Interviews with Catholic Composers — (3) Tate Pumfrey

Today we interview a Canadian composer, Tate Pumfrey, who specializes in English hymns in the grand old style, with newly-written hymn texts of strong diction, rhyme, and meter. (As we learn in the interview, the texts are contributed by an Australian, Christian Catsanos, also pictured below.)

Tate Pumfrey, composer (left); Christian Catsanos, hymnodist (right)

Tell us about your musical background.

I’ve had a wandering road to get to where I am today. I played several instruments in my youth, but few of them really stuck with me. That said, I have been a singer for a long time and still sing quite regularly in a choral capacity. I started playing the pipe organ sporadically in high school before I began serious organ lessons in my first year of university (albeit outside of school) with Gilles Maurice Leclerc, of Ottawa, Ontario. Gilles is still a good friend, and he had a large impact on me. Not only is he an excellent organist and improvisor, he’s also a talented composer. He has been so kind as to look at my pieces and offer feedback, and I still send him my music.

How was your interest in composing sacred music enkindled? 

I started to become interested in writing sacred music around the same time I became interested in the Traditional Latin Mass, although I’m not sure if there’s a direct correlation. One day in October 2017, I spontaneously wrote a little hymn, both text and music, but was largely dissatisfied with my poetry. When a second hymn seemed to fall out of my head in February 2018, I wanted to see if I could find someone to write texts for my music. I sent out a call for a text writer in a Facebook group for church musicians, and a young organist from Australia, named Christian Catsanos, got in touch with me. Before I’d even sent him the music for this second hymn, I told him that the lines were 8.7.8.7. He sent me a text that was appropriately penitential for the mood of the music, and all seven verses fit like a glove! It has been an awesome and fruitful experience working with Christian. He writes beautiful texts, and my hymns would not be possible without his wonderful words.

Is there a sacred music composer — or are there several composers — whose work you find most captivating, either as a source of delight (however different in style from your own compositions), or as direct inspirations and models for your own work?

I have a few composers who I greatly admire in the area of sacred music, but Anton Bruckner is certainly near the top. I find his ability to write in a complex harmonic language while still respecting the traditions that came before him to be fascinating. The Kyrie from his Mass No. 2 in E Minor always gives me chills. While Bruckner is not necessarily a direct influence, his motets do inspire me to write my own pieces in that vein someday. Another composer I enjoy is Ralph Vaughan Williams. While he wasn’t Catholic, I very much like his style of hymnody. His harmonizations are superb, and I love his use of modes and his melodic writing. Other favourites include William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Manuel Cardoso, Flor Peeters, Jean Langlais, and Louis Vierne, as well as the Anglo-Canadian composer Healey Willan.

If you were given an unlimited budget for musicians for a solemn pontifical Mass, what works would you put on the program? 

Of all the settings I could pick, and while it lacks an orchestral accompaniment, I would have to choose Peeters’ Missa Festiva. Scored for organ and SATBarB choir, this wonderfully modal work is one of my absolute favourite Mass settings. It lacks the operatic tendencies that one might find in Bruckner, and is overall a serious and beautiful work. I love how Peeters comes up with fascinating backdoors into other modes and chromatic avenues that are unexpected, all of which adds to the mystery and grandeur that one would hope to find in a proper Mass setting.  Honourable mentions include Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor, Cardoso’s Missa Miserere mihi Domine, any of Byrd’s three Mass settings, Vierne’s Messe Solennelle, Langlais’ Messe Salve Regina, as well as the contemporary setting by Yves Castagnet, also titled Messe Salve Regina.

Many have been pointing to generational dynamics in the Catholic Church. Have you encountered such dynamics in your own life and work?

Over the years, my taste in church music has shifted, and I now prefer Gregorian chant and traditional hymnody over the so-called “folk hymns” that I grew up with. As for a generational dynamic, I’ve found that many of my young Catholic friends are also drawn to that which is old and timeless, even if they are not able to attend the Extraordinary Form on a regular basis. This is in stark contrast to the older generations of parishioners, who in my experience seem to prefer the “folk hymns” to what they might call the “moldy oldies.”

I sang in my first year of university with the Adoramus Choir at St. Patrick’s Basilica in Ottawa, Ontario. We did chanted Mass parts, sang a motet most Sundays, and used strong, traditionally-styled hymns. While the liturgy was in the Ordinary Form, the time I spent there had a big impact on me, as I became acquainted with both Latin and Gregorian chant. When some university-age friends at Western University in London, Ontario during my second year asked me if I wanted to “try out” the Traditional Latin Mass, I said yes. I have been going most Sundays since then. I love singing chant, and everything that goes along with traditional Catholicism.

As far as traditionally stylings of my own music, I find the seemingly old-fashioned form of four-part hymnody very attractive. This is not to say that everyone my age find traditional sacred music as attractive. Some young Catholics I know are quite attached to the so-called “praise and worship music” (which is largely Protestant in origin); I find that style unappealing. It is musically difficult to distinguish it from popular songs on the radio, and the constant use of “I” statement, such as, “here I am to worship,” shows a tendency toward self-absorption, not worship of the Lord Almighty. This kind of music is a complete barrier to my prayer. Hence, I write traditional, four-part hymns that “sound like church,” even to someone who has rarely attended. By its very definition, sacred music ought to be set-apart, and this is exactly what I aim to do with my newly composed hymns.

What are some strengths and weaknesses you see in the “traditionalist” movement, particularly from a musical point of view?

I find the “traditionalist” movement to be strong in its support of good, reverent sacred music, especially chant, the music that is supposed to have pride of place in the liturgy. I love chant and the reverence it brings to Mass, and I feel we’ve lost a great treasury of beauty with the lessened use of chant. I must also say that I’ve been blest to have some of my hymns sung at the local Traditional Latin Mass, which has further encouraged me to continue composing. My main concern is that there is at times a sense of negativity about the future, but other than that, my time with the “traditional” movement and the Tridentine Mass has been a time of great spiritual growth and has also given me a refuge from the intensity of the outside world.

What are some of your future plans as a composer?

As I am now in my fourth year of an undergraduate degree in music, I hope to pursue a master’s and perhaps even a PhD in composition. I love to compose, both sacred music, as well as more secular, instrumental pieces, and I hope to go as far as I can with my music, as long as God wills it. Even if I do not go as far as a PhD, I will continue to write hymns and other sacred works.

Triptych for Viola and Piano

Postlude for Organ

The three hymns featured here may be purchased in a collection of 24 hymns for the Church year (link at Amazon):

Biography of the Composer
Tate Pumfrey (b. 1998) of Thamesville, Ontario, Canada is a music student at Western University, where he studies composition. Growing up in household with a musical mother, he played many instruments over the years and has more recently taken up the pipe organ. Composition has long been a part of Tate’s life, as he would “invent” tunes and pieces for friends as a kid. He began composing formally in high school, where composition lessons with Mr. Jim Brown helped him get his music off the ground. Now in his fourth year of an undergraduate degree, he hopes to continue his studies with a Master’s of Composition. For Tate, faith and music are deeply connected, and as such, it was a natural progression for him to write church music as well as secular classical music. His website is tatepumfreymusic.com and can be reached at tatepumfreymusic@gmail.com.

Biography of the Hymnodist
Christian Walter John Catsanos is an organist and hymnodist. He was born in Sydney, Australia in 1993 and began his work as a hymnodist in 2004. His work has been largely influenced by the mentorship of Dr. Richard Connolly and Mrs. Donrita Reefman. Having had an interest in sacred music and having been a singer in his school’s chapel choir, Christian held an organist post at the school from 2006 until 2011. Since then, he has held several parochial organist positions starting in 2007. Christian holds a Bachelor of Music in organ performance from the Australian Institute of Music, awarded in 2017. He can be reached at christianwaltercatsanos@gmail.com. 

A New Mass Composed for a New Religious Community

Catholic Arts Today, the website of the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship published an interview yesterday with composer Frank La Rocca, concerning a new Mass which he has composed for the Contemplatives of St Joseph. This is a new religious community which has been founded in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and will be formally established by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone on May 1st, the feast of St Joseph the Worker. The Missa Sancti Joseph will be sung for the first time at the Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco, starting at 11 a.m., right after the ceremony of consecrating the order’s first prior. The church is located at 307 Willow Avenue. As an example of Mr La Rocca's work, here is his setting of O magnum mysterium from his Youtube channel.

Here are some excerpts from the interview. As you can read, he is a composer who really thinks about the sacred character of the music to be used in the liturgy. (If only we had a few dozen more like him!)

CAT Editors: What composers, if any, influence you and how? Did any composer specifically influence your composition for the Missa Sancti Ioseph?
Frank La Rocca: At this stage of my career, my influences are largely subliminal. That is, I am not consciously aware of any influences per se as I am working. What others have sometimes told me is that they hear the vocal texture of Renaissance polyphony with a harmonic language a bit like Bruckner. This is a sound, therefore, very much in continuity with the Church’s great treasury of sacred music, but in a harmonic language informed by more recent developments in harmony. Since this is music for Liturgy, it would not be appropriate to try to project any kind of highly individualistic voice in the music, such as one might do in a concert work. Seeking to assert a quality of ‘originality’ for its own sake could very well lead to music that would distract from the interior participation in the Liturgy that sacred music is supposed to facilitate.

This restraint, if you will, is not something all composers are willing to exert, but as Popes from Pius X to Benedict XVI have taught, such an approach conforms to the true “Spirit of the Liturgy” (the title of Benedict XVI’s excellent book, which I recommend to anyone interested in the questions surrounding music in the Liturgy). ...

CAT Editors: Is there a specific reason why you have the soprano starting the Kyrie and Agnus Dei, which is not very common in chant-based polyphony? What inspired you to start with the soprano and not the tenor?
Frank La Rocca: The reason is twofold: First, this is not a chant-based Mass. Second, and more importantly, these are the penitential movements of the Mass. The soprano voice, traditionally associated with a child’s voice in an all-male Schola, was (in the Bach Passions for example) often assigned the role of the ‘believer’ or the ‘catechumen’. When we come before God to seek forgiveness, we should approach Him with a childlike receptivity (Matt 19:14). I seek to express that childlike disposition through the use of the soprano voice.

CAT Editors: Were there any special spiritual influences that went into the composition of this music?
Frank La Rocca: There are always spiritual influences in my music, as there are in many composers’ music, even when the subject is not explicitly religious. But more specifically, I sought in this Mass to capture a tone of humility, obedience, and reverence, since these are qualities embodied especially by St. Joseph in his role as the foster father of our Lord. Indeed, among the Saints, only the Virgin Mary can be said to have more deeply and perfectly embodied these traits. So this is for me a particularly “conservative” work, an approach I found entirely in keeping with the spirituality of St. Joseph.

A Call for Papers on “Music: Its Theologies and Spiritualities—A Global Perspective”

The online journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444, http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions) is currently running a Special Issue titled “Music: Its Theologies and Spiritualities—A Global Perspective”, which is guest edited by Prof. Dr. Edward Foley of Catholic Theological Union. “Music, spirituality and theology are vast fields of study, each expanding in terms of methods and fields of inquiry at a virtually incalculable rate. This rapid expansion, however, is also the opportunity for new and unexplored intersections between these traditionally related fields....” For further reading, please visit the Special Issue website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/Its_theologies_spiritualities

The manuscript delivery deadline is October 8 , 2017. Those who wish to contribute to this volume are cordially invited to address any questions to the guest editor, Prof. Dr. Edward Foley (foley@ctu.edu) or the journal editor, Ms. Jie Gu (religions@mdpi.com).

Completed papers may be submitted to at the following link: http://susy.mdpi.com/user/manuscripts/upload?journal=religions

With the kind regards of the editorial team,
Jie Gu
Senior Assistant Editor

Lincoln Diocese Sacred Music Clinic: Beginnings and Small Steps (Guest Article by Amy Flamminio)

Our thanks to Amy Flamminio for sharing with us this report of the Sacred Music Clinic recently held by the Diocese of Lincoln Nebraska. Photos from the Southern Nebraska Register by Cathy Blankenau-Bender, reproduced by permission.

On Saturday, August 27th, the Diocese of Lincoln hosted its first ever Sacred Music Clinic at the beautiful Newman Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was a day to encourage and educate the musicians of the Diocese, which extends along the length of Nebraska, south of the Platte River from the border with Iowa to the border with Colorado; musicians were in attendance from as far away as Grant, a town of just over a thousand people.

Early in 2016, the Bishop sent each musician and parish a letter personally inviting them to come, and they responded generously, with over 230 in attendance in a venue that was soon bursting at the seams! Featured guests were Adam Bartlett, Matthew Meloche, and David Clayton, while local clinicians included Fr. Michael Zimmer, Diocesan Master of Ceremonies, Jessica Ligon, Cathedral Music Teacher, Nicholas Lemme, Music Director at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary (FSSP), and Amy Flamminio, Cathedral Choir Director.

For close to 12 hours, attendees sang, listened, and learned. The day was packed with a lot of information to take in and felt a little overwhelming to all. But as Bishop Conley said in his address to the attendees in the morning:

Singing the Mass is not easy. But we come together in gatherings like this to learn to make the mystery of the Mass as beautiful as possible. To make a gift of ourselves, by giving God our best efforts, and our best music, and our trust…I know that what we learn here will be a lot. And I know that some of it might be unfamiliar. I know it might seem like the chants, and propers, and polyphonies of the Church’s tradition might not fit in ordinary parish worship. Do not be overwhelmed. Everything starts with small steps. I encourage you to take what you learn here today, and pray about how you might incorporate what you have learned in the worship at your parish. To begin at the beginning, with small steps, and to trust the Lord, as he leads us all to worship Him with beauty, making sacred worship all about God, who loves us, and gives himself to us, who is the source of all beauty, and who is a mystery.

One attendee said, it was a day that awakened her to the Church’s vision of Beauty. While much of what was done at the clinic’s liturgies, such as the opening Morning Prayer and closing Mass, cannot be put into practice at her small town parish, it led her to desire an awareness of the beauty of the Propers of the Mass, of singing the Mass, and not just singing at the Mass. As another attendee described it, they left excited about finding ways to “implement some new and beautiful things in our liturgies over time!”

Due to the wide variety in the sizes of parishes, musical experience, and the abilities of musicians throughout the diocese, almost all of them volunteers, the clinic’s goal clinic was to provide the tools that will enable musicians to begin a liturgical renewal in their parish, at whatever level they are capable. Fr. Daniel Rayer, chairman of the Diocese’s Liturgical Commission, said in his homily at the closing Mass, “just as in the parable of the talents, some of us have been given one talent, some five, and some ten talents, we must give the best that we can, even if for some of us that is only one talent.”

For most attendees, the most useful part of the day was a session on hymn selection. Most parishes are not at a point in which they can switch to singing the Mass antiphons, so participants were encouraged to find ways to use the antiphons when they pick a “suitable hymn” for different parts of the Mass. They were also encouraged to consider introducing antiphons at Communion before singing a hymn, whether in a simple psalm tone or through some of the wonderful resources in English available through Illuminare Publications, CMAA, CCWatershed, and others. For others, the clinic will lead to a focus on singing the Ordinary, the responsorial psalms, and dialogues of the Mass.

Responses to the day, while varied, were overwhelmingly positive, as people were moved by beauty and by the knowledge that they can use “small steps” in their move to better “singing the Mass and not just at the Mass.”

The “small steps” in this renewal of the liturgy will include making the Sacred Music Clinic an annual event, with breakout sessions and varying focus each year. In an effort to reach all parts of the diocese, smaller clinics may eventually be offered in different towns and cities along Nebraska. This beginning is one of communication, education, beauty, and God’s grace.

The author conducting one of the sessions.

— Talks and topics included:
• Singing the Mass: The Musical Structure of the Liturgy, by Adam Bartlett
• Introducing Sacred Music to a Parish Community, by Matthew Meloche

• Breakout Sessions
            • Responsorial Psalm 101 and Selecting Hymns for Mass, by Jessica Ligon and Amy Flamminio.
            • The “Spirit” of Vatican II: How we got to where we are and what the Council Teaches, by Rev. Michael Zimmer
            • Accompanying hymns and chant on the organ , by Matthew Meloche
            • Chant—A Deeper Look, by Adam Bartlett

• Chant Breakout Sessions
            • Chant I with Adam Bartlett focused on the Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia as well as the Ordinary for the Clinic’s Ordinary Form Mass.
            • Chant II for Women, led by Amy Flamminio, had a quick introduction in how to read the 4-line staff to equip them for learning chant at home and were in responsible for the Introit, from Illuminare Publications, for the evening liturgy.
            • The men’s session, led by Matthew Meloche, prepared the Offertory Antiphon, also from Illuminare Publications, for the day. • Chant III, led by Nicholas Lemme, prepared and sang the Gregorian Communion Antiphon for Mass, alternating verses and antiphon between men and women.

Amy Flamminio is an organist, choir director, piano teacher, and writer, who has served as music director at St. Mary’s in Ashland, Nebraska, and is currently serving as a choir director at St. Peter’s in Lincoln and the Cathedral of the Risen Christ, while also sitting on the Diocese’s Liturgical Commission since 2014. She graduated from UNL where she majored in Music (piano performance); while there, she was awarded a UCARE grant to study and write her senior thesis on the study and practice of Gregorian Chant, which she later published (as Amy Danielle Waddle) in the Sacred Music journal of the Church Music Association of America. While attending UNL, Amy directed a Schola that sang for Latin Novus Ordo Masses at the Newman Center and hosted an annual ecumenical concert with Orthodox and Catholic choirs. She also writes for LincolnCMN.blogspot.com and has been published at Catholic Exchange, Nebraska Music Teachers Association, and others.

A New Polyphonic Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel

The FSSP church in Littleton, Colorado, dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, will celebrate its patronal feast this evening with a polyphonic Mass newly composed for the occasion. The composer, Mr J Lee Graham, has worked together with the church’s music director, Mr Rick Wheeler, to provide not just a Kyriale, but a complete set of Mass propers as well, in alternating chant and polyphony, the two sets of pieces being conceived and written as a unit, and sharing various themes. The website Denver Catholic reports on the project, and includes three really excellent samples from the Mass, which you can listen to by clicking here.

In their own expression of love for Mary and gratitude for their church, the choir at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Latin Rite Parish will perform a one-of-a-kind sound during a solemn traditional Mass July 16. Using Medieval chants and polyphony... the parish will honor its patron Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Rick Wheeler, music director for the parish, said he doesn’t think there’s another Mass with music like it. “As far as we know, no other (polyphonic Mass) in history begins in the way ours does,” he said. He worked with fellow composer and friend Lee Graham to create a music score for the 7 p.m. feast day Mass at the Littleton parish that celebrates the Tridentine Mass. ... The music for the Mass will imitate that of France, Spain and Italy around the 1500s and is inspired by the work of Tomás Luis de Victoria, a famous 16th-century composer in Spain. “We took many examples of polyphonic Masses of the 1500s and 1600s and noticed one specific characteristic that stuck out to us: an alternation of chant and polyphony,” Wheeler said. “Both of us quickly came to the conclusion that the Mass had to be like that very historical style.” The music score for the Mass fluctuates between the Gregorian chants written specifically for the Mass and polyphony written by Graham, sung in Latin—and some Greek—by a choir of more than a dozen men and women, Wheeler said.

The church is located at 5612 South Hickory Circle in Littleton, Colorado; the Mass begins at 7 p.m.

Image from the parish website

Earliest Known Piece of Polyphonic Music Discovered

This news dates back over a month, but was just brought to my attention today. The website of the University of Cambridge published a report last December on the discovery of a manuscript fragment which contains the oldest known piece of polyphonic music. (Click the link above to read the complete article.)

The earliest known practical example of polyphonic music - a piece of choral music written for more than one part - has been found in a British Library manuscript in London.

The inscription is believed to date back to the start of the 10th century and is the setting of a short chant dedicated to Boniface, patron Saint of Germany. It is the earliest practical example of a piece of polyphonic music – the term given to music that combines more than one independent melody – ever discovered.

Written using an early form of notation that predates the invention of the stave, ... (t)he piece was discovered by Giovanni Varelli, a PhD student from St John’s College, University of Cambridge, while he was working on an internship at the British Library. He discovered the manuscript by chance, and was struck by the unusual form of the notation. Varelli specialises in early musical notation, and realised that it consisted of two vocal parts, each complementing the other.

Polyphony defined most European music up until the 20th century, but it is not clear exactly when it emerged. Treatises which lay out the theoretical basis for music with two independent vocal parts survive from the early Middle Ages, but until now the earliest known examples of a practical piece written specifically for more than one voice came from a collection known as The Winchester Troper, which dates back to the year 1000.
Varelli’s research suggests that the author of the newly-found piece – a short “antiphon” with a second voice providing a vocal accompaniment – was writing around the year 900.

... the piece is also significant because it deviates from the convention laid out in treatises at the time. This suggests that even at this embryonic stage, composers were experimenting with form and breaking the rules of polyphony almost at the same time as they were being written.

“What’s interesting here is that we are looking at the birth of polyphonic music and we are not seeing what we expected,” Varelli said....

Nicolas Bell, music curator at the British Library, said "This is an exciting discovery. When this manuscript was first catalogued in the eighteenth century, nobody was able to understand these unusual symbols. We are delighted that Giovanni Varelli has been able to decipher them and understand their importance to the history of music."

The complete text of the antiphon is: Sancte Bonifati, martyr inclyte Christi, te quaesumus ut nos tuis precibus semper gratiae Dei commendare digneris. (Saint Boniface, renowned martyr of Christ, we ask thee that by thy prayers, thou may ever deign to commend us to the grace of God.)

British Library MS Harley 3019, with the polyphonic antiphon Sancte Bonifati. Image from the original article.  

The video below shows the piece being performed by Quintin Beer (left) and John Clapham (right), both music undergraduates at St John’s College, University of Cambridge.

Fr. Guy Nicholls on Chant and Mass Propers

This is the September 17th 2011, inaugural address by Fr. Guy Nicholls for the Blessed John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music, which is certainly one of the more important musical and liturgical initiatives in the UK to appear in many years. His address is extremely valuable, and demonstrates a growing consensus on these issues in all English-speaking countries.

Your Grace, my brother Oratorians, and all brothers and sisters in Christ, welcome to this inaugural event of the Blessed John Henry Newman Institute for Liturgical Music.

The Founder of our Oratory, Blessed Cardinal Newman, is better known in the modern world as an educationalist, writer, theologian and philosopher than as a musician and liturgist. Yet to ignore these latter aspects of his life would seriously distort our understanding of his personality and of his vocation. It is true that Newman did not write a great deal about music and liturgy, but he practised them both a great deal. He played the violin from an early age and to a high standard of proficiency, and we know that he was happiest at Littlemore when he was teaching plainsong to his schoolchildren with the aid of his violin. When he came to Birmingham, he set up and even at times conducted, the Choir at High Mass – for whom his rules are still extant; and the story is still told how in his advanced old age as a Cardinal, it was his custom to sit by the door into Church, at the back of what is now his shrine, in order to hear and enjoy the singing of the choir at High Mass. As a priest, the central act of his vocation was the offering of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the fostering of a more dignified worship of Almighty God. Just like his pastoral concerns as a priest, much of what Blessed John Henry did from day to day is now only known to God and to those who benefited from his ministry. That we do not know much about them is not because they were unimportant, but because they were not the matter of his vast body of writing which he has bequeathed to us.

Let us go on then, simply acknowledging that this great Oratorian priest knew and made use of the power of the Church's liturgy to sanctify souls and prepare them for heaven. This is exactly what we also aim to do in our own time and place.

Why, then, should it be desirable to set up an Institute for Liturgical Music now? In the first place, we want to help as many people as possible, priests and laity, musicians and congregations, to come to know and use freely, the resources of what the Second Vatican Council Fathers called “the Treasury of Sacred Music” , and described as “a treasure of inestimable price”. This needs explaining. In what does such a treasury consist? It is not simply the sum total of everything musical ever composed for, or used in, the Liturgy. The Council makes explicit that it is talking here principally about two kinds of music: first, as “proper to the Roman liturgy”, Gregorian Chant, which should therefore have first place in liturgical actions; then secondly other types of sacred music, but especially polyphony. These are, of course, sung forms of music. Instrumental music is not dealt with directly under this heading, though it is important to note in passing that the Council fathers single out for special mention the Organ, whose sound can “add a wonderful splendour” to the Church's ceremonies and “powerfully raise minds towards God and heavenly things”.

Keeping for the moment to the matter of sung sacred music, we note that the Council recognises that the entire liturgical assembly has its proper roles, its proper repertoires. There is music for the celebrant, the ministers, the choir, the cantor and the congregation. None of these excludes the others. The crucial bond that unites then all is that they should all foster “participatio actuosa”, a well known phrase, but notoriously difficult to render well in English. It has been generally translated as “active participation”, and as such has been taken to mean that the entire congregation should be actively doing something if it is to be actively participating. But deeper reflection on this phrase and on its context within the liturgical aims of the Council Fathers suggests another meaning altogether: “actuosa” should mean “actual”, a real engagement of the whole person. Sometimes, indeed often, this will involve some form of activity, such as singing or speaking or a particular posture or gesture. But it need not require all of those at all times. Anyone can be said to be “actually participating” in the liturgy who is quite simply engaged by it. That person may be doing nothing – yet participating at a deep level through being caught up in the entire experience of what is going on, and of which he is not a mere spectator, but a member of a body involved in an action which both unites and transcends all the individual persons present. So, for instance, “participatio actuosa” can equally be ascribed to a sense of awe at what one is immersed in: the beauty of architecture, art and vesture, of the dignity of the movements of the sacred ministers, of the sight and scent of the incense “rising like prayer to God” , of the singing by those who have the necessary skill and training of elaborate and moving settings of the sacred texts, just as much as it can be ascribed to congregational singing. In fact, allowing always for the importance of congregational singing, it is still possible to say that the presence of those other expressions of beauty may enhance the congregation's participation yet more than their own singing alone could do.

That brings us to another most important consideration: since liturgical music is pre-eminently sung music, what is it that should be sung? We have grown used to the style of celebration in which singing is something done during the liturgy, it matters less so what and by whom it is sung. In this country, generally speaking, the Mass is treated as a series of words and actions that are, at least by default, intrinsically spoken. If music is required, it is often inserted into the gaps left between words and actions, such as long pauses caused by processions and the distribution of Communion. It may be that the texts of what is sung are drawn from appropriate scriptural or liturgical sources, but that is often not the case, nor is it considered to be a fundamental criterion in choosing such music. When seen against the backdrop of a predominantly spoken liturgy, music is a “filler”. Nothing could be more distorting of the true nature of liturgical music. Music is not something to be added on to a liturgy that could actually do just as well without it, it is of the essence of the liturgy itself. Yet one can still ask: why should this be? Why should we consider music to be essential to the liturgy?

The truth of this claim for music to be intrinsic to the liturgy rather than an extra added on, however desirable, lies in the nature of music as an expression of the human spirit. If you want to understand what I mean, try saying the words of two familiar, yet contrasting texts: “Happy birthday to you” and “God save our gracious Queen”; how ludicrous and indeed highly unnatural it would be to recite these texts! The melodies which we associate with them are not simply “add-ons”, nor do they merely “belong” to the words, they both carry the words and enhance their expressive power. They help us both to assimilate and to communicate something contained in the words, yet at a far deeper level than the words alone can do. How much more important, then, are the words of the Liturgy! In the texts of the Mass, in the psalms of the Mass and the Divine Office, we are employing words which place us in contact with divine realities that transcend the limits of human language.

Singing the words of the liturgy enhances their power to thrill us, to move us, to mould us into a living unity in the Body of Christ. The sacred texts of the Mass are an expression of a reality that is far deeper than we can know, but we can touch it, we can express it, we can enhance our receptivity to it by the power of the music that belongs intrinsically to it.

It is a wonderful providence that the setting up of this new Institute of Liturgical Music should take place at the same time as the introduction of the new English translation of the Roman Missal. Many comments have been made concerning the character of the translation, and it is still unfamiliar to most of us. But what we need to note here are two central facts which are being presented to us by this new translation.

First, there is a new kind of expressiveness about the texts. They are richer in vocabulary, and more elaborate in sentence structure than were the old ICEL texts, as I shall call them. This obviously poses an initial challenge since these characteristics are in marked and deliberate contrast to those of the old ICEL texts. Yet I am confident that we will find that these qualities lend the new texts a greater power to convey a sense of the awesome difference between what we hear and say at Mass, and what we hear and say in everyday life and conversations. They come across as more lapidary, almost like inscriptions incised on stone, rather than as words simply used on the spur of the moment. This means that the liturgy will no longer sound, as it often has done, colloquial, even chatty. It is raised to what is technically called a higher “register”, a level of discourse that reflects and draws us into a higher state of communication. The liturgy, after all, transcends the limits of time and space and unites us with the angels and saints around God's throne. The language that we use in it must therefore reflect that awesome context in which we place ourselves in the celebration of the Liturgy.

The second fact central to understanding the intended effect of the new translation on our worship, is the direct encouragement given to us to sing these texts. As Mgr. Wadsworth, the Executive Director of ICEL has pointed out, the new Missal is the most musically well-endowed in history. The texts of the Mass: greetings, prayers, acclamations, readings, meditations on the sacred word, all these are intended to be sung. This intention is made clear in the fact that all these musical settings are placed, not in an appendix at the back of the book, as frequently heretofore, but in the body of the book, exactly where it is used day by day.

This may well frighten some people. Music, they may say, is for the experts, for the choir or the music group, but not for the priest, deacon, lector, or even the entire congregation. Some may object that it is simply too difficult or too unfamiliar, but if you look closely at the Missal without prejudice, it is possible to see that the music written there is not designed to be sung by experts, but by anybody. It is designed to be an ordinary and familiar expression of the faith of the Church in action. It may seem unfamiliar at first, because we have long since grown to be unfamiliar with the idea of singing the Mass, as opposed to singing during the Mass. What the Church invites us to do in receiving the new translation is to learn to recognise it as something “beyond the prosaic” . Music, even very simple chants, help to achieve that end.

Which brings us to consider the chants themselves. This morning we are going to experience the new translation of the Mass in its musical form. We are, of course, familiar with what I may call the “flow” of the Mass, its regular exchanges between ministers and people, its alternating texts which are listened to with texts that constitute a reply, its statements of faith or expressions of sorrow, worship, adoration, praise and thanksgiving. Now we are being invited to take that familiar “flow” and make it deeper, more profound and, perhaps, more poetical. Familiarity with what may come across as banal and prosaic can only fail to feed the hungry soul. Familiarity with what is beautiful and rich in expression can stand the test of repetition and continue to disclose ever new depths of meaning. The chants of the Missal, which we are about to hear in their proper context and flow from beginning to end, may seem at first rather remote. Some of them are couched in a musical style that will be unfamiliar. They are not rhythmic. There is no sense that the texts are being forced to take on the shape of an independently existing melody. The melody flows out from the words themselves and takes on the patterns of speech. Most of us are not used to this kind of singing. Yet it is the bedrock of all liturgical singing over the ages. We call it plainchant to describe its relatively unassuming character. Yet it undoubtedly has the power to enhance the word.

So much for the words of the Mass which remain relatively unchanged from day to day. Yet there are others words which also belong to the Mass, and with which we may be less familiar. These other words, or texts, do change from day to day, to express the character of the particular feast or season. They are familiar as, for example, the short sentences which are usually read out at the beginning of Mass and at Communion time: the Entrance and Communion Antiphons. These texts are just as much a proper part of the Mass as the unchanging ones. Yet they are often omitted at a Mass which is sung, because they are not considered important. Instead, they are usually replaced by hymns or songs. It is a great loss to the effectiveness of the liturgy on us as participants that these texts are lost so often because they have usually been associated with the day or the season for as long as that feast or season has been celebrated. The chants for these texts belong to the liturgical book known as the Graduale. It is in itself a treasury of wonderful ancient chants, Gregorian Chants as they are usually known, generally sung by a choir rather than by a congregation. This morning we will use settings of these words to Gregorian chants which are simple enough for the congregation to repeat after the choir who will lead us. I hope you will see what a positive difference they make to setting the scene for the Mass which opens with one of them.

I will begin to try and draw a few threads together before concluding. In what direction does all that I have been saying point us? The work that the Blessed John Henry Institute is designed to undertake is the enhancement of Parish Liturgy. The sung liturgy is not intended to be the province of the professional choir alone, much though the Council Fathers emphasised that professional choirs should be carefully fostered wherever possible. But such things are not possible everywhere. Yet good liturgical music which aims to achieve all these ends which we have considered is both desirable and possible in any parish. Great musical skill and expertise is not necessarily required. What is needed is the desire to raise the mind and heart to God by celebrating the Liturgy itself in the most dignified and elevated way possible with the resources available. The words of psalm 46 serve as a guide: “Sing wisely”, or “with understanding.” In his book “A New Song for the Lord”, Pope Benedict interprets these words as “Sing artistically for God”. Such artistry, according to the Pope, is not meant to be understood as mere skill, but as what is done with the aim of bringing those who share in it closer to God. Pope Benedict's understanding of the power of beauty in Christian art and music is rooted in the disclosure of God's beauty through our humble and conscious attempt to co-operate with the Creator in our own acts of making and doing.

The Institute will therefore offer assistance to priests, ministers, lectors, cantors, choirs and members of the congregation, guidance on the best way to approach liturgical music. It will aim to do so, therefore, not only by giving practical training and advice, but also, I may even say especially, by giving a thorough catechesis on the theological nature of liturgical music. Music has the power to enhance the liturgy when those who are responsible for it have a deeper understanding of its proper place in the whole. Music must be the servant of the liturgy and of the whole Church gathered together in God's presence. We hope to help bring about a deeper understanding of what good liturgical music is, and how to perform it. We hope to offer guidance to all those who are interested in knowing more about the history and forms of liturgical music in the Catholic Roman liturgy.

The Institute cannot function in isolation from the wider Church. There are many initiatives throughout the Church both here in the British Isles, and further afield especially in North America, whose aims are similar to our own, and whose work may well come to be closely allied to ours. There are two specific influences on me to which I wish to draw your attention. First, it would not be right for me to omit to mention my great debt to Dr Mary Berry, foundress of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, of which I was privileged to be a founder member in my undergraduate days, and of which I am now a chaplain. She strove tirelessly, though often thanklessly, for a revival and understanding of Gregorian Chant within the Church's liturgy. There are many projects now taking shape which owe a great deal to her vision, energy and her prayerful love of the Church. I also want to mention with appreciation the patient work of the Association for Latin Liturgy (ALL) with which I have had the pleasure of being closely associated for over thirty years. That Association has not only remained consistently faithful to the Church's call for the use of the Latin language in all approved forms of the Roman Liturgy , but has applied energies out of proportion to its relatively small resources to provide practical help for the implementation of that vision in parishes since its foundation. I am glad that the ALL fully supports the aims of this Institute and look forward to continuing to work with it in fostering the use of Latin in the Liturgy.

Your Grace, You do us a great honour by your presence here today. It is a providential sign to us that this new work of the Birmingham Oratory, under the protection of Blessed John Henry Newman, is fully undertaken within the unity of the local Church. That unity is expressed both by your presence here today, by your celebrating the Sacred Liturgy for us, according to the new translation of the Roman Missal and using the chant settings which have been provided for use within the liturgy. On behalf of the Fathers of the Oratory, I also thank Your Grace for kindly agreeing to be one of the Patrons of this Institute, and allowing us to work in close co-operation with the Maryvale Institute of Higher Religious Studies.

I also wish to place on record my thanks to those who have played a special part in making this Institute and its launch a possibility. First, to Fr Richard Duffield, our Provost, whose idea it was some time ago to set up an Institute for Liturgical Music here at the Oratory. I also wish to thank Mr James MacMillan, the noted Catholic Composer, who not only kindly consented to be co-patron with His Grace the Archbishop, but who has also been of great assistance in making introductions and creating links between various Catholic church musicians and proposing various plans for future development of our work. It is unfortunate that he has to be absent today, but I am happy to record that he is directing the music at the priestly ordination in Oxford of a friend of our Institute, Laurence Lew O.P., which is taking place today. Then I offer thanks and acknowledgement to those who have been most generous in their practical assistance, especially to Carol Parkinson and Graeme McNichol who have provided invaluable Administrative assistance, ably and generously helped by Philippe Lefebvre who designed the literature and the website, and to Angela Dunn, who has contributed as always most unselfishly by producing the booklets which we will be using at Mass and Vespers today. There are others, too, who deserve thanks, but I hope they will forgive me if I make my thanks to them now in a general way.

All that remains is for me to say that I hope you will enjoy the rest of this day and I will now ask His Grace to give us a blessing to inaugurate our new work.

Mass with Cardinal George

Mass with Cardinal George this morning at the Sacred Music Colloquium, Loyola University, was certainly one of the most ideal cases of the ordinary form in Latin that I've ever experienced. Men's and women's scholas sang all the propers, in addition to motets by Victoria and Palestrina, some amazing organ improvisations by Horst Buchholz, the ordinary Mass IV sung from the first to the last, and concluding with Ut Queant Laxis for the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Cardinal George's homily emphasized the interesting calendar position of this feast, and the very mid point of the year when the days begin to grow shorter and the nights longer -- just as St. John said that he must decrease and the Lord increase. In the same way, we must be humble toward the Catholic liturgy -- letting it increase and own personalities and egos decrease, a point which applies to priests and musicians and everyone. In particularly he said that sacred music has the character of deferring to the Mass in every way, never dominating or charting its own course apart from the sacred rites.

What Does the "Science" Say?

I recently wrote that Catholics are deeply unsatisfied with the status quo of music in their parishes – and I based that claim on my own extended experience in talking to Catholics about their music issues at their parish. Some people questioned my claim and asked for a “scientific” backing in the form of surveys and polls.

This scientific evidence is said to carry more weight than, for example, measuring how many laughs that a stand-up comic gets by making fun of Catholic music since the 1970s.

I’ve long looked for empirical evidence that would run either direction on the national or regional level, but never really found that tell-all piece of science that would size up what Catholics really think about music at Mass. In fact, I seriously doubt that such a thing is possible.

There are good reasons for this. There sheer heterogeneity of the liturgical experience around the country doesn’t lend itself to scientific examination. Think of your own town or even your own parish. There are many different Masses in each parish and it is nearly impossible for the newcomer to know for sure what is going on.

One might attend the 11:00am Mass for a full year without even being aware that there is a Mass at 8:00an that features a Gregorian schola, for example. Over time, people tend to stick with the Mass time they like best and come to tolerate whatever musical experience that comes with, without looking at other choices even within the same parish structure.

If it would be difficult enough for a researcher with a clipboard to gain a full picture of the liturgical experience in one parish, and assess the preferences of the people as regards that experience, the problems multiply without end in trying to do this across an entire region much less the entire country.

This is one reason that people tend to argue so much on the subject of what life was like before Vatican II: the experience is as varied as the individuals involved. Some places had full propers in Gregorian chant every week and others never heard a proper text sung.

Some attempts have been made to size up Catholic preferences. In 2006, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians sponsored a poll on the favorite Catholic song. Already we might detect the problem. Catholic music for liturgy is not just a series of songs. Catholic music is ritual music that gives an audible lift to the prayer within the Mass.

To poll for the favorite Catholic song is like polling Shakespeare scholars on their favorite limerick (“There was a lord from Dunsinane, Who thought to dispose of his thane…"). In other words, it really amounts to a change of subject.

The results were nonetheless interesting. The headlines blared that “On Eagles Wings” came in as the favorite, but a closer look shows that those polled could only pick one song and the winner was picked by only 8% of the people – the single highest percentage but hardly decisive. In total 670 songs ended up on the list! Two of the top ten are not even associated with the Catholic tradition at all (“Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art”).

What the top picks really demonstrate is what music is played most often, so the results might represent preferences but not meta-preferences, in the same way a food survey of prison inmates might not yield results that a gourmet chef could use to prepare meals at a 5-star restaurant. They might be picking from an existing stock of goods but relaying some ideal that they have not experienced and do not know is possible.

I must say that any institution that would commission a survey on the favorite Catholic song is completely missing the point of Catholic music. We are not a song-singing people insofar as liturgy is concerned, or, at least, we should not be. The Mass is not designed to accommodate a series of outbursts of songs. The Mass is an integrated prayer that achieves its highest state of nobility when sung.

I would make the same critique of the St. Anthony Messenger poll in 1995, in which the publication asked its readers to mail in comments on their favorite music. The editors got an earful, and it was all over the map. The most-picked song was “Be Not Afraid,” but people also sent in complaints about the absence of traditional music, whatever that might be.

The most instructive of these surveys that I’ve seen, and certainly the most detailed and thorough, comes from a 1995 Indiana University doctoral dissertation by Barbara Resch. She was seeking to discover the musical preferences of young people in many faith traditions, and her method was to play a snippet of music and ask what is most appropriate for church. Nearly 500 young people were involved in her study.

She reports that she had expected their choices to reflect their own choices of popular music. This did not happen. Across a huge diversity of people from all over the country, what she found was that the young people chose choral music, not instrumental; music sung by a group of singers rather than a soloist; and music characterized by a simple musical texture and understandable text.

Rock, jazz, and country was overwhelmingly rejected by these young people as music appropriate for church.

I suspect that what made the difference is the introduction of the proviso: appropriate for Church. This calls upon people to make a judgment that is not entirely solipsistic. They are being asked to think about the bigger picture. This is very different from asking about favorites or about personal preferences.

In the Catholic world, the call for sacred music and dissatisfaction with the commercial status quo seems to generally correlate with maturity in the faith – at least this has been my observation. Hardly anyone says: “we should have chant in church because it is my favorite kind of music.” The commentary is usually broader: chant is the music of the faith, it is sung prayer, it is the music that most perfectly expresses theological and liturgical ideals. It is the music that is most appropriate.

Even if we could somehow take a survey to assess current opinion, and there is no sense stopping efforts to do this and there is always something to be gained by garnering as much information as possible, even though the results will end up flawed, there ought to be some way to weigh the results alongside issues of maturity and knowledge.

MacMillan on Catholic Music

Sometimes it seems like the tension between sacred music and its pop-music alternative can't get any tighter. Something has to give, since we are, after all, talking about the liturgical life of the Church and not merely what song we want to listen to on the radio.

Damian Thompson reports:

James MacMillan, Britain's finest living Catholic composer, has told Archbishop Vincent Nichols that liturgical activists have made new Catholic congregational music "a laughing stock" in recent decades. "The faithful are fed up with sloppy practice, inappropriate, terrible music and the gradual drift away from Catholic standards in the liturgy," he says.

Meanwhile, the "National Association of Pastoral Musicians" has given its annual award of "Pastoral Musician of the Year" to Paul Innwood of "Alleluia Ch-Ch" fame. Here is the press release. Here are samples of his music.

Just to put a final point on it, we are not here speaking of an issue between old and new music. It is about the appropriateness of style and approach: is it sacred or is it not? Nor is this only about chant versus other forms. Great liturgical music has been written in every age. It is a matter of knowing what it is and selecting it.

Here is an Alleluia by 12th century composer Perotin.



A final note on music here. ICEL is preparing the new Missal with new music, which you can view here if you have the secret password.

I don't have the password.

No one I know has the password.

My emails to the USCCB haven't been answered.

No one's emails to the USCCB concerning this issue have answered - at least no one I know. Maybe Paul Innwood has them.

What To Do About Tethered Texts

I have some updates on the continuing issue of copyrighted ritual texts. Sadly, I can’t give any direct quotations or sources on any of this. All parties have requested anonymity and confidentiality, which strikes me as ridiculously telling.

We are talking about the texts of the Mass here, which everyone seems to agree are and should be the common property of the whole Church. Tell someone in the Anglican Church about the copyright controversies in the Catholic Church and he will be baffled. What possible controversy could be involved here? The Book of Common Prayer belongs to everyone and everyone is encouraged to publish the texts, set the texts, post the texts, and work towards ever better and greater presentations of the texts. No disaster has befallen them as a result. On the contrary, publishers thrive and the text is everywhere and beloved.

In the Catholic Church in the English-speaking world, in contrast, the publishers and agencies in charge of texts have used national laws to restrict them and charge for the right to print them and record them, which has put a serious crimp on musical composition and publishing, effectively creating profitable monopolies for a few.

These monopolies are enforced by civil penalties. Under some circumstances, they might be enforced by criminal penalties.

And who pays the bill in the end? It is all of us in the pews. We pay higher prices than we ought to for our liturgical materials, and the margins in publishing are made exorbitantly thinner because publishers have to shell out to all the rights owners. It’s so bad these days that you can’t print or sing “Lord, Have Mercy” without tossing some change into the coffers of the big publishers.

Just to be clear: there is nothing wrong with paying for liturgical materials. There is nothing unconventional about paying fees for reprinting original music still under copyright. What is notable and unseemly, and morally dubious in the extreme, is the idea that the texts themselves would be owned privately and the right to use them in creative publishing projects would available only by being forced to pay for them.

The issue has reached a crisis point because of the advent of digital media. For the first time in human history, the Mass texts can achieve universal distribution and anyone can be involved in assisting the faith in presenting ever more and better musical settings, with better quality books at an ever grater range of prices and qualities for everyone.

Now, in what seems to be a new policy, ICEL has been kind enough to permit its texts to be posted online with no charge. This is an exception made for “non-commercial distribution.” That’s fine, and more than GIA is likely to allow with its upcoming Psalm monopoly, about which more in a bit. The important point is that technology is melting away this strict distinction between commercial and non-commercial.

Let’s say you make a series of Mass booklets using ICEL texts and assemble these in a 50-page download packet. So far, so good. But let’s say that not everyone has a printer that can print front and back or access to a copy machine that adds a saddle stitch. These days, with one click, you can have the site print and bind it for you and mail it—provided the user covers the direct costs. Is that now commercial? Why is it more commercial than if the user printed it and paid someone else to print and bind it? And what if the costs include upload time and serve expenses? What if the profits, if there are any, are donated to charity? At what point does this cease to be free distribution and become a forbidden “commercial exchange?”

Again, when you think about all this, remember that we are not talking about Harry Potter books or the latest popular novel or a new composition. We are speaking of some institution out there that claims to possess some proprietary ownership over the texts of the Mass itself, and charge not for a book or a recording only but merely for the legal right to use this text which can be reproduced infinitely without diminishing the value of the original. In other words, we are speaking about a tax on evangelization here.

The problem here is of course ICEL, which asserts this right, with the permission of the USCCB. When you start talking to people at ICEL about this subject, they quickly point out that they don’t like this policy anymore than you and I do. It is not something that they necessarily favor or support. They are only there to enforce it on behalf of their bosses at the USCCB, which insists on royalties etc. A contact with the USCCB then sends you to the Committee on Divine Worship, and from there I get lost.

If there is one particular person or group who is solely responsible for hammering out this copyright/royalty policy and maintaining it against widespread opposition, I’ve yet to find it/him. I would appreciate any information on this point. Surely the decision maker could be shown the unreasonableness of this policy.

Now to the matter of the Grail Psalms that have been approved by the USCCB for Mass. The administrator of the rights here is currently Harper/Collins in the UK and GIA in the United States. Unlike ICEL, which has some quasi-official liturgical standing, these are private, for-profit companies that have no institutional connection to the Catholic Church in any form of which I am aware.

And yet, they will soon own the legal monopoly on the Psalms of David that we sing at Mass, and be in a position to charge whatever royalties they deem fair or just or suitable. Never mind that these texts have been translated thousands of times in the course of 500 years and there isn't really any newly copyrightable material here. That doesn't seem to matter. We are all waiting to find out precisely what these fees will be, but GIA is not saying. They say they are still thinking about this—thinking about what they will charge you to sing them and for others to publish them.

No private company should be put in this position. The conflict of interest is undeniable and incompatible with justice. It would be ridiculous enough if MacDonalds, for example, were given the legal monopoly on hamburgers and could charge Burger King any amount for the right to make them as well. But keep in mind that matters become much more serious when it comes to liturgy, the common property of us all.

We’ve heard for generations that liturgy is the “work of the people”; now we are finding out the liturgy is the work of monopolistic, profit-driven corporations that will dole it out on their own terms and charge us for the privilege.

What I find most striking is what has come to my attention lately on this subject, namely that some of these monopolists say that charging royalties on the texts is made necessary because they have to pay royalties to ICEL. They regard their current fees as nothing but compensatory and thereby potentially dispensable. If ICEL would give up its state-enforced legal monopoly on the texts, they too would relent and give all the texts away for commercial or non-commercial use.

Now, if this is true, and perhaps this is just an excuse but let’s take them at their word, all of this amazing mess could be solved by a very simple action: ICEL should free the texts. In other words, the Catholic Mass text should be treated precisely as the Book of Common Prayer is treated, as the common property of all the faithful. If ICEL took this step, perhaps all the rest of the publishers and this complex and profiteering machine would collapse and we would enter into a world of free production and competition and evangelization.

Then the question remains: to whom should the faithful petition to make this dream a reality?

(If readers are interested in this topic, I go into much greater detail in my book Sing Like a Catholic.)

Video from Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Please watch this wonderful news video from the seminary of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lincoln, Nebraska. I would embed it but the news source (Journal Star) doesn't provide that option. It has some of the best commentary on chant that I've run across. The narrators make all the points that readers of this site have seen many times. It is just beautifully crafted in every way.

New Music with Catholic Texts

Music historians acknowledge the central place of the Christian liturgical text in the development of music for the last 1000 years, providing a universal textual and dramatic landscape for artistic development. It provided a chance for composers to make gifts to the world they hope will become immortal, and even many of the most secular composers, often toward the end of their lives, would attempt to set the Mass.

The concern over what would happen to these compositions, and what would happen to the future of musical development in the Catholic world, were two of many overlooked concerns in the drive toward vernacularization in the late 1960s. With the text of the English Mass changing yet again in the near future, we are again reminded of a problem associated with the instability of the vernacular. There is the additional problem of the fashion that conceived of the liturgical text exclusively as a source for "people's music"--as interpreted by folk fads from the 1970s--rather than serious art.

The good news is that the move toward the universally stable Latin inspires composers, and every year at the Sacred Music Colloquium there is a large new music reading session in which many of these are sung. In my book Sing Like a Catholic, I attempt to make a case for the Catholic Church to begin become a patron of the arts, with emphasis on its liturgical texts.

The above thoughts are prompted by two items concerning serious music that have come to my inbox in the last day. The first is from the Philippines, a performance of Missa Caelestis by Jerry Dadap, Jr., that is now on youtube. It is a very interesting and exciting work, performed by the Philippine Madrigal Singers.

The second is from St. James Cathedral, Seattle, which has hired Patrick Stoyanovich as its resident composer. The fact that such a position exists at all I find thrilling. Someday I hope we can look forward to a time when all cathedrals and parishes will realize how centrally important it is to make music in liturgy a financial and professional priority.

On April 10, 2009, the Cathedral will premiere Stoyanovich's new composition the "Seven Last Words" for women's choir, vocal soloists, string chamber orchestra and organ. It is part of an amazing lineup of concerts and recitals that seems to be ongoing.

In an interview, the composer offers some very interesting points:

The “Seven Last Words” is a liturgical composition. I would most humbly hope that it would in some small way help the congregation experience the sacred nature of the service more completely. The music is part of the devotional sequence in the Treore; I hope to enhance those devotions. Included is the text I have chosen, plus some supplementary text supporting the main points....

I am a believer in music with a function. To write liturgical music and sacred concert works seems one of the last best places to write deeply serious music. Art in this fashion has real function for the listeners. What more profound subject could one ask for, in my own case, then the “Seven Last Words” of Jesus Christ? I am honored and humbled by this opportunity.

Chant in Anchorage

The report by JAMES DECRANE originally appeared in the Catholic Anchor

Anchorage, Feb 7, 2009 / 08:43 pm (CNA).- On a recent Friday afternoon, amid the bustle of midtown Anchorage traffic, the sounds of Old World liturgical chant — deep baritones mixing with high alto voices — floated from a tiny chapel.

The dozen or so singers who attended the practice session last month come from all walks of life. They are part of a growing chorus of voices in Alaska and across the world who are drawn to the ancient Gregorian chant.

“This music makes me think of the angels and how they sing,”18-year old Patrick Klump mused during a recent choir practice. “I love to sing, and with this I get to give glory to God at the same time,” Klump told the Anchor.

Fellow choir member Tim Main agreed.

“These hymns speak to me about faith,” Main said. “Sometimes it speaks simply, and sometimes profoundly, but either way it is an excellent way for me to pray.”

The group sings every Friday afternoon at Holy Rosary Academy, a K-12 Catholic school that operates independently of the Anchorage Archdiocese school system with permission from Archbishop Roger Schwietz.

Each practice session concludes with the chanting of Vespers. The group also sings for the Dominican rite Latin Mass at Holy Family Cathedral on the first Saturday of each month and occasionally for Masses at Blessed Sacrament Monastery in South Anchorage.

Encountering tradition

The newly formed choir is the realized dream of several local Catholics who sought for years to establish a Gregorian chant choir.

Originally a small group of staff and students from Holy Rosary Academy, the choir has since grown to include Catholics from a number of parishes in Anchorage.

The chanters got their opportunity to sing and perform publicly this past fall at the first annual Alaska Catholic Family Conference in Anchorage.

“From there, that’s where we decided that we wanted to get more active,” Mains said. “It got our feet on the ground and got us started.”

Choir member Angela Heaphy, a parishioner at St. Patrick Church, said she joined the group not only because of the singing, but also because it provides an opportunity to learn more about the rich traditions of the Catholic Church.

“It’s great to learn about the history of the church’s music,” she said. “I love the spiritual dimension and the camaraderie of praying in community.”

Preserving the sacred

According to Dr. Stan Grove, a choir member and teacher at Holy Rosary Academy, the roots behind Gregorian chant reach far into history, even before Christ’s birth.

“It’s believed that its organic development came from synagogue chant,” he explained. “People of the Jewish faith would gather and sing the psalms in prayer.”

He added that many church historians believe the first Christian community most likely sang a form of this synagogue prayer.

Gregorian chant rose to prominence in the Catholic Church during the early Middle Ages, around the 6th and 7th centuries and has since reverberated from the inside of monastery and cathedral walls across the world.

Tradition holds that St. Gregory the Great compiled many of the chants that are a part of the Mass today.

Although chant has always had official support from the church, its usage waned in the years following Vatican II (1962-65), when the Roman rite Catholic Mass was opened up to non-Latin languages.

Growing chorus

More recently, there are signs that chant is finding its place again. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI allowed for wider celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass, which has created a natural setting for Gregorian chant choirs to flourish.

In Anchorage, the introduction of the Dominican rite Latin Mass has also provided a liturgical context for the new Gregorian chanters.

Grove speaks about the importance of preserving this sacred music and points to church teaching on the matter, including writings from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

“I would be in favor of a new openness toward the use of Latin,” wrote Cardinal Ratzinger in his book “God and the World,” which was published in 2002.

Cardinal Ratzinger continued: “If even in the great liturgical celebrations in Rome, no one can sing the Kyrie or the Sanctus any more, no one knows what Gloria means, then a cultural loss has become a loss of what we share in common.”

As pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI has continued to encourage a renewal of sacred music throughout the world.

It is a cause that U.S. bishops also addressed in a document called “Sing to the Lord.” The document states that Gregorian chant “should be given pride of place in liturgical services.”

The Anchorage chanters believe their choir is one avenue for local Catholics to realize the universal church’s desire to rekindle Gregorian chant.

For Heaphy, chanting has benefits that extend far beyond the choir loft. “It’s great to have the music of the church stuck in my head,” she said. “Often times I find myself humming at home in the kitchen. I get far more out of it than I can contribute.”

Printed with permission from the Catholic Anchor, newspaper from the Diocese of Anchorage, Alaska.