Posted on 01/21/2006 5:56:54 PM PST by hiho hiho
OMAHA, Neb. (CNS) -- The St. Louis Jesuits, liturgical music icons from the 1970s, are back together and have released their first album in more than 20 years.
"Morning Light" is the seventh recording for the St. Louis Jesuits -- Dan Schutte and Jesuit Fathers Bob Dufford, John Foley and Roc O'Connor -- who were known for such songs as "Blest Be the Lord," "Lift Up Your Hearts" and "Sing a New Song."
In the mid 1980s, various assignments moved the men to different parts of the country, and Schutte left the Society of Jesus. These changes made it difficult to record music together, said Father O'Connor, a theology professor at Creighton University in Omaha and liturgist at St. John Parish on the Creighton campus.
"It just seemed like it was a time for each of us to try something on our own," he said.
Since that time, all four have released successful solo CDs.
"It really was a wonderful experience and very nostalgic and heartwarming to record together again," Schutte said in a phone interview with The Catholic Voice, Omaha archdiocesan newspaper. "Beyond the recording, it was just a wonderful experience of spending companionship time together."
The four met up in 2001 at the 25th anniversary celebration of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in Washington, where they sang Schutte's "City of God." It was the first time in 17 years that they had performed together live.
"For me, it was this experience of consolation, of here we are doing something together again," Father O'Connor said. "There was a feeling of being at home in that experience of singing together."
A year later they met in San Francisco to discuss the possibility of making a new CD together, which was something they had avoided in the past.
"We had been asked by the publishers before to put some music out together and we said no, there's no reason to do it other than someone would make money on it," Father O'Connor said. "Our sense was that we're fine going on the way we are."
The men talked and prayed about it for three days and decided the time was right.
"The thing that came to us most often is that this is an act of hope, and it's not hope that the good old days will return, but it's hope that the continued reform of the liturgy can allow us a deeper integration of transcendent and imminent and a deepening of our experience of God and community in liturgical prayer," Father O'Connor said.
When the men gathered again, this time in Portland, Ore., each brought songs he had written himself and they recorded 20 pieces. Only 12 were chosen for this CD, released by Oregon Catholic Press.
"Everyone had to lose two songs and that was very painful, very painful," Father O'Connor said. "We did as much work in three weeks that we probably would have done in four or five weeks 30 years ago. ... It was brutal."
Tim Manion, one of the original St. Louis Jesuits, joined with the four to sing for some of the recordings. Father Dufford and Schutte hadn't seen him in 21 years and Father O'Connor hadn't seen him in eight.
"It was wonderful," Father O'Connor said. "Those five days he was there were the best. We laughed and laughed and carried on and worked hard at making music."
Fans of the St. Louis Jesuits' music will find comfort in the songs on "Morning Light" as its sound is much the same as their earlier sound. But there are some challenging and surprising pieces included as well, arising "from life experience and the ups and downs that we've all faced," Father O'Connor said.
Although pleased with the CD, Schutte, composer in residence at the University of San Francisco and director of music for the Office of University Ministries, said it was "a little bit scary" to release an album together after 20 years.
"It's always scary as a composer. These songs are sometimes like your children. You put a lot of love and labor into them and you may like them, but who knows if anyone else is going to," he said. "I hope people find them useful in worship and prayer."
In the spring, Fathers O'Connor, Foley and Dufford and Schutte will do four live performances in Washington, St. Louis, Chicago and Anaheim, Calif. The group hasn't done any public performances together in nearly 20 years.
"It's our little reunion tour," Schutte said. "It's going to be a wonderful shot in the arm for many people."
"It's our little reunion tour," Schutte said.
Ooh, I don't know. I predict tension on the road when Schutte insists on bringing his male "wife" on tour.
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