The Recovering Choir Director

Fr. Frank Phillips CR, pastor of St. John Cantius Parish and founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius delivered this lecture on June 19, 2008 at the Church Music Association of America’s Colloquium XVIII. He tells of his own personal experiences immediately following the Second Vatican Council (including an episode involving incinerators and volumes of Gregorian Chant), his years under Monsignors Martin B. Hellriegel and Richard J. Schuler, and the initial difficulties of establishing a solid music program at Cantius.

Listen to the lecture, hosted by MusicaSacra: (45 min., 96kbs mp3, 31 MB)

Making the perfect the enemy of the good is always a temptation in music; so much more can it be when the most appropriate sacred music is used within the context of divine worship. And yet, when human frailty manifests itself within the execution of sacred music, sometimes the result can be illuminating for the singer, conductor and listener.

Case in point: Sunday’s Offertory antiphon and motet, whose words are taken from Psalm 16:5-7:

Pérfice gréssus méos in sémitis túis,
ut non moveántur vestígia méa:
inclína áurem túam, et exáudi vérba méa:
mirífica misericórdias túas,
qui sálvos fácis sperántes in te, Dómine.

Perfect thou my goings in thy paths,
that my footsteps be not moved:
incline thy ear unto me, and hear my words:
show forth thy wonderful mercies,
thou who savest them that trust in thee, O Lord.

Modes III and IV - which happen to be my favorite modes - proved challenging to more than a few chant choirs over the week of the CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium. Last Sunday was no different. The schola meandered through the melody of the underlined text uncertainly, but gamely achieved the cadence of the phrase and continued the chant through the end without incident.

As an appropriate coda, the polyphonic choir started the Di Lasso setting of the same text, stopped before the completion of the words “Pérfice gréssus méos” and started it again, this time without incident.

A perfectionist would have pilloried the efforts of the schola and choir. (In a different, less mature time in my life, I would have done so, without a doubt alienating those who put so much time and effort into it.) Of course everyone wants to do better next time and allow the correct melody, rather than errors in execution, to draw attention to the words. But upon reading the underlined text, isn’t it somehow appropriate that the schola started to waver - and recover - exactly where it did? And isn’t it somehow fitting that the choir had to start over after singing those first three words?

This brings me to an important point that Fr. Frank Phillips, C.R., founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius made in his insightful, humorous and inspiring presentation last Wednesday:

When I directed the choir, I always told them before Mass…I’d say: “Once Mass begins, there are no mistakes, because what you are offering is your very best to the honor and glory of God.”

And sometimes, like last Sunday, mistakes serve to call even more effective attention to the words. I find both occurrences really quite appropriate - even providential - for the first Colloquium in Chicago, and looked at a certain way, they can provide a lesson for all choirs both now and into the future. Let us never lose sight of the ultimate recipient of our musical offering.

are being posted on the MusicaSacra Forum as they become available.

Right now most of the files are of the polyphonic works; more chant files will come online soon.

If Colloquium attendees have any audio files they would like to have MusicaSacra.com host, please contact me and I will place them on the server personally. Be sure to provide a reasonably accurate description of the file, and limit the bitrate to 128kbps.

Dad29’s post “Actual History(!!) on the Eucharist” includes this snippet from Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J.:

Vatican II is frequently praised or blamed for having authorized the translation of the Latin liturgy into the vernacular. But the matter is not so simple. In Sacrosanctum Concilium, its “Constitution on the Liturgy” (1963), the council declared: “The use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rite, except where a particular law might indicate otherwise” (SC, No 36, Paragraph 1).

Those familiar with Monsignor Johannes Overath’s introduction to the Proceedings of the Fifth International Church Music Congress held 42 years ago in Chicago and Milwaukee* - published as Sacred Music and Liturgy Reform after Vatican II and available from MusicaSacra.com as a 37.0 MB PDF - will find these passages illuminating (with my comments and emphases):

Read the rest of this entry »

Here is an mp3 recording of a choir, composed of a subset of Colloquium 2008 participants, singing the Palestrina setting of Tu Es Petrus a 6. This motet was sung within the context of a Mass offered for the intentions of Benedict XVI, after the proper Offertory Antiphon.

The director is Horst Buchholz. Feel free to sing along with your own PDF copy of the piece.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy promulgated by the Second Vatican Council, that is.

While catching up on the news that matters to me, I found this interesting Zenit article via Carl Olson on the Ignatius Insight Scoop blog. The first half of the article appears below with emphases.

Pope Calls for Study of Eucharistic Mystery

QUEBEC CITY, JUNE 22, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging the faithful to revisit the Second Vatican Council constitution on the liturgy, so as to go deeper in the mystery of faith that is the Eucharist.

The Pope made this appeal today when he delivered via satellite the homily for the closing Mass of the 49th International Eucharistic Congress, which ended today in Quebec. The papal legate, Cardinal Jozef Tomko, presided over the Mass.

In his address, given in French and English, the Holy Father said, “‘The Mystery of Faith’: this we proclaim at every Mass. I would like everyone to make a commitment to study this great mystery, especially by revisiting and exploring, individually and in groups, the Council’s text on the liturgy, ‘Sacrosanctum Concilium,’ so as to bear witness courageously to the mystery.”

The Pontiff affirmed that such study would help each person “arrive at a better grasp of the meaning of every aspect of the Eucharist, understanding its depth and living it with greater intensity.”

“Every sentence, every gesture has its own meaning and conceals a mystery,” Benedict XVI continued. “I sincerely hope that this Congress will serve as an appeal to all the faithful to make a similar commitment to a renewal of Eucharistic catechesis, so that they themselves will gain a genuine Eucharistic awareness and will in turn teach children and young people to recognize the central mystery of faith and build their lives around it.

“I urge priests especially to give due honor to the Eucharistic rite, and I ask all the faithful to respect the role of each individual, both priest and lay, in the Eucharistic action. The liturgy does not belong to us: It is the Church’s treasure.”

Here is the Constitution on the Liturgy in English and Latin. Of possible further interest are posts on this blog that mention Sacrosanctum Concilium.

Tolle, lege!

I have just gained Internet access in my dorm room at Loyola University Chicago. Will be posting an update on the CMAA Colloquium in the morning, when I am at less risk of bothering my roommate for this week - a fellow blogger whose blog will be revealed later.

Thanks for your patience, and stay tuned.

I will be blogging from Loyola University Chicago at the Church Music Association of America’s Sacred Music Colloquium XVIII from now until June 22. This is the first year that the CMAA is holding the event off the campus of the Catholic University of America, and by all accounts it will be the largest Colloquium that the CMAA has held to date.

I’m not sure how much help I will be asked to provide at the event, but I plan on audio recording some of the sessions, lectures and liturgies, and maybe snag interviews with newcomers and veterans. So for those who cannot attend this year’s edition, perhaps this glimpse will serve to whet appetites for Colloquium XIX and/or a similar event closer to home.

The Australian posted a story today about George Palmer, the New South Wales Supreme Court judge who was awarded the commission to compose the Mass setting for World Youth Day. PDF files of the setting are available at the official WYD site. Mr. Palmer’s setting not only makes use of Latin, but also serves as a preview of the new official English translation of the Mass Ordinary. Mr. Palmer is quoted at length in the story, as is Peter Phillips, director of the Tallis Scholars.

Here’s an interesting excerpt (with comments and emphases added):

Palmer’s mass has upset some sectors of the church and one parish priest, he says, has refused to perform it as long as it includes Latin. (Et dicit ei: Non serviam. Okay, that was a bit strong, but still it was the first thing that came to mind. Perhaps our good parish priest and his flock would do well to read Sacrosanctum Concilium 54 para. 2.) The title, Benedictus Qui Venit, “apparently pleased Rome but caused gnashing of teeth (interesting choice of words) among those who would banish forever all reference to the historical culture of the church and its liturgy”.

“When I went to speak to people, particularly young people, it was very noticeable that they had absolutely no affinity or understanding of the cultural history of the church and the musical history of the church to which this (mass) is referring,” Palmer says. (I’ve always found this amusing: the Memorial Acclamation in the Ordinary Form of the Mass is referred to as an anamnesis. Indeed, the Mass itself is an anamnesis. And yet, here is an example of functional amnesia. One of too many.)

“These are young people who have been brought up post-Vatican II being used to music in church (that) is the heritage of the 1970s folk movement. (A blink in the eye of the life of the Church.) A lot of that music is very fine music and very suitable music. (It must also be said: A lot of that music is neither fine nor suitable.) But this is the only music they’ve ever experienced (in church, one should read - today’s culture is drowning in music of varying worth) and they associate anything other than that (meaning Latin and/or chant within the context of the Sacred Liturgy, probably) with an authoritarian attempt to return to the past, to move it all back to the 1950s.” (But what would happen when these same people realize that active resistance to reviving Latin and chant - like that of the aforementioned parish priest - can be seen as authoritarian attempts to remain in the 1970s?)

Read the whole thing.

As an aside, I was amused by the article preface:

Music for the Pope’s visit next month has upset some Catholics who don’t want to sing in Latin.

which is yet another fine example of Mad-Libs style media coverage of religion and other contentious matters:

(Potentially Controversial Church Topic) has upset Members of an Offended Group who disagree with (Potentially Controversial Church Topic).

Try it - it works both ways!

Chironomo poses the question: Can Catholic laity save sacred music? He answers his own question thusly:

The answer may be “yes”, but then the question becomes “how long will we be willing to keep trying”. Even the most fanatical advocates will draw the line at some point if their efforts aren’t acknowledged and rewarded.

My answer to the question is this: The Catholic laity can certainly preserve sacred music (as can the clergy), but in order for it to be “saved” - and I take “saved” to mean “employed on a large scale within the liturgical contexts for which it was composed” - the laity’s efforts require the full, active, conscious and proactive support, participation, and instruction of the clergy, especially ordinary bishops, pastors and rectors.

I tell all priests who ask me to sing/direct the chant at Mass that It’s wonderful for the official music of the Roman Rite to actually be in demand by its stewards. In the same manner, I remember being taken aback positively when my pastor took me up on my offer to give him singing lessons for our sung Mass in the extraordinary form. This gesture of, “I know what the rite asks of me; I need your help to execute it,” is far from being burdensome; actually it is energizing.

Similarly energizing is being able to teach the Latin chant to children, some of whom will become tomorrow’s choir directors, chant scholars, and clerics. Tom Parker writes of his experience of teaching the Salve Mater misericordiae to a children’s choir and hearing the fruits of his labor.

Lastly, Jeffrey Tucker at NLM compares the Catholic Church’s attempt at reviving Gregorian chant as the normative music of the Latin rite, with the concerted, sustained, and ultimately successful effort of the Jewish people to make Hebrew a living vernacular once more. The tool of peer pressure apparently was employed on occasion:

There are informal reports of how the most passionate among them would find someone speaking some other language and say to them: “Jew, speak Hebrew.”

Maybe it’s time for a similar motto. “Roman Catholic, chant Latin,” perhaps? Or maybe, with a minor change in punctuation: “Roman Catholic? Chant Latin!”