More Images
Too tired to type anything coherent – except perhaps to say that Ember Day Saturday in the Extraordinary Form with full Gregorian propers is like nothing else on this earth – but here are some images:
The Angel with the Bow Tie
This is who we are. The other night during dinner, Jeffrey presented, with his usual quietous, measured and mild-mannered glee, a number of new publications under the CMAA banner.
(I so wish Adam B. was here, as well as many others!)
After concluding, JT came up to me and mentioned that in his kit bag he had a particular remedy for the sinus infection that has had me on the ropes now for three days. He’d apparently noticed that from my last post and wanted simply to let me know.
I did curtail some of my schedule yesterday so that my energy could be up for Mass and the “debut” of the Josquin Ave maris stella Missa. But after a great pasta dinner and brief rehearsal I crashed in our room- couldn’t even have little Dom and his mum up for apertifs.
I wheezed to Wendy, “I think we oughtta call Jeffrey.”
He was at the door in less than two minutes.
It was another difficult night, but I know his help will provide me easier days and nights to come.
Is it me, or does he really fly like St Joseph Cupertino, bow tie a-twirling? Or does he bi-locate with scores, economic treatises and meds like S Pio?
Dunno, but he is JT, and another friend who welcomed this stranger with his amazing smile and equally magnificent heart.
A few more random images
These are from Charles Cole’s camera
Images from Semiology Class
At the Sacred Music Colloquium, Edward Schaefer taught four classes on semiology in which we went through the Graduale Triplex and other manuscripts to discover subtle shadings that can’t be expressed in staff notation or were otherwise lost on the path from oral transmission of the chant tradition to printed manuscripts.
It was a fascinating class that beautifully demonstrated how having these first millennium manuscripts available to everyone, not just specialists, can enhance both understanding and performance of the chant, as a natural outgrowth of the work began by the Solesmes monastery.
It was particularly gratifying to see this level of exploration because it represents a continuation of a tradition of publishing within the CMAA. Under the editorship of Msgr. Schuler, Sacred Music published fully six large studies in the 1980s on the topic of semiology (including by Fr. Kelly and Dom Cardine). Until very recently, these were the only in-print resources in English on this topic.
Dr. Schaefer also visited other chant groups to help them see some of the shadings behind the chants they would sing at Mass that day.
Here is Kathy Rheinheimer and Ronald Prowse in semiology class.
Charles Cole attended as did Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth of ICEL
Another student was Fr. Jonathan Gaspar, director of the office of worship for the Boston Archdiocese.
And here is Professor Edward Schaefer
Susan Treacy of Ave Maria, and Jennifer Donelson
And one more: Jeffrey Ostrowski of Corpus Christi Watershed
Missal Music Fast Track
This is big news. The USCCB says that the new Missal music might be used in September so that people will be used to the new texts and acclamations going into Advent. This is great and wise.
I spoke as a child, and sang the songs of angels and saints
Like Jeffrey, I’ve found posting during cooloquium (I’m letting that typo stand!) difficult, not for reasons you might surmise however.
First, I’m learning to adapt to the qwerty reality of a tablet. And I’ve somehow acquired a very debilitating sinus infection that has kept me up these last two nights. Enough of that.
All I wish to share is that among many wonderful sessions and rehearsals, I experienced the most beautiful Mass of my Catholic life yesterday, an EF within the Octave of Pentecost. How can I sum this up? I finally felt the joy of being a “child of God.” Even though I know that Mass, per se, isn’t solely a “me and Jesus” encounter, there was no doubt, repeat, NO DOUBT, that through the actions and enactions of His ordained ministers, the diverse sub-groups of scholas, choirs, acolytes, concelebrants and the Faithful in general, I was with and among my real family. I was partaking, finally, not as a stranger but as friend. I knew we were all elsewhere, clearly and unequivocally in the presence of Christ offering Himself again to our Father through the guidance and support of two millenia’s work within His Church.
From 2006 to 2011, joy of joys, and these last forty years, that some I believe errantly describe as our liturgical wanderings in the desert, proved to be of great consequence and value- these few years led this soul to the treasure-filled banquet in the union of heaven and earth.
More later…