Polyphony and Chant at World Youth Day

The following is from Chris Mueller:


Many of you know that World Youth Day is an event convened every 2-3 years, where high school and college-aged kids and young adults from all over the world gather in some large international city (e.g. Cologne, Sydney, Madrid…) for a week, to celebrate Mass, meet the Pope (or at least be near him), and grow in their faith. This event is huge – millions of young people convene every time it happens! In fact, World Youth Day 1995 in Manila held the record for the largest-ever papal event, when over five million pilgrims gathered for Mass with Pope St. John Paul II. (That record was recently broken when Pope Francis celebrated a Mass for over six million people… in Manila!)

This summer World Youth Day will be held in Krakow, Poland, and I have the honor of having been invited to conduct all the music at the English-language Masses! There are so many English-speaking pilgrims that these Masses will be held in a giant stadium. There will be a morning Mass each day, for five consecutive days.

Additionally, my family, which sings polyphony and chant together as the Mueller Family Schola, has been invited to give a concert as one of the cultural events that take place each evening at this enormous gathering. And my wife and kids will not only be present for our concert, but they’ll be joining me to sing at all the Masses I’ll be conducting as well.

One of my goals is to incorporate polyphony and chant into every Mass. I think it would be amazing to set a kind of liturgical template that youth from all over the world would take back to their parishes. “We heard all this beautiful music at the Masses in Poland – can’t we have that same music at our own church?” I’ve been working closely with Dominican Friars from the United States and Poland as we carefully plan all these liturgies. And we expect a pretty big choir!

But here’s where I need your help:

In order to direct the wonderful music this July in Krakow, my family and I first have to get to Krakow. And so I’m asking if you would support our Kickstarter campaign, to help us raise enough funds to bring gorgeous polyphony, beautiful chant, and ourselves to Poland. We would be very grateful for your help, and we promise to pray for you unceasingly in our gratitude!

Thank you for your kind consideration and for your support –

Chris Mueller and the Mueller Family Schola


tl;dr Support Traditional Sacred Music at World Youth Day by contributing to this Kickstarter Campaign.

3 Replies to “Polyphony and Chant at World Youth Day”

  1. Might I suggest, repertoire wise, that you should expect more European youth than American? Then consider that other English speaking countries, like England, did not jettison all Latin after Vatican II. On my last visit to the UK, I discovered congregations throughout the land knew the "Salve Regina" from memory, and quite often sang it at the end of Mass. I also heard an entire congregation join with the choir and organ singing "Credo I" (yes, that's I, not III!) gustily, with ONLY THE TEXT printed in the worship aid! So, please don't judge the musical intellect and level of participation on US examples.

  2. Stephen M. Collins is correct. One possible explanation is that Europeans don't have a phobia for other languages as Americans do. I sang the Credo at a Mass recently with a young woman from England. She told me it was standard at her convent school that she attended.

  3. The Chuch has been Balkanised. Its very very odd that English speaking Catholics can't worship with other Catholics of the same Rite. What sort of status quo is there when youth can't read a booklet that might be bilingual or use Latin. for the parts of the Mass. Don't deprive them of their patrimony.

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