The Recovering Choir Director

For a long time I’ve been saying that one of the most powerful statements the pope could make about sacred music is to invite the choir of Westminster Cathedral to sing for a highly-public Mass at the Vatican.  (Just be sure to leave Cardinal Foley with instructions not to talk over the music on the television feed.)  In the wake of the installation of the new archbishop of Westminster, many traditional Catholics—in the blogosphere, at least (whose representation of reality is somewhat questionable)—seem to have been unaware of the cathedral’s fine musical tradition until Thursday’s event.  Better late than never, I suppose.

If you missed it, here’s a highlight video that gives one a good taste of the music that was done.  Hat tip to Rocco.

During and after such prominent liturgical events, many commentators like to fuss about largely irrelevant things such as fabric and the location of candlesticks, neither of which affects the liturgical action, as such.  I would instead like to share a thought or two about the music, which not only accompanies the liturgical action, but in some cases is the liturgical action itself.  

The music at Westminster is under the leadership of Martin Baker, one of the brightest lights in the Catholic musical world and in the church music profession in general.  He inherited a program that had been nurtured ever since the cathedral’s founding under the direction of Cardinal Vaughn.  The program is an exemplary situation in the English choral tradition and at the same time is unique:  the choir has its own characteristic, more robust sound, which was cultivated by one of the first directors of the program.  He was walking through a park one day, heard children chanting on the playground, and thought that was to be the inspiration for the sound of the choir.  The thought is in the very least intriguing, and anyone who’s familiar with the Westminster sound can surely see the comparison.

Beyond its own characteristic sound, however, Westminster carves out new paths in another area:  repertoire.  In this the mother church of Catholic sacred music, new music is performed on a regular basis.  One of the more prolific composers who has written for Westminster is none other than the world famous James MacMillan, who was commissioned to write two new pieces for the installation of Archbishop Nichols.  In addition, Colin Mawby, himself a former director at the cathedral, was commissioned to write a new piece as well.  

It is commendable enough to function as a guardian of new music, but it is even more laudatory to promote avant garde works at an occasion on which it is all too tempting to fall back on the “old favorites,” the music that is guaranteed to get cheers from both the nostalgic and the progressive clacks.  By programming new music that fits into the larger choral tradition, there is an implicit refusal to draw an artificial line through history which separates the “relevant” from the “irrelevant.”  It is a great refutation not only of praise music but also of the “middle church” music often advocated by “conservative” groups.

At any rate, all of this at Westminster is worthy of imitation.  Can every diocese afford to have a choir school?  Probably not, but several dioceses can join together to make one.  Can parishes afford to commission world famous composers?  No, but they can search out local people who know what they’re doing.  Cardinal Vaughn had a vision for Westminster, and he took the steps necessary to lay the foundation for a stellar program.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  Where the leadership makes up its mind that church music is  priority, it will become a priority.  And where the leadership is content to let the youth basketball games be the occasion which draws the most people to the parish each week, then things will pretty much stay the same.  

There is no mystery or peculiar difficulty in any of this.  It’s all a matter of what’s important to us.