The Recovering Choir Director

This appeared in the inbox yesterday and is reprinted in its entirety. Links and italicized emphasis have been added.

Dear Recovering Choir Director:

I, too, am a recovering choir director, currently on semi-active status as an associate choir director at St. Andrew Russian Catholic Church in El Segundo, California. I have sung there for eighteen years, and directed there (either as main director or associate), for fourteen.

At St. Andrew’s, we sing the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, (except during Great and Holy Lent, when we switch to the Liturgy of St. Basil on Sundays, and the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of St. Gregory Dialogos [Pope St. Gregory the Great] on weekdays) mainly in English, but with some Slavonic, Greek, Romanian and Arabic.

We usually sing four part harmony, except when we do Slavic or Byzantine chant, in which case we do melody and ison (or drone). The only instrument we use is a tuning fork at Middle C, as a reference point to give the pitches (in my considered and extremely biased opinion, pitch pipes are for sissies).

I have a great deal of respect for you, having looked through your weblog (using the last four letters as a word is a neologism up with which I will not put), and having seen your work (i.e., the Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours), the pdf files you have posted on your web page (e.g. the Anglican Use Gradual), and the opinions you have posted (both your own and the ones you cite from others) in your weblog’s archives.

My respect is also the greater in that you are continuing a battle (namely, the culture wars in the Roman Church), that I have abandoned: I long ago thought it better to dwell in the Eastern Catholic Church in peace rather than to sojourn in the Western Roman Church in rage at what the evil and the ignorant have committed in the name of the Second Vatican Council. Having read and reread the Council documents on the Divine Liturgy, Sacred Music, Divine Revelation, the Constitution of the Church, and the education of priests, I feel about the Reforms of the Second Vatican Council the way that Mohandas Gandhi felt about Western Civilization: they both would be a good idea.

I wish you the best in your battle, and I will be happy to help you from my perspective. Apropos of that, one thing I have found in the Eastern Churches is a wealth of church music which fully fits the standards that Pope St. Pius X and His Holiness, Pope John Paul II have set in their writings on sacred music. In fact, His Holiness John Paul II has a number of times recommended that the Eastern patrimony of prayer and song could properly be introduced into the liturgical practice of the Western Church.

I have found on the Internet a set of websites that have a wealth of music, both Eastern and Western, that you may find of value. I will list them after this letter.

Yours in Christ,
Bernard Brandt

P.S., you certainly have my permission to print this on your weblog.

Websites follow:

Ivan Moody’s Website
(An English Orthodox composer who has an extensive list of Orthodox liturgical links including pdf, midi, and MP3s of Orthodox music in many languages)
http://members.lycos.co.uk/ivanmoody

Archimandrite Ephrem Lash’s Orthodox Website
(beautiful modern translations of Orthodox liturgical texts)
http://www.anastasis.org.uk

David Melling’s Orthodox Website
(including many essays on Orthodox spirituality and liturgics)
http://www.arimathea.co.uk/arimathea.htm

David Melling’s Church Music Website
(including many midi and pdf of harmonized Byzantine chant written for the benefit of Anglican and other more-or-less Christian churches)
http://www.church-music.co.uk

David Melling’s Byzantine Chant Website
(including many midi and pdf of Byzantine chant in English, and a manual of how to read modern Byzantine musical notation)
http://www.church-music.co.uk/EOChant.htm

The Choral Public Domain Library
(thousands of pdf, midi, and musical notation programs for Western mediaeval, baroque, classical, romantic, impressionist and modern choral music. Lots of Russian Orthodox music, too. )
http://www.cpdl.org