Musical Tour de Force; an Artist at Adoration - Choir of U.S. Basilica Tunes In to Rome for CD

Zenit News Agency ^ | March 10, 2005 | Catherine Smibert

[NYer]

ROME, MARCH 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., has been in Rome over the last week on a recording tour to honor John Paul II.

The choir is working on a CD, due for release this autumn. The idea for it came from the Year of the Eucharist and the man behind it, according to the choir's musical director, Peter Latona.

"I'm always coming up with new activities for this professional chorus in addition to them providing the ordinary and proper texts at midday liturgies of the Eucharist on Sundays and on principal solemnities," he told me. "This Pope and Rome offered too great an inspiration to resist."

Latona explained that the choir aims to record a new CD each year (usually comprised of Marian hymns), but that the Year of the Eucharist provided a good excuse for doing something different.

"This Pope has been a key element when it comes to strengthening the liturgy of the Church and encouraging music to be an integral part of that," Latona said. "It was time for us to honor him for his broad contributions that honored traditions such as music that have existed in the Church throughout the years"

"When it came to choosing the Eternal City, many forget that it was here where some of the greatest Church music was born," he said. "For example, people aren't as familiar with Palestrina as they are with Michelangelo.

"In that sense, bringing the tradition of music to life in these places is the equivalent of exhibiting a famous work of art in the Vatican Museums, so it really relies on performing ensembles, professional choirs, organists and the like in order to reach back into the roots of the Catholic Church with its great art of the past and strengthen that connection with music."

"Thrilling" was the word the choir members used to describe their experience of re-creating this art form in places such as the tomb of St. Peter, where they sang an excerpt from "Tu Es Petrus."

"Singing in these places makes one's experience of the Church come to life," Latona said. "You can imagine the powerful sensation you get when singing a motet written for the feast of several martyrs which speaks of the blood they shed, then looking at the walls and actually seeing paintings of the first Christians being martyred, in a church dedicated to martyrs that has barely changed over the centuries."

But once a pilgrimage was decided upon, finding an exact location to record in Rome was tricky.

The choir wanted to show the connection between this city, the United States and the universal Church.

The U.S. shrine's acting rector, Monsignor Walter Rossi, told me: "At first we had considered St. Peter's as the most likely option. But then we realized that as we are a Marian shrine in the U.S., it would be even more appropriate to have the recording take place inside the oldest church in honor of the Blessed Mother, St. Mary Major."

The monsignor said the choir directors saw this location as being equally and ideally reflective of the Pope's devotion to Our Lady. Yet, it is not just this Marian element that links the CD project to the Holy Father.

"When we were brainstorming ideas of how to really present the Pope's life in this CD, we opportunely ran into his biographer George Weigel," Latona said. "He helped me think through what to focus on and pointed me in the direction of the various encyclicals looking at areas of freedom, dignity of life, family, Mary, sainthood, the Eucharist etc."

Thanks to Weigel's assistance, Latona and his team have extracted appropriate quotes of the Pope's to be read out prior to each sacred musical piece. Carl Anderson, benefactor of the CD and Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, will read the selected quotes.

"I'm hoping," said Latona, "that people will use this CD as an overview of the teachings of the Holy Father. The average person will not have read all his teachings and so this gives them a little taste."

The CD, "Pope John Paul II: A Celebration of Life and Faith," is expected to comprise 20 tracks and will begin its distribution through the bookstore of national shrine in Washington.

[NYer]

"At first we had considered St. Peter's as the most likely option. But then we realized that as we are a Marian shrine in the U.S., it would be even more appropriate to have the recording take place inside the oldest church in honor of the Blessed Mother, St. Mary Major."

[Betis70]

A great gift idea for my mom. Her choir was able to sing in numerous churches in Rome, including St Peter's, on a pilgrammage trip a number of years ago.