Thanks to Adam Wood’s techno-entrepreneurship. Gotta see this. Talk about old meets new.
Colloquium Registration Extended
Remember this video from the 2008 Colloquium? It just keeps getting better and better. Although the initial registration deadline for this year’s Colloquium was yesterday (May 15), we’re keeping registration open until June 1 or every last spot is filled. Come one, come all! Late fee of $50 applies. Register here.
A Month-long Immersion in Chant, Philosophy, and Theology for Young Adults
We are happy to announce a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in chant for five weeks with the Community of St. John (no, not the one founded by Hans Urs von Balthasar and Adrienne von Speyr). The Ecclesia program is a summer formation program led by the Brothers of St. John at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota.
July 1 – August 2, 2013
The Ecclesia program offers an opportunity to earn undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education credits, all while experiencing a summer of prayer, evangelization, and fellowship with future leaders of the Catholic Church from across the country.
There is an almost monastic flow to each day, with lauds, sext, vespers, and Mass celebrated daily, as well as time for lectio divina, recitation of the rosary, consecration to Mary, and Eucharistic adoration.
Aside from the liturgy, the heart of the program is an intensive formation in theology and philosophy, with nearly four hours of class per day. There is also time for recreation, a silent retreat, a camping trip to the Badlands, a service project, cultural outings, and the usual fun activities of a camp like bonfires, etc. The setting is amazingly beautiful, and offers the inspiration so necessary for living the artistic vocation. 
Six credit hours (three in Theology and three in Philosophy) will be offered, transferable to any University in the country for undergrad or grad school credits. Or, the same classes may be taken for a certificate of continuing education.
How much does Ecclesia cost?
+ Undergraduate and Graduate Credit (Participants obtain 3 theology and 3 philosophy credits): $3,400
or
+ Continuting Education: $1,500
For more information about registration or scholarships, contact Katie Kimar 216.409.0973. For more information about Ecclesia’s music program, contact Dr. Jennifer Donelson at jd1120@nova.edu.
Sign up here to register for the Ecclesia Institute 2013! The registration deadline is June 1st, 2013.
Immersion in Chant
New to this summer’s program is a component for those who would like to study and sing chant throughout the 5-week program.
Here’s the text from the program’s website:
“The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.” Sacrosanctum Concilium ¶ 112
“The singing of the Church comes ultimately out of love. It is the utter depth of love that produces the singing. ‘Cantare amantis est,’ says St. Augustine, singing is a lover’s thing. In so saying, we come again to the Trinitarian interpretation of Church music. The Holy Spirit is love, and it is he who produces the singing. He is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit who draws us into love for Christ and so leads to the Father.” – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 142
“Whether it is Bach or Mozart that we hear in church, we have a sense in either case of what Gloria Dei, the glory of God, means. The mystery of infinite beauty is there and enables us to experience the presence of God more truly and vividly than in many sermons.” – Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, The Spirit of the Liturgy, p. 148
The liturgies of the Ecclesia institute will form an important and vital part of your growth in faith this summer. We turn to our mother, the Church, at whose feet we sit to learn to pray, through Her liturgical traditions. Sacred music plays a vital role in these liturgies, for it clothes the Word of God with splendor and beauty, and enables us to better worship God and grow in holiness.
This summer, our Masses will draw on the Church’s vast treasury of sacred music as a means of drawing the hearts of all deeper into the mystery of God. Whether it be Gregorian chant, chant in English, choral music, or sacred organ music, the liturgical music at Ecclesia will strive to cultivate singers’ talents in creating sublimely beautiful music in order to convey the reality of the earthly liturgy as a reflection of the Divine liturgy taking place continuously in heaven. The music, though varied, will reflect a fidelity to the Church’s liturgical texts as outlined for us in the meditative chants (Gradual and Alleluia), and entrance, offertory, and communion antiphons of the Roman Missal, so that the beautiful and noble structure of the Roman rite will shine forth the glory of God.
There are two levels of participation available to those who would like to take part in the music program at this summer’s institute:
– Rehearsal 5 days/week for 45 mintues, singing at most of the institute’s liturgies
– Rehearsl 2 days/week for 45 minutes, joining with the above group, singing at Sunday and feast day liturgies
The following will also be a part of this summer’s institutes for all participants:
– The celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman rite twice throughout the institute. All other liturgies will be in the ordinary form of the Roman rite.
– Twice weekly talks about sacred music and the liturgy to help you grow in your love and appreciation for our Church’s beautiful traditions and liturgy.
For those who are interested in a more intensive study of sacred music, the following option is available:
– Private lessons in singing and/or directing Gregorian chant as arranged with the Music Director
About Ecclesia’s Music Director:
Dr. Jennifer Donelson is an assistant professor of music at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. She received her DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she studied piano with Paul Barnes, Mark Clinton, and Ann Chang, and organ with Quentin Faulkner. A specialist in the piano works and writings of Olivier Messiaen, she has lectured on and given performances of portions of the Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus throughout the United States, France, and Mexico. Dr. Donelson has been awarded numerous academic fellowships, as well as a grant supporting her research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France on the controversy surrounding the premiere of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards. She has presented her work on Messiaen and Charles Tournemire at the national conference of the College Music Society, the annual conferences of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, and at the International Conference on Music Since 1900 at Lancaster University (UK). Her publications include articles in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, Sacred Music, Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, and a forthcoming edited volume of essays on Charles Tournemire’s L’Orgue Mystique. In February 2012, she hosted and presented a paper at a national conference of the Church Music Association of America on the work of Charles Tournemire and has subsequently assumed the role of Academic Liaison for the CMAA, in which she develops academic initiatives and organizes academic conferences for the organization. She currently serves as a board member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy and as the associate managing editor of the CMAA’s Sacred Music journal.
Having studied Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America and Abbey of St. Peter in Solesmes, Dr. Donelson has served as the director of music at St. Gregory the Great Seminary (Diocese of Lincoln, NE) and St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center (UNL) where she founded the Cor Immaculatae Schola Cantorum, a semi-professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony. She has given diocesan workshops in Gregorian chant across the U.S., is a founder of the annual Musica Sacra Florida Gregorian chant conference, directed the children’s choirs at the Oratory at Ave Maria according to the Ward method, and has served on the faculty of the annual colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. She currently directs the schola cantorum at the Mission of Sts. Francis and Clare in Miami, where the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is celebrated weekly.
Is PBC 2.0 Backwards Compatible?
A question appeared on this blog about the second edition of the Parish Book of Chant, regarding whether it works to have and use both simultaneously. The answer is that no contents of the 1st edition have been removed or changed in the 2nd edition only adds material such as litanies, sequences, hymn verses, and more ordinary chants.
Maybe this is unusual in our time when we expect massive change with each new year. But that’s the whole point of the Parish Book of Bank, to assemble timeless music of the faith, music that most Catholics in all places and most times have known. Together this music is like a soundtrack for Catholic life. As I look through it, I’m dazzled at what it contains: all music for Catholic people. If you want music for the schola to sing for specific liturgical purposes, you have to go elsewhere. This is music for the people in the pews — threatened with extinction in the postconciliar period but now rescue with this book.
This is why this book remains in extremely high demand. Whether it is the Marian antiphons, the Te Deum, Crux Fidelis, or the just the canonical ordinary chants of the Mass, these are the songs that make up the core of the popular chant repertoire. If you congregation does not know them, they are seriously missing out on an important piece of Catholic tradition. I’m so pleased that the CMAA has been able to fill the gap.
Get your copies here.
English Propers for Pentecost: Vigil and Mass of the Day
We are now in the final week of the Easter Season and are closing in on the great feast of Pentecost.
For Pentecost Sunday the Church gives us an optional but actual Saturday Vigil Mass (as opposed to the anticipated Mass that is often mistakenly called a “vigil”) which has a striking similarity to the Easter Vigil that took place some 50 days before.
Following is a free download of the English proper chants for the Vigil Mass of Pentecost, including the extended Responsorial Psalmody, in addition to the antiphons for the Entrance, Offertory and Communion that are proper to this liturgy:
Parishes are perhaps more familiar with the Pentecost Mass of the Day, however, although most parishes have probably never sung the proper texts for this liturgy. Following is a free download of the propers for Pentecost Day, including the great Pentecost Sequence which sets the official English Lectionary translation of the Veni, Sancte Spiritus to the ancient chant melody from the Graduale Romanum:
Both of these scores correspond to the Lumen Christi Missal, the first installment of the Lumen Christi Series. I am very excited to announce to you next week our plans for the completion of this series!
Lecture Series offered at Colloquium
As an option for those who choose not to sing in a polyphony choir at this year’s Sacred Music Colloquium, Dr. Susan Treacy, professor of Music at Ave Maria University, will be offering an afternoon lecture series commemorating the 110th anniversary of the 1903 motu proprio on sacred music of Pope Saint Pius X. Sounds too good to miss!
Lecture 1: Sacred Music in the Nineteenth Century
The first lecture will set the stage with an overview of Catholic liturgical music in the nineteenth century–the realities of sacred music in parish life and various efforts at reform–both in Europe and America.
Lecture 2: Music in the Life of Giuseppe Sarto
Born into a very poor family, the future Pope Saint Pius X became enamored of sacred music during his boyhood. In one sense his whole life was a preparation for the motu proprio. As a young priest, pastor, canon, and seminary rector, Father Sarto gave an important place to the teaching of Gregorian chant.
Lecture 3: Towards the motu proprio
In 1884 Giuseppe Sarto was made Bishop of Mantua; now he was able to promote Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony on a wider scale. As a bishop and then a cardinal, Sarto issued documents that would form the basis of his eventual papal motu proprio.
Lecture 4: Reception and Implementation of the motu proprio
How was the motu proprio received by the Catholic world? Did all Catholics obey the Holy Father’s decrees? This lecture examines some of the initiatives to implement the motu proprio, including efforts to revive congregational chanting.
Lecture 5: The motu proprio: Past, Present, and Future
The motu proprio of Pope Saint Pius X has been the starting point of subsequent documents on sacred music, including those of Vatican Council II. Was Pius’s vision for sacred music distorted after Vatican II? What has been done to restore this vision, and what can be done at the parish level?
You can still register for the Sacred Music Colloquium.
A Psalm with its Antiphon? Or an Antiphon with its Psalm?
I’ve been wondering lately whether we give the Psalms full credit when considering the Propers.
If you were to ask me, “What is a Proper?” I would answer, “It’s an antiphon–and some verses of a Psalm if you have time.”
Two things have recently made me wonder if I’m not looking at the Propers from a 180 degree wrong angle. Perhaps I have it backwards, and the introit is A Psalm, which alternates with an antiphon that shows the Psalm in greater light.
The first thing that caught my attention in this matter was the plenary address given at last year’s Colloquium by Fr. Guy Nicholls of the Birmingham Oratory. Fr. Nicholls convincingly demonstrated that the Introit Psalms in Ordinary Time are not chosen according to the readings of the day or according to any other external device, but run sequentially through the Book of Psalms from beginning to end. In effect, the Introit Psalms of the year are a Psalter. If this is true–if we are meant to be singing the Book of Psalms throughout the year as monks sing them through the week–then the Psalms are much less incidental to the Propers than I had thought.
The second indication that I was taking the Psalms less seriously than they deserved, and perhaps taking the Antiphons more seriously than warranted, was this interesting definition of “Introit” from the old, online Catholic Encyclopedia:
The Introit (Introitus) of the Mass is the fragment of a psalm with its antiphon sung while the celebrant and ministers enter the church and approach the altar. In all Western rites the Mass began with such a processional psalm since the earliest times of which we have any record.
I’m sure most of us have had the experience of needing the briefest possible proper, and if you are like me, you would have chosen to sing the antiphon and left the Psalm for another day when there was more time. However, I’m not convinced that this is the right way to go.
The article in the Catholic Encyclopedia, as I read it, seems to suggest that the Introit started as a Psalm only, and that antiphons were added later. Over time the antiphons came to be the defining aspect of the Introit, perhaps in part because the antiphon alone needed to be printed, in order to provide the melody. The Psalm would be sung to a Psalm tone, and by the cantor, who would not need it to be printed in the book. Eventually the Psalm was shortened to one verse with its Gloria Patri unless further verses were needed for reasons of time.
I wonder whether this is a unique scholarly view, or whether it might be safe to say that the Psalm is at least as essential to the singing of the responsorial Propers as is the singing of the through-composed antiphon.