St. Louis Jesuits : Folk Mass Music [my title]

Ad Orientem ^ | Jan. 15, 2003 | Mark C. N. Sullivan

[Desdemona]

Faith of Our Father's etc.

Okay, yeah, that's pretty bad.

[RobbyS]

Is there a good Catholic hymnal?

[VermiciousKnid]

If you are close to the "music ministers," sing loud and clear.

Truly a Fate Worse Than Death (really).

Regards,

[Desdemona]

Is there a good Catholic hymnal?

In print right now? I'm not sure. ninenot would know more. I have old copies of the St. Gregory and the St. Basil, but I think ninenot told me there is another one.

[RobbyS]

D. said you might know a good Catholic hymnal?

[AnAmericanMother]

Sure.

This is the version I have. It's conducted by Rutter and sung by the Cambridge Singers. You can buy it on Amazon, or it should be available locally if you have a decent music store.

[Land of the Irish]

Michael, drop a rock through that boat . .

Ditto's

[AnAmericanMother]

The 23rd Psalm is also nice. It's available separately, and we've sung it as an offertory anthem.

Handel is Mr. Reliable. You would think that the Messiah would have been sung clean to death by now (think Pachelbel's Canon - our choirmaster does a goofy "cocktail lounge version" that has us FOFLOL) but somehow it still has the power to move. My daughter's high school chorus and orchestra did Part the First for Christmas. It is a VERY good orchestra (she just changed schools & was considered a good violinist there, but she is having to pedal pretty hard to keep up with this new group) and the chorus is if possible better than the orchestra. Good soloists too. (Full disclosure - I was in the same chorus at the same high school 30 years ago.) There's a new director who is a live wire.

I missed the Thursday eve. performance (no way was I going to miss choir practice the week before Christmas - Fearless Leader woulda cut my lungs out) but showed up for the "school performance" matinee on the Friday. I was sitting in the second row with my Bärenreiter score watching them warm up, when a friend in the chorus saw me and waved me on up. Seems they allow parents, recent graduates, alumni etc. to participate . . . so I did. Lots of fun. The director did look a trifle surprised when he looked up and saw an unfamiliar face in the back of the altos, but I watched him like a hawk and never missed a cutoff . . . I did introduce myself afterwards! :-D

[ArrogantBustard]

He is NOT a priest.

Then WTF is he, and why is he still calling himself "SJ"?

Milwaukee... Hmmm.... That's where Weakland the Wrecker was. Any connection?

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I have to comment that much of what passed as Thomism in the 1950s drove Etienne Gilson wild (well , as as wild as he could get.) That's one reason why it was so easily overthrown. Most priests understood it about as deeply as most engineers understand calculus. 56 posted on 01/17/2003 8:11 PM PST by RobbyS

Wasn't alive then, but I take your point. Were Prof. Gilson around today he might be driven a little "wild" by some of the other stuff. The reverence for Nietzsche comes to mind.

But, just to keep things honest, I wasn't defending the paint-by-numbers version of textbook scholasticism.

[ninenot]

Pinkham's 'Christmas Cantata' is an outstanding work which you could do easily in a Parish setting (I know--my church choir did it 20 years ago.)

Of course, this piece is quite old. Perhaps Pinkham suffers from Schoenberg Syndrome--start good (Friede auf Erde) and end bad...(dodecaphonics.)

[ninenot]

I think RobS alludes to some really AWFUL stuff used as hymnody during the '20's, '30's, and forward. "Mother Dear, O Pray for Me" is an outstanding example of music better left in a dumpster on Tin Pan Alley.

In much of this hymnody, the HEART is emphasized at the expense of the MIND. Bear in mind that Pius X's definition required both mind and heart to be elevated. One can argue that hymnody is not 'sacred music,' and that is true. However, some of the slop managed to crawl into genuine sacred music (used for text of the Mass, e.g., Kyrie, Gloria, etc.) and resulted in the creation of the "White List," which was a national effort to define music which could be used for Mass. (Obviously, music NOT on the list was 'blacklisted.')

The StLouisJesuit music is a continuation of the FrFaber (also a Jebbie) smarmy, estrogen-driven emotionalism. There is a school of thought (and I am a member) that this garbage is one reason why men tend to stay away from Mass.

Chant would fix that, but there is plenty of GOOD stuff available which at least begins to engage the mind. That is easy to define--it must have proper musical form and be 'universal,' (another quality demanded by PiusX)--not just appealing to one group or another.

PiusX's summary was in effect that 'the more it is based on Chant, the better it is,' meaning that it should have the ethereal (not earth-bound) quality of genuine Chant.

[ninenot]

You can get The Adoremus Hymnal through the Adoremus Bulletin website. If you are REALLY lucky, you might be able to get Hymns, Psalms, and Spritual Canticles through the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School---but they are not particularly cooperative.

Dig around a bit and you might even scarf a few used copies of the old (1960's) Collegeville Hymnal.

[ninenot]

Well, I thought he quit the Order---but I could be wrong. I will confess that I do not keep close track of him, nor most of his friends.

As to a connection with Rembert--it is fair to say that the 'underground' maintained by the pink parasol crowd is quite, ah, tight. But there are no PUBLICLY known....

[AnAmericanMother]

Perhaps Pinkham suffers from Schoenberg Syndrome--start good (Friede auf Erde) and end bad...(dodecaphonics.)

I think that must be what happened to Pinkham. The assistant choirmaster said something about Pinkham's "harmonious period" -- and that this piece didn't belong there. But the short anthem we're doing now and one other piece that is slightly less ugly are the only works of his that I'm familiar with, so I really can't say. I did find a website that had sheet music excerpts from his "Christmas Cantata" and at least the part they put up looks fairly normal!

[Desdemona]

This weekend at the two Masses I attended - pro-life yesterday, Sunday this morning - Be Not Afraid, On Eagle's Wings, Sing a New Song, and the Mass of Creation.

I have to go listen to Beethoven now.

[Dajjal]

He is NOT a priest. He left the Jesuits, returned to Milwaukee (his home area--actually, he is from THE ritzy western suburb: Elm Grove,) flopped HORRIBLY on a couple of "music director" assignments in the Archdiocese, and went out to SFO.

Ninenot, you are correct. Mark Sullivan at Ad Orientem has updated the article accordingly:

UPDATE: Dan Schutte is no longer a Jesuit, having left the order. The post has been corrected accordingly.

[Dajjal]

You're quoted at Ad Orientem, too.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

The post on the William Byrd CD on the Ad Orientem site is worthy of the attention of music ministers. A good reminder that defending the dignity of the Mass is not exactly without precedent in our history...with splendid high points of artistic achievement and sacred beauty. "Attention all bishops and pastors..."

William Byrd: The Three Masses

A Baltimore Sun reviewer gives four stars to a new CD by the Pro Arte Singers of Indiana University, directed by Paul Hillier (third item):

At considerable risk, William Byrd composed and had printed three settings of the Latin Mass in the early 1600s, when Catholicism was proscribed in England. Throughout his life, he remained true to his faith, which, as his music makes plain, meant everything to him.

The three Masses, in particular, reflect that intensity; they are remarkably expressive, without ever turning florid. Byrd's style is a model of melodic directness and exquisitely molded harmonies. The Credo of his Mass for Five Voices is a case in point; this profession of faith could hardly be clearer or more emphatic, yet there is no sense of overemphasis or straining for effect. Everything is in balance, everything innately beautiful. It's the same throughout each section of these three important works.