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Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

How to evaluate liturgical music

Most Catholic parishes are now in a position to begin to evaluate liturgical music to use with the new Missal. There’s not much point to the process if there is no agreement on the method. In the United States, the “three-fold test” is popular to cite (liturgical, musical, pastoral) but I’ve never really seen evidence that this test is much of a test at all since there is no agreement on what each of the standards really mean.

I could say a piece fails all three and someone else could say that a piece passes all three, and then we would really find ourselves at a dead end, arguing again about what the three-fold test really means. It’s a bit like a test of food that it should taste good, look good, and be good for you. Well, yes, but I’m not sure that this helps much in deciding what to have for dinner. The test only passes the argument on to a different stage of argumentation.

In any case, it seems that many Catholic musicians are under the impression that only one test is actually necessary: people must be able pick up the melody quickly and sing it. Interestingly, that standard does not seem to enter into the discussion of a single letter or teaching from any serious authority in the history of the Catholic faith. And yet it is the one test that seems to survive.

The entire scene reminds me of the show American Bandstand that I watched when I was a young child. Every new song was evaluated on a scale of 1 to 10 and nearly everyone questioned would say the same thing: “It has a good beat and you can dance to it.” Even when I was 7 or 8 years old, I recall thinking: this is the most superficial standard I’ve ever heard. Of course, we are talking about dance music here so perhaps superficial isn’t such a bad thing. But when it comes to liturgical music, we are talking about music that reaches out of time into eternity in the act of prayer. Strangely, if anyone said anything about that test, the video makers didn’t put their words on the final cut.

Posted on by Arlene Oost-Zinner

National Catholic Youth Choir Auditions


The choir is currently accepting high school student applications until March 7, 2011.

About the choir. . .

The National Catholic Youth Choir was founded in 2000. The choir is sponsored by Saint John’s School of Theology·Seminary and meets on the grounds of Saint John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minnesota. The choir began under the motto Spreading the Catholic Faith Through Great Music as a response to the call of Pope John Paul II for a “new evangelization.” The choir sings music of various Christian traditions, ranging from medieval Gregorian chant to twentieth-century music and is led by world renowned choral conductor, Dr. Axel Theimer. The primary focus of the choir is liturgical, and the choir seeks to implement the directive of Vatican Council II that the “treasury of sacred music” be preserved and fostered in the modern liturgy.

Up to 45 students entering grades 10, 11, and 12 from across the United States are selected to participate in the choir based on written applications, formal recommendations, and recorded auditions. The two week summer camp generally takes place the last two weeks in June and includes extensive choir rehearsals; repertoire–based classes in religion, music theory, and music history, recreation, recording a CD, daily worship and prayer (Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament). They worship together as a group with the Benedictine monks on campus and with the Benedictine sisters in nearby St. Joseph and conclude each day by singing Compline. The choristers also receive cantor training as encouragement for musical ministry in their home parishes and throughout their adult life.

Camp also includes a multi state concert tour. In past years the choir has sung in several cities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Michigan, Indiana, and Georgia.

For more information about the choir and to view photo galleries go here.

Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

How to tell if something is public domain

Many people write to ask if this or that is public domain, meaning not subject to copyright enforcement as traditionally understood.

There are two essential links: The copyright flow chart and the Stanford Renewal Database.

Believe me, it was not always this easy!

This is for text and music but remember that most music collections involve more than one contributor. So there are complications to the process. Rights typically reverted to the author back when things went out of print (nothing goes out of print in that sense anymore). There are also international issues that can introduce provisos. In general, however, I’ve found that far more books and music, and music books, from pre-1964 are available that is usually supposed.

Another thing to remember is that a fight over these matters is virtually never worth the trouble, so if so silly publisher claims copyright over engraving – not words or music but just the typesetting – one usually has to relent to the claims of the deep pockets and then move on. Still, it is not the case that you just have to take a publisher’s word for it on all matters. Do your own research and act within the law and all is well.

Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

Liturgical Music for Praise Music Groups

Matthew Baute has posted a year’s worth of accompanied communion propers in modern notes, performed in a style familiar to many people, but with an eye toward the transitioning toward sacred music. The collection is put together under the influence of Fr. Samuel Weber.

Posted on by Keith Fraser

Chanted prayer meetings

It probably wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if I were to tell you that I didn’t learn to pray the rosary at church, it was my mother who taught it to me. She was quite devoted to the rosary and prayed it daily. In one of those moments of clarity she spoke to her friends in our home parish and she started up a “Rosary Circle” which would meet in someone’s house every Monday night where we would pray the rosary and then have tea and as much cake as you could eat. It wasn’t an “official” “ministry” and no-one assumed the style and title of co-ordinator, minister, or director. It was a group of families who would simply meet and pray.

That group was small, it lasted a good few years until my mother’s health failed, and it probably never made much of a direct impact at parish level, but in the souls of those who met and prayed I think it will have left some impression or other.

The Holy Father speaks of the need for popular piety and prayer amongst the faithful. There are probably little prayer groups that meet in parishes all over the world. Some of them may meet in your homes, you may meet in the homes of your friends. The thought then occurred to me: if we want to reclaim our Catholic heritage, if we want to re-introduce the singing of psalsm and chant and our parish “directors” of this and that are wedded to their own ideas and agendas that do not include the form of piety that matters to us, then one way to circumvent this is with small prayer groups. Let’s call it the Tea Party of Chant.

Now if we were to try and set up a Monday evening schola we probably wouldn’t get very far, but two forms of common prayer amongst the faithful are ther rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Why not , if you are able to do so, introduce some simple plainsong Marian hymns each week in your prayer groups? Embed the notion of singing the Ave Maris Stella, or the Salve Regina, and the idea will likely take hold.

If any of you have access to EWTN at home and have heard the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in song then there is a version, in English, that is chanted quite wonderfully. It’s even on their website for download in audio format. Why not start a weekly chaplet? Then chant it. My PP is open to the idea, yours may be also.

On this feast of the baptism of the Lord I pray for those of you, who like me, are parents trying to pass on to their children the wonderous traditions of our church.

The EWTN recording of the Chaplet can be downloaded here:

Posted on by Adam Bartlett

Winter Chant Intensive 2011: Day 5 – Solemn Mass and Travel Home

Today was the final day of the CMAA 2011 Winter Chant Intensive. The morning began with a rehearsal for both choirs, beginning and advanced, for the afternoon Mass, which was followed by a brief final session and a seafood Jambalaya lunch. What was surely the high point of the entire week followed in the solemn celebration of the Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

What followed this for most of the attendees was a long day of travel back home, as was the case for me. I will post a Chant Intensive wrap-up tomorrow, perhaps even with some recordings from today’s liturgy. I will follow up on my objectives in attending the event, and share some of the insights I’ve gained. But this will come after some rest–They don’t call it an “intensive” for nothing!

It was a wonderful, fraternal, insightful and arduous week. Thanks be to God for the fantastic work that the CMAA is doing in training sacred musicians for faithful service to the Church and her sacred liturgy.