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Posted on by Richard Chonak

Colloquium Day 3: All Together

Before I write about Wednesday, let me follow up with a little more information about events that took place on Tuesday:

Thanks to Joel Morehouse (of the Setnor School of Music, Syracuse) for posting additional photos of the Mass at St. John the Apostle Church (the pro-cathedral) at our sister site New Liturgical Movement, where Joel is also a contributor on parish music and liturgy.

At the CMAA members meeting on Tuesday, general manager Janet Gorbitz announced that the 2017 Sacred Music Colloquium will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, from June 19 to 24, and one of the Masses will be offered at the historic St. Agnes Church in remembrance of Monsignor Richard Schuler, the long-time pastor and musician, co-founder of the CMAA, and editor of the journal Sacred Music.

In addition, Janet announced that registration is open for CMAA’s 2017 Winter Sacred Music event, to be held at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Birmingham, Alabama next January.

On Wednesday, Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral in St. Louis opened their doors and their organ loft to Prof. Ann Labounsky (Duquesne) who presented a breakout session on repertoire for pianists making the transition to the king of instruments:

And here is a view from the transept of Christ Church Cathedral:

At the end of the afternoon, Holy Mass at the Shrine of St. Joseph:

After Holy Mass, colloquium attendees came together in front of the Shrine for a group photo:

(Photo credits: Rene Zajner)

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

CMAA Colloquium: The Next Generation

This evening after Compline a group of the young and not- so- young met together in a corner of the hotel lobby rather spontaneously to sing and say the Rosary.

Just one more blessed moment in the wonderful and ever new movement we call The Church Music Association of America.

Posted on by Richard Chonak

Colloquium Day 2: Let’s get started

Some glimpses of Tuesday at the Colloquium:

After morning prayer and breakfast, the first session is a chant rehearsal:
at the men’s schola session taught by Wilko Brouwers,
the curve of a neume on the paper is echoed by its counterpart outside.

In Tuesday’s plenary address,
Dr. Mahrt describes the “musical shape” of the liturgy.

Colleen Crafton from the Ward Center in Richmond, VA
brought her own choristers (!) to demonstrate a Ward Method lesson.

Photographer Rene Zajner listens in
as David Hughes (of St. Mary’s, Norwalk) and some colloquium participants
try out new compositions the latter have brought.

Scott Turkington (and his double, through the looking-glass)
present a session on conducting polyphony.
As the polyphony rehearsals begin,
Charles Cole from the London Oratory School
brings the motet choir together with some exercises.

And after that session, it is time to put things into practice, to sing for Mass at the Pro-Cathedral of St. John.

Horst Buchholz (our host this week at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis) directs the Mozart choir in Tallis’ This is my commandment:

And with Holst’s famous tune, the Mass is ended.

[UPDATE: Joel Morehouse has additional photos of the Mass and information on the music presented at our sister site New Liturgical Movement.]

Posted on by Richard Chonak

Colloquium Day 1: Greetings and Felicitations

The 26th Sacred Music Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America began Monday evening in St. Louis. At the City Center Hotel, participants enjoyed a festive reception and dinner and were welcomed by chaplain Rev. Robert Pasley, the rector of Mater Ecclesiae Church in Berlin, NJ; and by our president, Prof. William Mahrt (Stanford).

The evening was made complete by a concert at the City Library, presented by Pro Arte Saint Louis, the early music ensemble conducted and co-founded by CMAA vice president Horst Buchholz.

(Photo credit: Rene Zajner)
Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

On the Discernment of Charisms, and Suffering

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recently released a Letter on the Charisms in the Church. The charismatic life is both strange and perfectly normal, because of the abiding presence in the Church of the Holy Spirit who “fills the whole world,” according to the introit for Pentecost.

The letter refreshingly does not focus as some would on the opposition between order and charism, but rightly notes that there are hierarchical gifts as well as charismatic gifts, and they are meant to exist in ordered communion for the life of the Church.

One of the helpful paragraphs in the letter, and one that will strike a chord with many musicians, is in the section that explains how charisms are discerned. St. Paul said to test the spirits. What are the tests? According to the CDF, among them is this:

Acceptance of moments of trial in the discernment of charisms. Because a charismatic gift may imply “a certain element of genuine originality and of special initiative for the spiritual life of the Church” and in its surrounding “may appear troublesome”, it follows that one criteria of authenticity manifests itself as “humility in bearing with adversities”, such that: “The true relation between genuine charism, with its perspectives of newness, and interior suffering, carries with it an unvarying history of the connection between charism and cross”. Any tensions that may arise are a call to the practice of greater charity in view of the more profound ecclesial communion and unity that exists

 One sees this kind of suffering most readily in the founders of religious communities, who almost as a matter of course endure all sorts of bewildering disappoints of the kind St. Raymond of Penyafort once mentioned:

The sword falls with double and treble force externally when, without cause being given, there breaks out from within the Church persecution in spiritual matters, where wounds are more serious, especially when inflicted by friends.

The lives of the saints are chock full of these often surprising events and persecutions.

Church musicians of the reform-of-the-reform will readily recognize times when they felt that they or their friends appeared “troublesome” instead of eminently useful for the sake of the sacred liturgy. This is a painful experience for an artist, but one which should be endured faithfully and with humility.

Posted on by Scelata

In Praise of the Delightful Book of Psalms. Balm for Our Spiritual Health

It is a truism in musical theatre, (apart from opera, which is through composed,) when our emotions are too “big” to be spoken, we must sing them.
St Ambrose knew that:

    Moses, when he related the deeds of the patriarchs, did so in a plain and unadorned style. But when he had miraculously led the people of Israel across the Red Sea… he transcended his own skills (just as the miracle had transcended his own powers) and he sang a triumphal song to the Lord. Miriam the prophetess herself took up a timbrel and led the others in the refrain: Sing to the Lord: he has covered himself in glory, horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

     History instructs us, the law teaches us, prophecy foretells, correction punishes, morality persuades; but the book of psalms goes further than all these. It is medicine for our spiritual health. Whoever reads it will find in it a medicine to cure the wounds caused by his own particular passions ..
     And as for the power of prophecy – what can I say? Other prophets spoke in riddles. To the psalmist alone, it seems, God promised openly and clearly that the Lord Jesus would be born of his seed: I promise that your own son will succeed you on the throne.
     Thus in the book of psalms Jesus is not only born for us: he also accepts his saving passion, he dies, he rises from the dead, he ascends into heaven, he sits at the Father’s right hand. The Psalmist announced what no other prophet had dared to say, that which was later preached by the Lord himself in the Gospel.