The Recovering Choir Director

The Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium says (my emphasis in boldfaced italics):

115. Great importance is to be attached to the teaching and practice of music in seminaries, in the novitiates and houses of study of religious of both sexes, and also in other Catholic institutions and schools. To impart this instruction, teachers are to be carefully trained and put in charge of the teaching of sacred music.

It is desirable also to found higher institutes of sacred music whenever this can be done.

Composers and singers, especially boys, must also be given a genuine liturgical training.

Kudos to Archbishop Burke; by establishing an Institute of Sacred Music in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, he is responding to the call of the Council and nails the trifecta of SC 115.

Coverage and commentary:

• St. Louis Review
• Fr. Zuhlsdorf’s blog
• MusicaSacra Forum

An excerpt from Archbishop Burke’s letter, edited to highlight the Institute’s activities more clearly:

[The Institute of Sacred Music] has been established to assist me in providing a fuller cultivation of Sacred Music for the celebration of the complete Roman Rite. Among the activities of the Institute will be the following:

1. programs of education in Sacred Music, especially Gregorian Chant, for parish musicians, musicians of other Archdiocesan institutions and interested individuals;
2. assistance to parishes with the singing of the Mass in English, for example, the Entrance Antiphon, the Responsorial Psalm and the Communion Antiphon;
3. assistance with the singing of the Liturgy of the Hours;
4. assistance to parishes which wish to develop a schola cantorum for the singing of Gregorian Chant;
5. programs for the full implementation of the English translation of the Roman Missal in the Archdiocese; and
6. particular assistance to the programs of Sacred Music at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

His choice to head the institute, Fr. Samuel Weber OSB, is an inspired one whose experience with fitting English words to Gregorian melodies may be particularly instrumental in carrying out the second activity.