Roman Catholic Church « The Recovering Choir Director (est. 2002)

The Propers of the Mass: The Neglected Handmaid of the Liturgy

December 21, 2008 by Aristotle A. Esguerra — 9 comments.

Whenever I see debates about Church music, they are generally about stylistic issues, instrumentation, and the like. These debates usually center around music selection — which hymns to select and why. It’s been this way for at least as long as I’ve been involved in church music (13 years). I wish to change the terms [...]

Filed under: Contemporary Religious Music; Liturgical Reform.
Tags: Anglican Chant; Roman Catholic Church; Roman Rite (Ordinary Form); Second Vatican Council; Third Sunday of Advent; Vernacular Plainsong.

Unwritten memo to composers: “Set the propers”

September 24, 2008 by Aristotle A. Esguerra — 1 comment.

In light of all of the liturgical music reform verbiage coming from diverse places like official Church organs and bloggers like myself, and as a result of reading Jeffrey Tucker’s recent reflections on William Byrd’s settings of the Mass propers, it seems that there is an implied directive to today’s and tomorrow’s composers of sacred [...]

Filed under: Contemporary Religious Music; Liturgical Reform.
Tags: Fr. Carlo Rossini; General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM); Jeffrey Tucker; Pope Paul VI; Propers; Roman Catholic Church; Sacrosanctum Concilium; Second Vatican Council; William Byrd; World Youth Day 2002; World Youth Day 2005; World Youth Day 2008.

“The Liturgical Music Quiz”

September 22, 2008 by Aristotle A. Esguerra — 1 comment.

The Catholic Way, a website new to me, offers this quiz written by Bill Dobbs on the history of liturgical music (with particular emphasis on the Roman Catholic Church), in a “find your fate” format. While those well-versed in the history of liturgical music should find this quiz a cinch (I found it very easy), [...]

Filed under: Quizzes.
Tags: Bill Dobbs; Music Education; Roman Catholic Church.

Mediator Dei ¶11: The encyclical’s exclusive attention to the Latin rite

December 5, 2007 by Aristotle A. Esguerra — 0 comments.

Paragraph 11 of Mediator Dei points out Pope Pius XII’s intention to address this letter to the Western church, while acknowledging at a same level of honor the Eastern rites. 11. If in this encyclical letter We treat chiefly of the Latin liturgy, it is not because We esteem less highly the venerable liturgies of [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized.
Tags: Eastern Church; Mediator Dei; Roman Catholic Church.