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Posted on by Arlene Oost-Zinner

A Special Invitation to Priests

From Reverend Robert Pasley, CMAA Chaplain:

We send out a special invitation to all seminarians and priests. Please consider attending the 2012 CMAA Colloquium in Salt Lake City, Utah, from June 25 through July 1. Pope Benedict XVI has called for a hermeneutic of continuity in interpreting all Catholic teaching. There is no greater need for continuity than in the Sacred Liturgy. If we follow the official musical program given by the Church, we will immediately begin the process of restoring our Catholic Identity and revivifying the Sacred Treasury of our musical heritage. Priests, however, must be at the forefront of this revival. If they do not sing their chants, then the solemn sung Liturgy can never be realized, no matter how magnificent the parish choir is.

Mother Church has always kept the chants of the priest very simple so that the Mass could be sung by almost any cleric. Seminarians all learned the chants of the priest by just hearing them sung them year after year. The problem is that the sung Mass, especially with the celebrant chanting his lines, has, for the most part, been dead for the last forty years. If we are going to foster continuity, then every priest must know how to sing his chants. We have lived through a forty year span when there were no set melodies for the liturgy in English. Priests made up their own chants or sung what they may have heard from this composer or that composer. There also has been a mixing of Anglican, Byzantine and other chants. Just as they would never sing Roman chant in their Liturgies, so we should never sing their chant in our Liturgy.

If you are going to sing the Rite, sing it right! That is where the Colloquium comes in. We have a new Missal and the chants are now standardized in our Roman Tradition. You do not have to be a professional musician. You may not even know how to read music. You will have seven days to begin the process of understanding what you have to do. We can never cram everything into seven days, but we will give you a start and give you resources to take home with you. You can then get your local choir director to help you on your way. If your own music director needs a brush up, consider sending him or her to the Colloquium as well. Fathers, you not only are absolutely necessary to consecrate the Holy Eucharist, you are also absolutely necessary for the Mass to be sung properly according to our Tradition!!!!!

Please consider attending. It is a wonderful event and you will not be disappointed.

Father Robert C Pasley, KCHS; Chaplain of the CMAA; Rector Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, NJ

Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

Singing Alone and Making Mistakes

We’ve all known what the blogger below describes. We know the chant perfectly but when we sing alone, we end up making mistakes anyway. We need the numbers to help us through those tiny moments of insecurity. It’s true that Gregorian chant really is for groups.

A week ago I was asked to sing the Proper for an Extraordinary Form Mass today because the regular cantor was going to be away. Rather foolishly I agreed, but I had no options. I obtained good clear copies of the music, rehearsed well, and was note-perfect an hour earlier whilst sitting on the train on the way.

I ended up singing the Proper on my own. The sparse congregation joined in the Ordinary of the Missa de Angelis, though I sang alternate verses of the Kyrie solo. The Vidi Aquam, Introit, Kyrie and Gloria were fine. Then I messed up the Gradual and Alleluia verses, though I am not sure anyone noticed. Credo III went all right, and the Offertory was done to a psalm tone, which was not a problem. I started the Sanctus much too high, the Agnus Dei went all right but I bungled the Communion verse, again I am not sure that anyone noticed.

What went wrong? I have near perfect pitch and had a tuning fork with me as well. I was a bit nervous and there was a lot to do besides, keeping an eye on the priest and following the text carefully so as to see when to come in with the sung portions.

What is there to learn from this? First, to get a pitch pipe and write down the starting note on the music itself. But more important is to go mob-handed – in other words we need to set up a Schola who can provide at least four voices whenever they are called for. For a start, I want my own funeral done properly.

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

Saints and their Hymns

     “The church of Milan had only recently begun to employ this mode of consolation and exaltation with all the brethren singing together with great earnestness of voice and heart. For it was only about a year — not much more — since Justina, the mother of the boy-emperor Valentinian, had persecuted thy servant Ambrose on behalf of her heresy, in which she had been seduced by the Arians. The devoted people kept guard in the church, prepared to die with their bishop, thy servant. Among them my mother, thy handmaid, taking a leading part in those anxieties and vigils, lived there in prayer. And even though we were still not wholly melted by the heat of thy Spirit, we were nevertheless excited by the alarmed and disturbed city.

     This was the time that the custom began, after the manner of the Eastern Church, that hymns and psalms should be sung, so that the people would not be worn out with the tedium of lamentation. This custom, retained from then till now, has been imitated by many, indeed, by almost all thy congregations throughout the rest of the world.” St. Augustine, Confessions

Click here for Blessed Henry Cardinal Newman’s hymn, Praise to the Holiest in the Height

Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

Music for Private Devotion, Not Liturgy

There are two errors people make concerning popular religious music: 1) the belief that it represents something revolutionary and new in modern times, 2) the perception that it poses a serious threat to liturgical worship.

Neither is true. Devotional music is as old as the faith itself. It is not a problem in any sense provided that people do not mix it up with liturgical music, which is always tied to the liturgical text. The great problem of our time is that people have mixed this up, and terribly so. Somehow we need to find our way back to the liturgical text so that we can put devotional music in its proper place.

There are new attempts to recover devotional music from the Renaissance past and put it on display. Here is a fabulous example.