu from Fr. Samuel Weber, O.S.B. is his Hymnal for the Hours.  It’s a print-on-demand published by the Benedict XVI Institute of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Have I seen it yet?  No.  Do I look forward to it?  Of course.  This is just a sweet and short heads-up for those who are interested.  More later.

Here’s the link over at Lulu.  I didn’t find much of a preview except “front matter,” as we call it in the trade.

NEWS FLASH – 14 pages from inside the hymnal have been uploaded as a sample for your viewing on Lulu, thanks to Peter Kwasniewski.  And don’t forget the point of sampling is buying!

Posted on by Mr. C

On Fr Ralph March’s “Are You a True Minister of Music.” Part One

Here it is, Monday after Colloquium 2014, and in the mail are two issues of SACRED MUSIC, Spring and Summer of this same year. Thank you, Bill Stoops, for having such quick access to your status reports at Indianapolis!

All I can manage right now is a perusal of content, particular of V.141.2 which celebrates CMAA’s 50th anniversary of its amalgam merge of the St. Caeilia and St. Gregory Societies in 1964. There is much wheat to harvest in this volume and its predecessor. As I was skimming the Summer edition I noticed a title that reminded me of a former CMAA attendee’s great essay about being a so-called “Pastoral Musician,” that being the article by Rev. Ralph S. March, S.O. Cist, “Are You a True Minister of Music?” That is a captivating, challenging and still relevant question as there is yet and still great, likely more division between folks who left Indy and week ago and those situated in St. Lousis this week. It occured to me that Dr. Jenny or someone else responsibly excerpted certain quotations from Fr’s discourse of 1972 and just by entertaining those quotes one could respond via an article’s length here at the Cafe.

Part the first: A music minister should be familiar with the most important musical styles of any given century.

That maxim still and ever shall stand. However, who could have seen in ’64 or in ’72 the curve of instability to stability that 50 years of contemporaneous composition, exposition and distribution of an unheard-of concept of sacred “song” by Lucien Deiss, the SLJ’s/Dameans/St. Thomas More, the Minnesotans, the Californians and so forth could become bedrock in Anglophile parishes and others back then. (I leave out the seminal folkies purposefully.) Surely not Westendorf nor Lindusky who were there in BoysTown in ’64. How does one deal with the compositions of not just these but those of Howard Hughes, Thomas Savoy, Leo Nestor, Jeffrey Honore, and then multi-faceted, schooled composers such as Janet Sullivan Whitaker, myself, Jan Michael Joncas, Richard Rice, Jeffrey Quick, Francis Koerber and many, many others whose genres aren’t so easily categorized? The simple response is that Fr. March’s advice still stands, but the demands are much more upon us. Some will argue that the Conciliar documents of the Second Council are unequivocally clear: Primacy of place to chanted forms, and their inheritors generically designated polyphony (a term of actually little pragmatic significance.) Yes, surely that seems clear. But under the lenses of the legislative options provided by those same documents, who can stand and call themself the final arbiter of a music’s suitability? (That’s a rhetorical question, no need to actually engage it, really.) But to purposefully remain ignorant of both specific genres and pieces in the last 50 years actually doesn’t pass Fr. March’s muster. The catch qualifier is the adjective “most important” music styles of all centuries. I’ve always maintained that cannot be fulfilled by wholesale dismissal based upon any prejudicial criteria.

Part the second The music minister must be a student, an educator, and a diplomat.

Uh, yup. Student? Check! Educator? Check! Diplomat? Huh…….? We are not just diplomats representing philosophies and idealogies of CMAA or Mother Church at the level of parish practice. We a diplomats first and foremost of Christ Jesus, who trumps any objectivification of the rule of worship and the rule of belief. When the Pharisees tried to pigeon-hole Him in order to discredit Him according to the Decalogue, Christ veni, vidi and vici’d their folly forever. Diplomats don’t deal (despite the political machinations of our current era or federal government) with policies, but with people.

To these 63 year old astigmatized, far-sighted and strabymus (crossed) eyes this is our largest failure even with Fr. March’s criteria back in ’72. Unfortunately there’s loads of evidence in cyberspace CMAA and even at Colloquia that many of us think “we da Bomb.” We move from place to place like Yul Brynner’s character in the “Magnificent Seven” taking on noble causes for ignoble recompense thinking that we’re not just saving the plebes and peasants from their gross, feudal and outlaw occupying fascist lords, but we’re going to change their whole attitude about “musicam sacram” in less than a fortnight. Not. Go to the MSForum, three to six RotR gigs are posted there at any given time. Why?

Because we have to love and forgive our people and their pastors. We have to speak to them honestly, in both truth and love. But in my experience, many of us in CMAA equivocate truth with love. No, going to hell is not an automatic consequence of singing “On Eagles’ Wings.” Coaxing their sensibilities towards “Qui habitat” via whatever sensory input (remember the second of March’s admonitions, “teacher,” requires skills that can influence the receptors’ many modes of intellectual and spiritual acquisition. I’m a bit tired now….will resume this tomorrow.

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

2015 Advent Calendar of Hymn Tune Introits

Wondering what to give this Advent to that Music Director who seems to have everything but propers? Know a pastor who would like to add a quiet solemnity to his Advent daily Mass routine but doesn’t know quite what to do about it?

Well, look no further, because here is the 2015 Advent Calendar of Hymn Tune Introits, available here in PDF format.

Feel free to copy off a hundred Advent calendars and put them at the end of the pews, or on a table at the entrance of the church, and sing them to any number of familiar tunes at daily Mass. Since it’s Advent, the tune for Creator of the Stars of Night might be a good choice.

The Hymn Tune Introits are a user-friendly, low/ no-resistance way to bring the beautiful expressions of the proper texts of the Mass into use in parishes where hymns have always been the norm.

Posted on by Ben

Why I Don’t Care If You Sing Praise and Worship at Mass

Several weeks ago, my family and I were at a wonderful camp in Ohio called Catholic Family Land (it’s a real place!), an outreach run by The Apostolate for Family Consecration. Of course, every day begins with Mass, and later in the day, right next to the sports fields that are used all afternoon, there’s a small adoration chapel. Overall, it’s a lovely wholesome, Catholic atmosphere.

The music used at Mass was typically of the praise and worship style, which is less than ideal. But you know what? I was ok with it. That’s right.

If I am given a choice between folksy Haugen and Haas, Glory and Praise songs and praise and worship  genre songs, I’ll take P&W any day, for one major reason: in the Catholic liturgical music paradigm, text comes first.

One of the reasons gregorian chant is so uniquely suited to the liturgy is it’s nature as principally elevated speech. The rhythm of chant comes from the speech. The simplicity of the melodies allows the text to be heard more than any other form of music. The relative simplicity of the melodies (compared to polyphony) allows the the text to be highlighted even more. All this to say, while the melody and idiom of the music matters, the text is most important. And with the unique scriptural tradition of Roman liturgical music, the text of P&W makes it oddly suited to the liturgy, more so than other sentimental hymn texts.

Look at Blessed Be Your Name, by Matt Redman. The text is based on Job 1:21, as well as other imagery from the psalms (“streams of abundance”). Or look at Shout To The Lord by Darlene Zschech. More imagery from the psalms.

Is Praise and Worship a massive improvement on schmaltzy hymns from Haugen and Haas? No, they are far from ideal. But they are definitely an improvement in the text, the more important of the two primary aspects.