Musica Domestica, by Andrew Goldstein & David Clayton, Available for Pre-order

A two-volume songbook for Catholic families, with a pointed psalter, sacred songs and chants, and folk songs following the liturgical year, published by Word on Fire Publications

Two years ago I gave a talk to a gathering of parents and faculty of a classical academy in South Bend, Indiana. I spoke of my vision of families praying the psalms and singing songs together, with their neighbors, before the icon corner in the home. This would be part of how the Domestic Church, as envisaged by Pope Benedict XVI, could be the engine driving an authentic New Evangelization. Afterward, one of the parents, Andrew Goldstein, approached me and, as it turned out, shared the same idea. He asked me if I had a version of chants and psalms for English that used Gregorian chant. He had Volume I prepared but was looking for material for Volume II, psalms and canticles. I immediately sent him a pointed version of the Coverdale Psalter with tones that married text and music in a system I had developed and fine-tuned over 20 years. When he described his full vision to me, I knew immediately that Musica Domestica would be a gold mine for families and homes wanting to pray and sing together. Now, as a result, my hope is that we can all contribute constructively to the evangelization of the culture through song, prayer, and worship in the domestic church.

We created a website, musicadomestica.com, with accompanying resources, including musical scores, instructional videos, and recordings of the music. The arrangements are simple and easy to learn, featuring traditional chants, songs, and hymns that run through the cycle of the liturgical year. This isn’t for musical experts, but for any family that just wants to sing together. If you can sing in the shower or in the car happily when you think no one is listening, then you can sing what these volumes contain too. This is better than good clean fun - it is fun that cleanses us; it helps purify the soul! Word on Fire Publications will publish the book in February 2027 (it is available for pre-order now through the musicadomestica.com website), and I will share more information closer to the release date.

However, if you want a preview, Andrew Goldstein is presenting at the annual conference of the De Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture on the morning of Friday, October 2nd. The session, entitled Forming the Soul: Music, Liturgy and Contemplation, is chaired by Fr. Innocent Smith, O.P., and the title of Andrew’s presentation is “Musica Domestica: Forming Families to Sing With Angels.”

Later that weekend, on Saturday, October 3rd, I will be speaking at the 2026 Conference of the Diocese of Portland, Maine, entitled The Aesthetic of Ascent. Appearing alongside me will be my old friends and fellow artists Dony McManus and Henry Wingate. I will talk about why the 7th Ecumenical Council mandates that Catholics pray with images, and give directions on how to pray with them in the icon corner of the Domestic Church. I will also give several introductory sessions on how to pray the psalms at home using the method outlined in Musica Domestica.

More to come as we get closer to the release date...but in the meantime:

Here is Andrew’s version of how it happened: One night, I sat with my eldest daughter to read Little House on the Prairie. As we read these words, “Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods”, my daughter turned to me and asked, “Can you play music while I go to sleep?” Truthfully, I had no answer. As a professional musician myself, I should have had every tool needed to bring music into my family’s day-to-day life. Yet I came up short on any resource that empowered me to do that, not only as a musician but as a Catholic father. So, David Clayton and I set to work to create what we ourselves needed.‍ ‍

And here are two endorsements:

“In Musica Domestica, the reader will encounter not merely a handbook of song but an opportunity for restoring memory, culture, and a rightly ordered domestic life. Against the fragmentation and passivity of modern entertainment (and church music that slavishly imitates it), this work restores to practitioners the ancient Christian understanding that music belongs first to the household and the common Christian life. Rooted in the Catholic vision of truth, goodness, and beauty, Musica Domestica unites liturgical tradition, folk inheritance, and practical instruction with unusual clarity and charity. It is both learned and humane: an invitation for families to recover song as a source of joy, formation, fellowship, and ultimately, communion with God.” - Dr. William Fahey, Chancellor, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts

“Music is at the heart of culture. Musica Domestica puts forth a bold program to renew Christian culture through communal singing. Authors Goldstein and Clayton skillfully weave theology, history, and practical instructions for bringing spiritual song into your home and daily rhythm of life. The texts of inspired psalms, hymns, and canticles echo from three thousand years of authentic Western culture right into your living room! These songs resounded in the temple of King Solomon and all the temples of Christian worship. With Musica Domestica, these songs are brought to life again in the temple of our bodies.” - Paul Rose, creator of Sing the Hours

Workshops in June for Composers, Conductors and Choristers, with Sir James MacMillan

This June, the Catholic Sacred Music Project, run by Peter Carter, offers three separate residential workshops on the beautiful campus of Princeton University in New Jersey. They will be led by a stellar team of composers, conductors and composers: Sir James MacMillan, Gabriel Crouch, Paul Jernberg, Dr James Jordan and Dr Timothy McDonnell.

In the week of June 9-15, the CSMP Composition Institute and CSMP Choral Institute will occur simultaneously, culminating in the choristers singing the new works by the composers. The following week, the CSMP Conductors’ Institute will take place, June 16-21.

Details are given in the three posters below, one for each workshop; also see the Catholic Sacred Music Project website: sacredmusicproject.org.

The Catholic Sacred Music Project was founded in 2021 to provide spiritual and musical formation for Catholic musicians in order to effect a widespread renewal of sacred music in the Church. 

I will be present through my association (as Artist-in-Residence) with one of the co-sponsors, the Scala Foundation. Other co-sponsors are Paul Jernberg’s Magnificat Institute, the Benedict XVI Institute and the Aquinas Institute, which is the Catholic campus ministry for Princeton University.

Join an Online Discussion with Iconographer Jonathan Pageau, Jan 30th.

The Scala Foundation is inviting you to their next online interactive discussion, featuring the iconographer Jonathan Pageau on January 30, from 12-1 PM ET; You can RSVP by following this link; the event is free of charge. Jonathan is one of today’s leading iconographers and a widely-sought after public speaker who excels at plumbing Scripture and tradition to explore the rich symbolism of Christianity, including that of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. I certainly plan on attending!

Images of the Virgin Mary abound in nearly every Christian culture. To understand Her role in salvation, scholars often refer to Scriptural images such as the burning bush in Exodus. Why are there so many symbols that reflect on the meaning of Mary’s life? How is it that one woman has been so influential in the individual identity of so many people, the formation of the church, and the memory of nations? What does it mean to say that reality is veiled through symbols? How does Marian imagery reveal universal archetypes—that is, models of a life of faith?   

Scala’s Executive Director Margarita Mooney Clayton will serve as the host of this interactive conversation. As a sociologist and contextual theologian, Mooney Clayton has written on and taught about Marian devotion among Italian, Haitian and Mexican immigrants to the United States as well as African-Americans. This online event will be structured as a seminar—a guided discussion in which the audience may interact with the hostess and guest speaker. Mr Pageau will further explore the symbolic meanings of Scripture at his keynote address at Scala’s conference on Art, the Sacred and the Common Good on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary, April 21-22.

If you RSVP here, Scala Foundation will send the link for participation to anyone who registers. And if you haven’t done so already, register to join Margarita and me in-person or via livestream for Scala’s annual conference from April 21-22, 2023, featuring artists such as Mr Pageau and my old teacher Aidan Hart!

Join Us This Thursday for a Webinar on Art, Education and Cultural Renewal

Co-Sponsored by the Scala Foundation and the McGrath Institute for Church Life (Notre Dame University)

I will be interviewed this coming Thursday, September 30th, by Margarita Mooney Suarez, Executive Director of the Scala Foundation. You can register in advance to attend live, here. The interview starts at 12 noon EDT and lasts for an hour.

The Scala Foundation was founded by Margarita Mooney Suarez to promote the renewal of culture in America through the integration of beauty and wisdom in the liberal arts.

It is difficult to know precisely where the conversation will go in the course of the webinar, but the aim is to help viewers see why art is so crucial to a classical liberal arts education that aims to foster creativity and scientific innovation. We will also reflect on practical ways to incorporate beauty into educational curricula and faith communities. By pairing classical understandings of art like Vitruvius, Boethius, Bonaventure, and Palladio—all of whom saw a connection between mathematics and art—with modern voices like Pope Benedict the XVI and (much to my delight) my old mentor, the late Stratford Caldecott, we will explore what makes the study of visual art crucial to human happiness, cultural renewal, and social order, and therefore a necessary, though often neglected, aspect of a Catholic formation.

I am looking forward to this greatly. Margarita, who is on the faculty at Princeton University, is a skilled and penetrating interviewer with a deep understanding of this field, and so it promises to be a lively and interesting conversation.

The webinar is co-sponsored by the McGrath Institute for Church Life, which is at the University of Notre Dame. The mission of the Institute is to partner with Catholic dioceses, parishes, and schools to address pastoral challenges with theological depth and rigor. By connecting the Catholic intellectual life to the life of the Church, they aim to form faithful Catholic leaders for service to the Church and the world.