Author: Richard Chonak

Toward the end of June this year, the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle met with conductor J. Michael Thompson to record composer Paul Jernberg’s “Mass of St. Philip Neri”, together with Paul’s propers for Confirmation Masses.  Here are excerpts from the session; presumably a CD will be available in due course:

The fifth annual Musica Sacra St. Louis conference will explore “The Beauty of the Mass Ordinary” and “English Language Adaptations of the Mass Propers”. Instructors include Dr. William Mahrt, Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University; and Dr. Horst Buchholz, Director of Sacred Music, Archdiocese of St. Louis.

The conference is open to all who have an interest in the history and application of music in the liturgy; music directors, choir directors, singers, liturgists, priests and deacons, religious, seminarians, etc. 

For more information, click on the image, or grab the flyer, or read more at the Archdiocesan Office for Sacred Music, or call 314-614-7702.

Various publications in the past few years attest to a growing interest in the office of Compline, including Kenneth Peterson’s Prayer as Night Falls: Experiencing Compline and The Song of Prayer: A Practical Guide to Learning Gregorian Chant. These, and other resources, will be part of a Paraclete Press table at the August 22-23 Gregorian Institute of Canada colloquium, itself dedicated to the office of Compline. In addition to chant, workshop sessions will also introduce lesser-known but beautiful Compline-oriented polyphonic works, including a Salva nos by Palestrina. For more information about the colloquium, held in Regina, Saskatchewan, see www.gregorian.ca. The registration deadline is August 15, 2014.

Fr. Finigan in Blackfen has a fun post with photos of a cute church model built of Lego blocks.  He writes:

It struck me that families like this should be employed in preference to the experts who have designed some of the more egregious “worship spaces” the People of God have had to endure over the past few decades.

More photos at The hermeneutic of continuity…

Here’s Byrd’s setting of the introit for Pentecost, sung by the DC-area group Countertop Ensemble. It is preceded by the same text, presented solo on an office responsory tone. 

Sure, for most churches, a five-and-a-half-minute introit is too long for the action, but in the right circumstances – a delayed entrance, a decorously slow procession, a largish church, an incensation of the altar – the timing could fit. It would require that all the involved liturgical ministers contribute: servers, server trainers, and the clergy, along with the schola.   Has your parish looked for ways to put beauty first in the entrance procession?  Man does not live by efficiency alone!