I've been pondering the implementation of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum lately.  I usually follow the NLM and always, always there are debates in the commentary about everything from which form of the Latin rite is better, to legislation about who should be singing the Sanctus at an ordinary form Mass, to (this came up yesterday) how many times the priest should swing the censer when incensing the altar at the beginning of an OF Mass.  The question that I haven't seen debated sufficiently, though, is what the real life implications of Summorum Pontificum are. 

When talking to my pastor about this briefly, he mentioned concern about a haphazard attempt to incorporate parts of the Extraordinary Form (Tridentine) rite into the OF.  An example would be the way people latched on to what were apparently prayers uttered by the Holy Father during the incensation of the altar at offertory during public Masses during his visit to the U.S., prayers which are part of the EF but not the OF.  Some priests indicated interest in adopting this practice themselves... since the Pope was doing it, why not they?

This thinking seems to be rooted in an interpretation of the Motu Proprio that assumes the Pope's intent was to blend together in some way the EF and the OF. 

But here is what Archbishop Burke says about the motu proprio:

What attracts [young people to the EF] is the beauty and reverence, which the earlier form very much fosters. Such beauty and reverence should also be evident in the celebration of the Novus Ordo. Because the ordinary form is greatly simplified, the priest and those who assist him must be attentive to the divine action taking place and not give way to an informality and familiarity which is offensive to the nature of the Sacred Liturgy...  It is the expressed hope of our Holy Father that the use of the extraordinary form will support the faithful celebration of the Mass according to the Novus Ordo. 

That is as far as you can legitimately go in applying the motu proprio to lived reality.  To do any more would be to make the same mistake made by those who assumed the liturgical reform called for by Vatican II meant you could have guitar Masses and hold hands during the Our Father, or change words of prayers at random to be gender-neutral.  No one has the authority to change the Roman Rite except the Holy Father himself.  And you can be sure that if he intends a change, he will put it in written legislation. 

While there is room for improvement in the English texts of the OF, and this is being worked on right now with a new translation expected in 2009, and many would argue there are elements of the OF that need reformation at their core, not just in their practice, still there is much that is currently available to us in the OF that is not being expressed in its fullness.

For instance, a priest never needed permission to offer the "novus ordo" in Latin.  Latin is the official language of the OF, and when it is celebrated in Latin the priest and congregation are guaranteed to be using the official text of the rite, no need for concerns about mistranslations into the vernacular.  They can also rest assured they are experiencing the universality of the Mass, which is offered in Latin around the world.

Another seldom-practiced part of the OF is the official music of the Mass, namely the sung ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus) and propers (introit, gradual, alleluia [not the way you usually hear it] or tract, offetory and communion chants).  In other words, Gregorian chant.

There is also the one and only instrument singled out by Vatican II as appropriate for the Mass, namely the pipe organ.  Some things just never go out of style.  Never ever.

Granted there are undoubtedly beautiful prayers and rituals in the EF that were removed with the "Bugnini Reform" in creating the novus ordo that one could argue need to be restored.  I have no expertise in this area, but I know enough to see it is fertile ground for informed and prayerful discussion that over time may help bring about even greater solemnity and dignity to the OF.  Discussion, yes.  Permission to change the liturgy, no. 

So the best thing we who are involved in restoring the sacred to the Ordinary Form can do, is seek to make the Mass we have the holiest and most solemn and sacred we are able to with what we have been given, which is rich in its own right.  This is the way the motu proprio takes effect in real lived experience.  It will be a marvelous thing to behold when it becomes our common reality.  Looking forward to that!

Posted by Darcy at 06:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is a resource you just might never have seen if it wasn't for Pope Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio. 

Now if your parish wants to follow the model of St. John Cantius and offer both orders of the Mass, you can do so and you only need one missal!  (This book would also be great even if you aren't offering both ordos, but you are having a Latin Mass according to one form or the other.) Not only do you have the side-by-side Latin/English translation for both forms, but you also get the chants of the Kyriale (the parts the congregation ought to be able to sing in Latin according to Vatican II) and lot of chant hymns, several of which will be familiar to most Catholics (like Regina Caeli and Tantum Ergo) but lots more that they may not know or haven't heard in a long, long time, like Crux Fidelis or Ave Verum. 

No doubt people in the congregation will be daunted by the prospect of singing chant, especially when they see all those square notes (they are included in the standard chant notation in this book, not the modern notation you might find in a typical hymnal).  Well, they'll never get over their fears unless you give them a chance to open a chant book and look at the neumes while they sing.  The Parish Book of Chant puts the possibility of singing Gregorian chant at Mass into the congregation's hands.  There is even a brief tutorial to take the mystery out of the signs, rhythms, etc. 

I understand there is probably a Latin ordinary form Mass in our parish's future, and I can see The Parish Book of Chant being a valuable resource for helping it be a success.  I am also thinking of sending a copy of this home with every attendee of our Gregorian Chant Workshop this fall. 

The Parish Book of Chant was a labor of love from volunteers of the Church Music Association of America.  The world of sacred music is changing... the resources parishes draw on are going to be less from the big-name music publishers and more on offerings from groups like the CMAA.  And this is a very good thing.

Posted by Darcy at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I thought this article about the National Shrine's sound system was interesting.  Something I will argue for is getting away from the use of carpet in the church.  In our church, only a dozen years ago or so, some very nice wool carpet from England was installed throughout the sanctuary and nave.  It was installed incorrectly, though, and is going to need to be replaced with something else soon.  It replaced some other carpeting that had been in for who knows how long... my mom has dim memories of tiles on the floor (not ceramic or marble but something else... asbestos maybe).  One of the reasons I believe churches started going with carpeting was to deaden the echo to make it easier to hear what came through the microphone from the ambo, cantor's mic, and now-a-days, from the priest's body mic as well.  

Carpet worked very well in this application.  However, there was a serious casualty, namely the acoustics favorable for good music.  Now one might say for all these years there was not such good music that you needed great acoustics, or that the answer to improving the sound of the music is to have a fancy sound system installed (that is the route our parish went).  But for one thing, our music director is not fond of using the sound system for the choir, and mic-ing the choir with the organ pipes right there is tricky.  I feel like we need to sing at the top of our lungs pretty much all the time just to be heard downstairs, and I just learned that people down there can't understand the words we're singing, even enough to tell whether we were singing in Latin and English.  I think we need to get back to natural acoustics, so we won't have to shout when we sing to be heard downstairs, and so when we sing beautiful Gregorian chant or polyphony, the echo can become part of the music as it was meant to be.  That means the carpet needs to go.

But what about the problem of the microphones and the speakers' words being garbled by the echo?  That is why I found this article on the sound system at the National Shrine so interesting.  The big upper church has a 6 second echo, and they were able to deal with the problem through the technology of the sound system.  The budget for the whole project was $175,000, which doesn't seem that bad for what they accomplished. 

It's just something to keep in mind when you come up against the argument that "echoes in church are bad" when you propose a beautiful inlayed wood floor or marble floor for your building.  It is possible with sound technology to have both great natural acoustics and intelligible sound from the microphones.

Posted by Darcy at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There was truly sacred music at the Mass in New York today.  I was watching it on Fox (switching back and forth with EWTN but mostly Fox, because my grandparents were here and they love Fox)and Shepard Smith commented that it was unlike anything he'd ever experienced to hear such music floating out over the Bronx.  I can imagine!  It's hard to really grasp just how amazing this was, to have Palestrina, Victoria and a chanted Credo, etc. at a mega-huge Mass in a baseball stadium. (In fact I'll paste the whole music list below, it's impressive.) 

Entrance of concelebrants:
Symphony No. 9 in D minor Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Molto vivace

Entrance of the Holy Father:
Hymnus Pontificius Charles Gounod, arr. Alberico Vitalini
Dixit from Vesperae Solennes de Confessore Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Music for Mass:
Jesus is Risen/ Cristo Jesus Resucita arr. John Rutter
Tu es Petrus  Dom Lorenzo Perosi
Kyrie from Litany of the Saints, adapt. Richard Proulx
Gloria from Missa O Magnum Mysterium – Tomás Luis da Victoria
Psalm  Dr. Jennifer Pascual
Alleluia (VICTORY) arr. Wm. Glenn Osborne

Credo III

Trilingual Intercessions Michael Hay, orch. Wm. Glenn Osborne
How Lovely is thy Dwelling Place Johannes Brahms
Sanctus from German Mass Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx
Christ Has Died/ Amen - Franz Schubert, adapt. Richard Proulx
Agnus Dei from Missa O Magnum Mysterium Tomás Luis da Victoria
Panis Angelicus Cesár Franck, Marcello Giordani, Tenor, Metropolitan Opera
Sicut Cervus Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Let Us Break Bread Together arr. Carl MaultsBy
This is the Feast Richard Hillert, arr. Richard Kidd
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee/ Jubilosos te Adoramos from Hymn to Joy Fantasy Bruce Saylor
Symphony No. 9 in D minor Ludwig van Beethoven

As you look at the list above, you may notice... one of these things is not like the others. What sticks out like a sore thumb is "Let Us Break Bread Together."  I guess it's one of those songs that is beyond the words for people, it just evokes this emotion, and everyone blissfully sings along.  The same thing happens with "Were You There" on Good Friday.  Or the politically correct first-person-voiced "I Am the Bread of Life."  The affection people have for the tunes goes beyond objections.  Really that was not so bad an infraction, if you want to call it that, in light of the overall line-up (bad pun given the setting).  As others have pointed out (in comments on NLM) to have polyphony, chanted propers, and other dignified sacred music at a 27,000 person (papal) Mass is something new for the U.S.

Hopefully this will set new precedents.  At least, it will inspire sacred musicians of good will who seek to do what the Church intends.  When Raymond and Fr. Neuhause and Carl Anderson were talking about what changes we should expect from the Pope's visit, they concluded it's up to people who heard the Holy Father, what they do with the experience.  Same for those who got a taste of a solemn liturgical experience.  You can't wait for someone else to do something about sacred music.  Individuals in their parishes who feel the burning desire in their heart to do away with mediocre or even really bad music in their Sunday Mass have to take the initiative to make a change.  What might that action be?  Here are some suggestions:

1) Attend the CMAA colloquium.  You will undergo an intense learning experience through total immersion. 

2) Attend Gregorian chant workshops in your area. Promote them.  Or host a workshop in your area.  (We are planning a 2nd Gregorian Chant workshop at my parish Oct 17-19, 2008, more details soon!)

3) Listen to good sacred music.  My world changed the day I got a subscription to Rhapsody and started listening to recordings by the Cambridge Singers, Brabant Ensemble and Chanticleer among others.

4) Form a strategy for implimentation in your parish.  Get allies.  Work with your pastor, music director, organist etc.  There was a great article regarding this by Jeffrey Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zinner.  The Blueprint: Sacred Music in Your Parish.

5) Pray and sing.  Sing to pray.  Sing Gregorian chant for your prayers.  Pray for charity and patience.  Pray for fortitude and persistence. 

6) Be ready to give a reason for... sacred music's place in the liturgy!  Apologetics meets the choir loft.  Believe in yourself, because what you are working for is the dignity of the highest form of worship we humans can give to our God.  You are endeavoring to treat the Mass with the honor and splendor it deserves for the praise and glory of God.  Keep that in mind and don't despair if it doesn't all go just the way you think it should.  The Spirit moves in mysterious ways.

Getting off the soap box now.  Back to what I started out to say, the music for the papal Mass today was splendid and much more worthy than the one in Washington D.C.  It was a study in contrasts.  And really, I can see why some of the publishing houses might be worried.  If the kind of music heard today catches on, they could be in real trouble: much of this was in the public domain.

God bless Pope Benedict as he returns to Rome.  It was sure nice having him here.

Posted by Darcy at 07:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations to the musicians and organizers of the papal Mass at St. Patrick's today.  Sacred music-wise, it was like bright sunshine in comparison to the state of things in Nationals Stadium the other day.  It was edifying to hear the propers of the Mass chanted, and high-caliber choices for the polyphonic and orchestral settings.  You could say that sometimes it seemed almost over-the-top, but then again, it's the Pope, if ever there was an occasion to be exuberant, this was it.  This was not a mega-Mass; rather, it was limited to mostly religious and clergy.  But those who attended were treated to an uplifting and dignified liturgy. 

 

Posted by Darcy at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When I attended the Church Music Association of America's colloquium at Catholic University in Washington D.C. last summer, I decided to take my video camera along. One of the organizers had put out a request to attendees to volunteer to tape stuff. I said I would but cautioned I was no professional (that's an understatement). There were other people with cameras there, but as far as I could tell, I was the only one set up to record all the Masses. (I also recorded some of the talks and rehearsals, but my husband and I haven't gotten to editting that footage yet.) Even though I had my camera running, I was mostly concerned with catching the sounds, not so much the sights . I was too busy singing to worry about monkeying with the camera angles much. So the visual might not always be real interesting (some of it is), but the sounds really are beautiful. These Masses are all in the ordinary form (i.e. novus ordo) and all are a little different in their execution. All take place in the Crypt Chapel in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. (There was an extraordinary form Mass celebrated as part of the colloquium too, but I didn't make it to that one due to pregnant mommy's need for rest.) You can click below to view the playlist for each Mass, which connects each video clip of the Mass in order. The first Mass is primarily in English, but demonstrates how the propers and ordinary can still be chanted in English. Father Robert Skeris, who was the presenter at the Gregorian chant workshop in my parish last fall, was the main celebrant at this Mass.

This was a Mass celebrated on the feast of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. It is primarily in Latin, with the celebrant, Father Robert C. Pasley, offering the Eucharistic Prayers ad orientem. At this Mass we sang my favorite piece of the colloquium, Os Justi by Bruckner. I never knew such beauty was possible, and it was thrilling to be part of it. Bruckner's compositions apparently require large choirs, and we were a large choir, about 140 people I think.

This was the Sunday Mass at the end of the colloquium. It is a sign of the continuity with tradition of this ordinary form Mass, that the same music was used at the extraordinary form Mass before which I unfortunately didn't get taped. I think there are some audio files of it though, maybe on musicasacra.com. In the Sunday Mass, the celebrant is Fr. Lawrence Donnelly. He gives a great homily that all church musicians should listen to. The Mass is primarily in Latin. The sprinkling rite was used, and we sang the Asperges Me arrangement by Dr. Horst Buchholz, who directed all the polyphony for the large group and is the director of music at the cathedral in Denver, CO.

Finally, we have the requiem Mass for the deceased members of the CMAA. The main celebrant is Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, who I have learned is making leaps and bounds in his parish sacred music program, judging by his First Communion program this year. This Mass is also primarily in Latin, doesn't use any polyphony in the Mass settings but much chant, including the sequence "Dies Irae." It is a great example of what would be possible in a funeral Mass.

It is my hope that putting this videos out there will give more sacred music people and priests some inspiration to strive for greater dignity, solemnity and beauty in their Masses. These Masses are in line with the universality of the Church, across time and space, and in assisting at them, one truly felt like they were connected with the eternal banquet in heaven.

Posted by Darcy at 06:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was hard to sleep last night thinking about the papal Mass yesterday, how upsetting it was, how much reaction it received from sacred music people, my own response to it, and what I'm trying to do to help the cause of restoring the sacred to the liturgy.  What made me so sleepless was in part feeling guilty that I may have been too strong in what I said in my blog entries.  I was kind of caught up in emotions, but there is no denying that it was embarassing to me personally as a musician of Catholic sacred music in this country.  However, I have to admit that only recently have I learned enough to know better.  There was a time when I would have gotten behind at least the gospel music that was used at the Mass.  I would have seen nothing wrong with the mariachi music.  I would have bought into the notion that multicultural is good... and believed that those who said so really had multiculturalism at heart and not a bottom line for their music publishing company (see an enlightening piece written by Jeffrey Tucker on the NLM blog). 

In a way, I feel for the singers and musicians involved with the music for the Mass, because many of them are soon going to experience a new awakening to what sacred music is, and they will look back at this with chagrin.  Even now, the Holy Spirit is blowing through America restoring the sacred by bringing about an interest in Gregorian Chant and polyphony, as evidenced by the great attendance for the CMAA's colloquium and the multiple chant workshops taking place in parishes.  Personally, I see it in the good things happening in our parish music program, and in events like yesterday's Mass with the high school students who wanted to assist at a Mass in Latin.   Seminarians are being trained in singing the Mass, and priests are going to workshops for training in singing the Mass in English and Latin that they did not receive in seminary.  As a product of this new awakening, I know what it is to look back on your past misconceptions and the music you played and sang at Mass because of those misconceptions.  Mea culpa. 

So all negativism aside, maybe this is just the opportunity I needed to motivate and cajole my husband to dig through our post-remodel clutter in the basement to find the DVDs we made of the Colloquium '07 videos I shot lost summer.  We are in the process of uploading them to YouTube, to my channel at http://www.youtube.com/catholicsacredmusic.  So if you are looking for a breath of liturgical fresh air and a truly profound musical experience, check out these videos.  You will see what is possible.  It's amazing, and what a blessing to have been a part of the experience.  Tell all your friends, show your pastor and music director, send these around, let's get the word out: sacred music is possible, and it's worth the effort! 

God bless you.

Posted by Darcy at 07:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

After watching the circus that was the music at the Mass in D.C. this morning on EWTN, I drove to a city that neighbors mine to a parish called S.S. Peter and Paul (which houses a perpetual adoration chapel in its former convent), where my pastor and the music director of my parish (St. Peter Catholic Church Stevens Point) had been requested to offer an ordinary form Latin Mass for the Assumption Catholic High School students. 

Two other members of St. Peter's choir and myself were asked to help fill out the sound of the schola, which was otherwised made up of 10 high school students (boys and girls) and two teachers.  I did not think they even needed our help, so well-versed were they in the chants used for the Mass.  But it was nice to be invited to attend. 

It was a first step, and a good one.  They did not attempt the propers, but they chanted Regina Caeli for the processional, Ave Verum at Communion, and O filii et filiæ as the recessional.  The Jubilate Deo Mass settings were used for the Sanctus, Memorial Acc and Agnus Dei.  Most of the dialogues and responses were sung in Latin.  Not bad for high school students doing this for the first time, eh?  It just goes to show that we should at least be able to do this at our parish.  Father gave a nice homily about the virtue of using Latin in the Mass.  He said most of the prayers in Latin, including the Eucharistic prayer. 

I felt blessed to be part of this and somewhat refreshed from the bad taste the music in D.C. had left in my mouth.  Hope springs eternal.

Posted by Darcy at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If only I could apologize personally to the Holy Father, I would say: 

Oh Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, I am sorry for what you had to endure at the Mass in Washington D.C. this morning. 

I hope you understand that not all of the Catholic musicians in the United States treat sacred music with such disrespect.  There are many of us who are seeking earnestly to bring continuity with the Church's rich tradition of sacred music back to our liturgies. 

I apologize for the liturgical planners in the archdiocese of Washington D.C. who chose the music for today's Mass.  I am sure that they meant well, yet they were remiss in not consulting your holiness' own clear teaching about the arts in our sacred tradition. 

We are grateful for your visit to our country, and be assured of our prayers as you continue to work for a restoration of the sacred in our Church, as well as all that encompasses your care of the Body of Christ.

--------------------

For anyone who missed it, here are a few highlights from the liturgical music at the papal Mass in D.C. today:

It started with some beautifully executed hymns in the prelude and procession of the Mass.  But those were soon forgotten with the gospel Kyrie, the Gloria that made a nod to Gregorian Chant but soon proved it was NOT, the atonal setting of the Responsorial Psalm, a superbly instrumentalized Mass of Creation (OK that wasn't bad) and after that it's kind of a blurr... I remember a mariachi band, the trilingual intercessions response that you hear so often, jazz/soft rock during Communion, and a cameo appearance by Placid Domingo with a stirring rendition of Panis Angelicus (the only problem with that being the time and place).  

Oh well.  Better luck in New York City.  Maybe next time we have a papal visit they'll call the Church Music Association for advice when planning the papal liturgy.  Or better yet, the Holy See will explicitly request that the CMAA be in charge of the music.

This Washington Post article pointed out on the musicasacra forum about sums it up (very humorously): http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/15/AR2008041503369_pf.html

Posted by Darcy at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Kudos to the National Shrine choir for an excellent job providing music at the prayer service with the USCCB and the Holy Father today.  The polyphony in the prelude filled the Crypt Chapel with beauty and reverence, and the harmony on the hymn "At the Lamb's High Feast" was gorgeous.  The singing of vespers was extraordinary.  What a great experience for the bishops, hopefully inspirational for some who may not have considered trying to find ways to raise the standards of sacred music in their own dioceses.  And even if this is common fair for the bishops when they are in D.C., I can at least say that the shrine choir made me feel proud.  This is in contrast to how I felt watching video on EWTN of a visit of Pope John Paul II to the U.S. when the status quo of sacred music at the time was a little different, to say the least.  Our diocese is blessed to have an excellent music director at the cathedral (Dr. Brian Luckner) and when I've attended the Chrism Mass or ordinations, the music is always superb.  But the quality of the shrine voices today in the acoustics of the Crypt Chapel were remarkable, and must surely have pleased His Holiness.  Great job.

Posted by Darcy at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)