Sneak Peek at Colloquium Breakout Sessions

In addition to daily liturgies, lectures, and chant and polyphony rehearsals, this year’s Sacred Music Colloquium, scheduled for June 25-July 1, 2012, at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City, will feature a wide variety of breakout sessions. There is truly something for everyone. Here’s a first peek at the list of sessions:

Conducting chant
Conducting polyphony
Chironomy
Organ masterclasses
Training for clergy
Vocal pedagogy
New music composition seminar
Psalm pointing in Latin and English
English chant resources
Chant engraving
Legislation on Church music
Building a degree program in sacred music
Aspects of translation
Gregorian chant and world music: tensions and solutions
History of Sacred Music
A look at the Graduale Simplex
Evaluating Hymns

Stay tuned. Can’t wait? Register here.

Chant Workshop in Oklahoma

On Saturday, March 10, 2012 the Office of Worship and Spiritual Life of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is sponsoring a workshop for Choir Directors and Choir Members entitled: “Practical Chant for Parish Musicians.” The workshop will take place at the Catholic Pastoral Center in Oklahoma City, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and ending at 3:00 p.m. The $10 workshop fee includes lunch.

This workshop will explore the renewed emphasis on the place of chant in the liturgy. Why do we sing chant? What is the “spirituality” of Gregorian Chant? How is suitable to the Roman Liturgy? The workshop will include the basics of chant techniques using sung examples from the Missal chant settings. In addition to settings for the ordinary of the Mass, we will look at other examples, such as the Easter Sequence, In Paradisum, and Ubi Caritas. Some pointers will also be given on how to conduct chant.

Chant in Prattville, Alabama

English Chant Workshop at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Prattville, Alabama. Saturday, March 3, 2012. 10:00am – 4:00pm. Chant is sung prayer—if you can speak it, you can sing it! Whether you’ve never sung before, or are singing in a choir, this workshop is for you. We will learn techniques of singing and reading chant, and explore the Propers and Ordinary chants as well as Psalms. Our instructors are Jeffrey Tucker and Arlene Oost-Zinner, nationally recognized instructors of chant. This workshop is offered at not cost to participants. Lunch will be provided. To register, call Robin at 334.365.8680

Winter Chant Intensive: Plea for Scholarship Donations

CMAA Houston, sponsor of the Winter Chant Intensive, coming up on January 4-6, 2012, has been besieged with scholarship requests. At present five or six gifts of $50 or $100 would assist in getting people the education in chant they are looking for – not only for themselves, but for their parishes, and the future of sacred music in this country.

If you are in the position to help, please consider making a donation – in time for someone to benefit from your gift this coming January. Write to CMAA Houston for specifics on how to go about making a difference.

Need to recommend a hymnal?

Here is a quick list of ten great things about the Vatican II Hymnal. In no particular order:

Contains the Order of Mass for both the EF and OF.

Contains all the readings for ALL THREE YEARS in the OF. No need for Missalettes.

Is over 700 pages long but is still the size of a normal book.

Includes numerous settings of Alleluias and Gospel Acclamations.

Includes the text of the sequences in Latin AND English.

Includes solid, singable hymns.

For each hymn the editor has included a suggested occasion for deployment.

Includes Offertory verses! Yes, they exist!

Includes the ICEL setting of the new translation of the Mass; and further settings by Rice, Weber,and more.

Includes great graphics that you could copy (I think photocopying one page for personal use is allowed) and give to your children with a pack of colored pencils (after Mass).

Gregorian Chant and More Workshop

St. Benedict Church in Richmond, Virginia, will be sponsoring The Gregorian Chant and More Workshop on Nov.11-12, 2011.

The workshop will feature Fr. Robert A. Skeris, Director, Centre for Ward Method Studies at The Catholic University of America. Sessions will alternate singing Gregorian Chant with lectures on Sacred Music. All are welcome, from novices to experienced singers. The workshop will conclude with a Missa Cantata. All sessions will be held in Saint Anselm Hall at St. Benedict Parochial School. The workshop is free for St. Benedict Church members, however you must register. Registration includes lunch on Saturday as well as a copy of the Liber Cantualis, the book used for the workshop. For non-St. Benedict Church members, the fee is a modest $5 to cover lunch expenses. The Liber Cantualis will be available for purchase at the workshop. To register, or for more information, please email your contact information to jdorn@saintbenedictparish.org or ccrafton@saintbenedictschool.org. You may also mail your contact information and payment to St. Benedict Church Office, attn: Chant Workshop 206 North Belmont Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23221.

More information here.

Zwingli! on Music


For reasons unknown to me I found myself reading the Wikipedia article on Huldrych Zwingli (Swiss Reformer). Maybe it was because conversation over brunch today centered on my son’s freshman history class and his professor’s well balanced look at the influences and events of the time. Might also be because I was in Zurich three weeks ago, where all things “church” are all Zwingli, all the time.

Cut to the chase: I about fell off my chair when I read the paragraph on Zwingli’s view toward liturgical music, below. As Willa Cather said, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”

Zwingli criticised the practice of priestly chanting and monastic choirs. The criticism dates from 1523 when he attacked certain worship practices. He associated music with images and vestments, all of which he felt diverted people’s attention from true spiritual worship. It is not known what he thought of the musical practices in early Lutheran churches. Zwingli, however eliminated music from worship in the church, stating that God had not commanded musical worship. The organist of the People’s Church in Zurich is recorded as weeping upon seeing the great organ broken up. Although Zwingli did not express an opinion on congregational singing, he made no effort to encourage it. Nevertheless, scholars have found that Zwingli was supportive of a role for music in the church. Gottfried W. Locher writes, “The old assertion ‘Zwingli was against church singing’ holds good no longer…. Zwingli’s polemic is concerned exclusively with the medieval Latin choral and priestly chanting and not with the hymns of evangelical congregations or choirs”. Locher goes on to say that “Zwingli freely allowed vernacular psalm or choral singing. In addition, he even seems to have striven for lively, antiphonal, unison recitative”. Locher then summaries his comments on Zwingli’s view of church music as follows: “The chief thought in his conception of worship was always ‘conscious attendance and understanding’ — ‘devotion’, yet with the lively participation of all concerned”.