Chant Café

Professor Peter Kwasniewski sent a note about his college’s program of music scholarships, so we pass it along for interested readers:

Since its opening in 2007, Wyoming Catholic College has always supported a strong choir program and a men’s schola. On average, about 40 students participate in the choir, and about 10 men in the schola.  

The choir practices cover more than repertoire: we work on voice production, solfege, music theory, and some history and theology, especially as regards the liturgy (we sing for both EF and OF Masses). Schola practice, too, delves deeply into the structure and “rhetoric” of the Proper chants for Sundays and Holy Days so that we may sing them better. 

Students who have prior experience playing the organ are given opportunities to play at Sunday High Mass, and if they are good enough, they can receive a work-study scholarship for this position. In addition, students who can play instruments well are included in small ensembles for performing Renaissance and Baroque music during liturgies, paraliturgical functions, and social events. 

Recently it was decided to go one step further. To attract musically talented students who wish to study at a Catholic liberal arts Great Books college, WCC is offering an indefinite number of “Pope Benedict XVI Fellowships for Sacred Music” for qualified applicants. The fellowship is a merit-based grant given to freshmen who can demonstrate musical talent, experience, and interest, and who are planning to sing in the College Choir and/or Schola. 

For more details, visit this page, and look under “Fellowships and Merit Scholarships”:
http://www.wyomingcatholiccollege.com/admissions/financial-aid/index.aspx
Please address inquiries to Trevor Lontine, Director of Admissions, at trevor.lontine@wyomingcatholiccollege.com.

The Franciscan basilica Cosmas and Damian, in the Roman Forum, is a unique renovation. Because of the dampness of the surrounding area in the old heart of Rome, the basilica’s remarkable mosaics began to lose tiles, and entire figures. So in the 17th century it was rebuilt by papal works, and its floor was raised an almost impossible 7 meters. Its old floor was now the floor of its crypt, and the new floor was above the waterline, saving the priceless and ancient works of art along the interior walls.

What is striking about this renovation is the wonderful sense of beauty and proportion in the new space. Somehow the raising of the floor was done so thoughtfully and expertly that there is no sense of walking into a space that has been fixed and redone–with the exception of the replaced mosaics in the corners of the apse, which are visibly drawn by a new hand. As far as the architecture goes, the space works as a complete and harmonious whole.

 It seems to me that the basilica suggests a lesson about all reforms in the Church. Reform is not bad in itself, and the Church must always be discerning its way forward, with “continuity and discontinuity at different levels,” in the happy phrase of the Pope Emeritus.

More of our reforms should be this seamless, this beautiful, this attentive to both the past and the present, preserving a sense of harmony and proportion. Reform is not destruction. It attends to the ethos of a thing. Reform in the Church respects the authentic expressions of the Church’s marks wherever they may be found.

The latest recipient of the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal, “For the Church and for the Pope,” is exemplary church musician Dr. Peter Latona, Music Director at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The award is the highest papal honor available to the laity, and is given exceedingly rarely. Dr. Latona served extensively during the visits of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis during their visits to the United States. With this medal, Pope Francis recognizes these contributions to the life of the Church.

What makes this honor particularly well-deserved, in my opinion, is not only Dr. Latona’s work both in front of the camera and behind the scenes in these high-profile events, but the careful attention to excellence that he brings to every Mass. Music at the National Shrine is a daily job, with 4 sung Masses every day of the year. When Dr. Latona plays a daily Mass, the music is exquisite, particularly during the time of Communion meditation. It might be easy to “fill” music at these less visible events, instead of really playing, but that is not his way. He really plays, composes, carefully curates, and the results are a wonderful example for Catholic cathedrals and parishes to follow.

Congratulations! Ad multos annos!

For some years, Massachusetts-based hymn expert Peter Meggison has been working to keep classic devotional hymns alive by commissioning new recordings of them.  Having made over a dozen sessions with choirs and small ensembles, he distributes the songs on CDs and on the web.  Most of the music on the site is from the era 1850-1950, and represents popular hymns sung at Catholic Masses and devotions in America and England.

This summer he collaborated with conductor and organist Michael Olbash to offer something different. Instead of late-Victorian hymns in English, the aim was to present a once-familiar sound from the traditional Mass itself: the sound of the Latin chants of the Requiem Mass, sung with organ accompaniment.

A choir of 11 met for an afternoon in St. John Church in Clinton, Massachusetts in June to perform the music, and it is now available on the project’s website at http://www.catholicdevotionalhymns.com/recordings/2016-requiem-mass/ .