I’m linking this here not because I agree with it; on the contrary, I completely disagree. Adam Barlett is working on a response. But I wanted people to read this on their own and evaluate it on its own terms. This is the strongest possible case for LifeTeen music.
Colloquium 2012 Highlights
Composer: Choose thyself
Several conversations at the Forums recently (about hymn competitions, about mainstream publishers) and a few private conversations have made me want to refer everyone to this article written by Seth Godin back in 2011.
Read it, it’s very short:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/reject-the-tyranny-of-being-picked-pick-yourself.html
Those of us with even a moderate amount of notoriety are often sent manuscripts and recordings- “what do you think? Is it any good?” Jeffrey Tucker has told me he gets emails like that just about every day. Having a way smaller profile, I only get them about once a month or so.
What do you want us to say? “Yes it’s very good. You have my blessing to continue working.”
Mainstream publishers have the same problem- though at least, if they like something, they can do something about it.
There’s an unfortunate model of the world at work here. The model is that there are gatekeepers and there are artists. An artist’s job is to produce things, and the gatekeeper’s job is to decide which products are worthwhile. Makers and pickers.
If this wasn’t a religiously oriented blog, I would express to you precisely how I feel about this worldview. As it is, I can only say: this is no longer how it is. In fact, I’m not sure it ever was this way.
The names that fill contemporary mainstream hymnals- the folkie heroes like the SLJs or the P&W gurus like Maher- they weren’t “picked.” They didn’t mail a lead sheet into OCP every week hoping they would get selected for the next edition of Breaking Bread. They made music where they were, spread music through their professional and personal contacts, and got so popular that it would be a mistake not to include their music.
The Wesleys published their own hymns and hymn books. And the reason we have so many excellent tunes and harmonizations by Vaughn Williams is that he was the editor of The English Hymnal.
Whether you want to release your stuff open source, or retain all the rights; whether you want to give it away for free, or setup a shopping cart and charge for it; whether you want to let people download PDFs or use Lulu for print-on-demand services; whether you want to set up your own website or post things to a forum like MusicaSacra- regardless of the philosophical or business model you follow, it is time to stop expecting other people to pick your music.
Pick yourself. Only then will other people pick you.
Eucharistic Adoration with Pope Francis
Two events including Eucharistic Adoration are scheduled for this week in the Vatican.
Here is the booklet for the Mass and Procession for Corpus Christi on Thursday evening.
And here is the booklet for Worldwide Eucharistic Adoration on Sunday evening.
This morning in his homily, the Holy Father spoke of Mother Teresa’s prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Think of Mother Teresa: what does the spirit of the world say of Mother Teresa? ‘Ah, Blessed Teresa is a beautiful woman, she did a lot of good things for others …’. The spirit of the world never says that the Blessed Teresa spent, every day, many hours, in adoration … Never! It reduces Christian activity to doing social good. As if Christian life was a gloss, a veneer of Christianity. The proclamation of Jesus is not a veneer: the proclamation of Jesus goes straight to the bones, heart, goes deep within and change us. And the spirit of the world does not tolerate it, will not tolerate it, and therefore, there is persecution. more
St. Philip’s Day at the Brompton Oratory
Charles Cole takes photos from the loft on today’s transferred feast of St. Philip Neri.
Wild for English Propers
Jeffrey Ostrowski has an excellent round up of some English chant propers that are available. The last few years have seen an explosion of choices, and his blogpost actually leaves some out, including the Anglican Use Gradual, Bruce Ford, and Samuel Weber, and Paul Ford’s Flowing Waters. I’ve heard rumors of full collections coming from GIA and OCP too.
I just ran into this nice presentation of what Bruce Ford’s melismatic propers sound like.
Campaign to Fund the CMAA
We received a note from a major university with hundreds of journals on Catholic music that no one else seems to care about. They are throwing them away. We want to scan them and post them. But this comes exactly as we are having trouble just funding our existing activities. It’s astonishing what it takes to do the training and publishing. If you can help by sending out this campaign or contributing yourself, thank you deeply.