Psallite Sapienter

CMAA has come out with another great resource...

When I was trying to figure out how to sing for our first Missa Cantata, I am thinking this would have been so great to have had on hand...

It is currently available here and it will be available for sale at the Colloquium, all you lucky ones who will be attending.

I am hopeful that it will also be available to me for purchase when I am at Chant Intensive the week prior.

Check this out if you are interested in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and the music for it...

Much Ado

This has been a very busy week... many preparations are taking place to get ready for our bishop-elect's ordination/installation. I've been trying to get in as much practice as I can while my better half is still in town -- it means babysitters to attend rehearsals after he leaves. Not only is it expensive, it is not always easy to find them!

The last two evenings I have spent rehearsing for the ordination (to be at the convention center on May 19), the upcoming 'Red Mass' (when Cardinal Egan from NY will be here) that will be tomorrow morning at Holy Trinity, and the Holocaust remembrance this Sunday afternoon. Just so that I don't get bored this weekend, we luckily will also have the boys' Suzuki concert on Saturday afternoon and my hubby's change of command ceremony on early Sunday afternoon -- oh, yes... I'm also cantoring for the 5:30 pm Sunday Mass.

Whew! It is a good thing I have just mentally listed all those things... otherwise I might have dropped something off the list!

Tonight will be our schola rehearsal... we are going to be singing a few pieces for prelude music prior to the beginning of the Vespers service on May 18th. I'd like them to be especially nice, so we'll go through some of our repertoire tonight and decide what we'll focus on polishing up. Our task is to provide about 15 minutes' worth of chant music... I am very pleased that we are going to be able to participate for it.

Time to get the house spiffy in case a buyer wants to wander through today...

Parish Book of Chant... give a listen!

Listen to Jeffrey Tucker tell what you can expect from the CMAA Parish Book of Chant that is to be available in June 2008. Pre-orders are also available... check it out!

By clicking on this link, you can hear much great information about this great resource!

http://www.musicasacra.com/media/pbc-explanation.mp3

For a list of contents... see the post Scelata has here...

Another great Adoremus article by Jeffrey Tucker...

Just read the article in the April 2008 Adoremus Bulletin online... "The Decline and Fall of Catholic Music". In the article, Jeffrey gives a very good analogy about the loss of the musical skills within the Catholic church. Here is a brief excerpt:

Comics are rather popular among young people and have been
for many decades. But let’s imagine a world in which people never really went
beyond them. No novels, no poetry, no non-fiction. Just comics. Maybe not even
words. Just pictures.

Who would be surprised when the generation turned out
to be illiterate? Let this situation run for three or four generations, and you
would suddenly wake up to a world in which no one could really read and, more
shockingly, no one could teach people to read either.

At this point, you might expect people to suddenly
realize what they have done. A major part of the foundation of civilization had
been inadvertently smashed. If we could easily do a before/after analysis, we
would be shocked more so than if we live in the midst of
transition.

While it is happening, each generation knows
less than the previous generation and increasingly there are fewer and fewer
people around to even notice that there is a problem. People do not even know
what they do not know, nor even that the problem needs to be
corrected.

This, I fear, is pretty much what has happened in the
area of Catholic music — not entirely, but we have approached that fate and
perhaps might be saved from it with massive efforts today.

Check out the article... he made many very good points about why it is important to all of us to try to preserve the musical heritage of the Church...

Chant: for the Few? or the Many?

I read a wonderful article in the October 2007 Adoremus Bulletin (which is now online) by Lucy Carroll... it is a wonderful discussion about the history and the now of Chant.

HT Adam's Ale

Divine Mercy Sunday

Well... soon I'll be heading off to another schola practice. Tomorrow is a big day for our little group. One year ago (according to the liturgical calendar, that is) on Divine Mercy Sunday, our schola sang for Mass for the first time. It was a Novus Ordo Latin Mass, complete with most propers and all ordinaries. When I think back about how large an undertaking it was, I am amazed.

We started about the end of February last year. We had a couple of members who had sung Gregorian chant in their youth and who were somewhat familiar with the notation. The rest of us were complete novices. We began learning with the Jubilate Deo booklet that is available online. I had bought a book about learning Gregorian chant a couple of years before, so had a basic idea of the various clefs and how to figure out where the half-steps were in the music. Our pastor, Father Peter, had the most practical knowledge from singing in the seminary. As such, he was our director initially.

Our progress has been good over the past months. One year later, the entire group is pretty good at singing solfege (although our weekly exercises do always still require concentration). We have a number of chant hymns that we are all very familiar with... for the various seasons of the church year. We have learned not only the ordinaries from the Jubilate Deo booklet, but also the Mass XVII ordinaries and the extra Mass VIII ordinaries that weren't part of the booklet. We have learned a number of propers for the various times we have sung for Mass over the past year... revisiting those propers is like meeting up with an old friend...

Tomorrow we will sing for two Latin Masses. We'll sing for the Novus Ordo Latin Mass at the 5:30 pm time. Then, we'll also be singing for an Extraordinary Form Missa Cantata later on. It will be our first time to do so, and we hope it goes as it should. Prayers on our behalf would be much appreciated.

Sacred Music issue arrived...

I just received my new issue of Sacred Music today... haven't had enough time to read through it entirely. I've been working on preparations for the schola Mass this coming Sunday, as well as trying to get my boys to do their schoolwork and instrument practicing.

However, I did get to read one article in the new issue... the one by Dr. William Mahrt, president of CMAA. He wrote a wonderful piece about (primarily) a Communion chant that I particularly like -- Passer invenit. It is not a particularly easy one, but one that our schola has used a fair amount during Ordinary time.

The Latin:

Passer invenit sibi domum, et turtur nidum, ubi reponat pullos suos: atlaria tua Domine virtutum, Rex meus, et Deus meus: beati qui habitant in domo tua, in saeculum saeculi laudabunt te.

English translation:

The sparrow has found herself a home, and the turtle dove a nest in which to lay her young: at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God! Blessed are they who dwell in your house, they shall praise you for ever and ever.

The archived Winter 2007 issue is also available online now as well here.

Easter week

It was a wonderful and busy Triduum! We had a wonderful Easter celebration... I was able to sing with the cathedral choir for Holy Thursday (cantor), Good Friday (at which we sang the Vittoria version of the Reproaches), the Vigil Mass on Holy Saturday (cantor) and Easter Sunday Mass at 11 a.m. (cantor).

Aside from a little mishap on Holy Saturday (I had forgotten to bring a light to sing by and found myself running around in the dark trying to find a light to use... to no avail... my contingency plan was to go and sing from the same place as the readers use... this plan was thwarted when the reader decided to stay up there during the psalm... finally Father Peter found me a light and I was able to jump in and join the choir in time for the first verse -- a little out of breath), all was well. I love the Vigil Mass. Sitting at the front, I was able to see the Baptism of two little boys and their Dad. What a great moment! After Mass, while I was talking to the younger of the two boys about Easter... he did tell me that the Easter bunny would be coming to his house sometime while he was sleeping. When asked, he did tell me that I wouldn't be getting any baskets or eggs because 'it is mostly for kids'.

Our pastor did an absolutely excellent job of singing the Exultet. I loved it! It is quite dramatic with the church dark except for the lighted Easter candle. The cathedral choir did a wonderful job of singing the Ave Verum (Mozart).

The church was full on Easter morning as well... our pastor's homily was especially good. He talked about the differences in faith exemplified in the Gospel by the way Mary Magdalene, St. Peter and St. John reacted upon finding the empty tomb... unbelief and suspicion, sincere doubt and immediate belief... he then spoke to those present about the differences in the way each individual's personal faith journey may vary from others'. Especially at Easter, there are often people at Mass who may not be very regular attendees during the rest of the year... I hope it touched a few hearts.

We sang the Easter sequence (in English)... next week for the Latin version! I'll be posting more updates on our plans for the Latin Mass at the cathedral next week later on...

Holy Week

Today is the feast of St. Joseph... As I mentioned in my last post, this is a very busy week for all involved in the preparation for Holy Week liturgies... Last night was cathedral choir practice, which I actually was able to attend this week. We rehearsed the Popule Meus, which could use some more work, but which will be nice if we get at least one more good rehearsal of it... I plan to be working on the chant portion of it this week (while my boys are doing their schoolwork).

We've had strange weather around here... worries of tornados and rain and wind ["and the tiny ship was tossed]. It reminds me of a funny posting on the CMAA forum about the song written by Dan Schutte, Behold the Wood of the Cross. Apparently, more than one person has noticed the similarity of the piece to certain portions of the Gilligan's Island theme. One bit of humor... speculation about whether Palestrina would have borrowed this theme song to compose Good Friday motets if he had lived in an era with television...

Happily, we will not be using that particular piece at our parish this year... if you happen to be one of those lucky souls who does hear it this year... you really must listen to see if you, too, notice the similarity!!!

Busy, busy

No postings this weekend... it has been busy around here... more either late tonight or tomorrow... we are in the midst of Holy Week and all the musical preparations for it...

We have schola rehearsal tonight, at which we'll be working on the Regina Caeli Jubilo for the first time.

I've also been practicing the chanted verses for Vittoria's Popule Meus (which I'll be singing alternately with the refrain sung by the cathedral choir). The schedule has me cantoring for three Masses this week... Holy Thursday, Vigil Mass on Saturday evening and early Easter Sunday morning... don't know when the boys will be able to hunt eggs... I may miss it this year, unfortunately.

I think they are beginning to suspect that Mom and Dad are the Easter bunnies...

One very cute (in my opinion) story about life with little boys... I was sitting on the back porch after all the new annuals (purchased from Lowe's this weekend) were planted in the flower beds... and was (with my youngest son) watching as my husband walked off. I mentioned to him that he has a very nice-looking Daddy. Without a moment's pause, he casually asked: "Is that where I get my charm and good looks?". Trying to keep myself from laughing, I answered that, yes, indeed, that is where all the charm and good looks originated!

Schola Night!

Schola night! We had a very good rehearsal, running through almost all of the music that will be used at our very first Missa Cantata... The group is sounding very good, although it would be so nice if Matt had some support from the other guys in the group... It is mostly a situation of schedules and busy lives, I think...

This morning I spent a couple of hours talking about the cues for singing a Missa Cantata with another volunteer schola director who will be singing for Low Sunday also. It was especially nice to discuss with him since we are both using essentially the same music choices. Since it will be my first time to lead one, I have been a bit nervous about attempting it on my own. With budgets an issue, and no hired professional to do the job, I'll be doing my best and hoping it will be good enough...

Our plan for the music is:

Prelude: Regina Caeli Laetare

Processional: Victimae Paschali

Introit: Quasimodo

Kyrie: VIII de angelis

Gloria: VIII de angelis

Alleluia: In die and Post dies

Credo: III

Offertory: Angelus Domini

O Filii et Filiae

Sanctus: VIII de angelis

Agnus Dei: VIII de angelis

Communion: Mitte Manum (with Psalm verses)

Closing Hymn: Regina Caeli Jubila (possible -- not yet determined)

My boys loved their babysitter... a wonderful daughter of a home schooling friend (with a beautiful soprano voice). She sings with the cathedral choir and recently sang a beautiful solo... she sings so clearly... she sang right up to the high Bb in the piece effortlessly (or at least it seemed so from my vantage point).

I did manage to get a lot of housecleaning done today... but I left some of the fun for tomorrow morning. It is late...

Busy Tuesday

It is a busy week... lots of kid schoolwork to do and their normal activities... We went to daily Mass today along with some other home schooling friends. Afterward, the boys enjoyed their bag lunches with their buddies and had a bit of (that desperately needed thing) socialization!

Today was also my youngest son's first violin recital. Yes, he played Twinkle, twinkle in all its wonderful variations along with his seven other graduating classmates this afternoon. In his white shirt, tie, suit pants and church shoes, he looked pretty spiffy. I was very proud of him.

We stayed for most of the rest of the music (until the fidgety kids drove me to my limit -- the enjoyment I received listening was not enough to outdo the irritation of wiggling, answering loudly-whispered questions, etc.). The final performance we heard was an absolutely outstanding cello solo by the son of the director of the Suzuki program here in Shreveport - John Henry Crawford. He has an amazing stage presence for one so young... and his playing was superb!

I am busily trying to put together music for an early Saturday morning Mass... I need to learn three new chant pieces by then. They are:

Introit: Sitientes
Offertory: Factus est Dominus
Communion: Dominus regit me

Time to get the boys to bed and get to reading! So much time, so little to do -- wait, reverse that!

Gregorian Chant is a Blessing to the Church

I had a sort of epiphany recently. In the recent few months, I have been letting myself get upset when things didn't go perfectly in my little chant world. Let's face it -- how often does everything go perfectly anyway? Well, it was making me crabby and narrow-minded and negative about things completely unrelated to it... Then, for some unknown reason, I suddenly began to see it in a different light.

Awhile back, I read a book about household (and life) organization by a woman who calls herself "flylady". She would get flashes of inspiration her husband named 'God-breezes'. One of her pearls of wisdom had to do with housework and (roughly paraphrased) went like this: "All housework, even when done imperfectly, blesses your home."

What I am thinking goes along those same lines... all Gregorian chant sung as part of a Roman Catholic liturgy, even when sung imperfectly, blesses the Church. In other words, whether I think the phrasing is exactly right on, or whether the choir members are being taught the theory behind reading the notation, or whether I like the organ accompaniment is all irrelevant to the greater good of the Church!

Now, I would like it better if it were perfectly beautiful each and every time our parishioners heard chant... and that is what we must strive toward... but in the meantime, it is still a blessing. Having this attitude is helping me a great deal.

'

Postscript: And I also have to realize and accept the limitations of what I personally can do in the promotion of chant singing and the training of others... I am not in charge! At the same time, those of us working toward the greater good must not be faint-hearted when hard times and obstacles are put in our paths. We have to cheerfully muddle on, humbly accepting the opportunities we have to move forward, as well as those occasions when it isn't possible.

Rocky Mountain Region Sacred Music Workshop Recordings

Many thanks to Carl Diershow for these great recordings from the Colorado Springs Sacred Music Workshop (Jan 18-19). I was ready to record myself, trying to get some experience in using my Zoom H4, only to discover that I was out of space on the memory chip (bad planning on my part).

If Ye Love Me (Tallis)

Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)

Sanctus XI (Orbis Factor)

Jubilate Deo (Lassus)

As with many recordings, these don't quite do justice to the beautiful sound we got being there, but it is easy to see what a great job Scott Turkington and Dr. Horst Buchholz did in teaching a bunch of folks how to sing chant and polyphony in a very short amount of time. A great number of the attendees had no experience in singing chant or reading the notation... the results speak well for the possibility of teaching people how to sing chant quickly. Hear the entire list of recordings at: http://chant.dierschow.com/080119/index.htm

Ave Maria by Seraphim

It's an appropriate piece on the 1st day of the Novena...

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9641db1e7badbfbe9240

Update

It has been a bit quieter around here... I enjoyed choir practice with the main choir last night. Despite my fears, the chant is sounding better. I still don't like it with organ accompaniment, but that is just not up to me.

We are also working on some very nice polyphony pieces with the small choir. We worked on three very nice pieces last night -- Lord, for Thy Tender Mercy's Sake, Hide Not Thou Thy Face, Miserere (Lotti). We also did a quick listen through of Tallis' O Nata Lux, a beautiful piece that I first heard sung last summer at the colloquium and When David Heard (Thomkins). I'm not sure which of those we can feasibly do, but it is great fun singing them along the way.

This evening we will have our regular schola rehearsal, when we can hopefully finish working on the Attende, Domine and Parce Domine for Ash Wednesday. I'm also hoping to bring the pieces typically used for Friday evening Stations of the Cross to work on with the schola. Our solfege training will continue, as well as preparations for the next schola Mass on March 30th.

It has been very rainy and a bit cold here (keeping in mind that is relative -- we are in Louisiana, after all). It actually appeared to be snowing here last night, for about 30 seconds or so. This was a thrilling event for my two little boys, who really do wish it would snow here occasionally.

Another great post from NLM...

See Jeffrey Tucker's article at the New Liturgical Movement... here is a short excerpt:

"The very clear motive for doing chant is plain as can be: musicians should seek to do what the Church is now asking of us, and always has. Chant is the music of the Catholic Church. It bears all three marks of what the Church calls sacred: holy, beautiful, and universal. It grew up with the Mass and is bound up with it in every way. "

Mind change...

It is a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right? It's almost a requirement, I am thinking... so I've changed my mind about the Chant Intensive. After talking it over with my husband, we both decided I should get some really intense training to help with directing the schola. This class seems to be the ticket. I am sorry I won't be able to be at the colloquium -- I am definitely having mixed emotions when I think about how much I learned and enjoyed and absorbed last year... but I also really need some training in chironomy -- chant directing.

I just put together a practice CD for the schola this afternoon... all the chants we'll need for the two times we sing during the Easter season... they include:

Sprinkling Rite (Easter): Vidi aquam
Introit - 2d Sunday of Easter: Quasi modo
Kyrie VIII (de angelis)
Gloria VIII (de angelis)
Alleluia " : In die
Alleluia " : Post dies
Easter sequence: Victimae pascali
we won't be chanting the offertory this year... maybe next :)
Sanctus VIII (de angelis) -- an new one for us
Agnus Dei XVIII ( I know... not exactly right for the Easter season, but I have to add new ordinaries gradually, so I am only adding the new Sanctus this time around)
Communion: Mitte manum

Introit - Ascension: Viri Galilaei
Alleluia - Ascendit Deus
Alleluia - Dominus in Sina
we'll use a chant hymn or polyphony piece for offertory
Communion: Data est mihi

I find this exercise of making the practice CD's for the schola very useful for me as well. It forces me to practice each one until I can record it without errors, so that I am well-prepared before chant rehearsals... plus I often practice my solfege when learning new chants...

You have to picture me (in my master bathroom -- because of course we know we sound best there -- something to do with all the hard surfaces reflecting sound back) standing there with my little digital recorder, chant book(s) and pencil in hand... usually a cup of tea or coffee cooling while I work. Occasionally our schola members have commented on the faint sound of the house alarm bell going off when one of my boys opens a door... or a phone ringing... I think those added sound effects add character... or maybe I just don't want to re-do it once I have a recording that is correct.

The 2d Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday and is also the one-year anniversary since our schola sang for its first Mass. Perhaps a party is in order... champagne... dinner... camaraderie...

Great Schola Rehearsal

Last night was our weekly schola rehearsal... and I must say it was very good. We focused primarily on getting the ordinaries (from Mass XVII) that will be used during Lent, as well as a couple of chant hymns that will be used on Ash Wednesday and on Stations of the Cross during Lent -- Attende, Domine and Parce, Domine.

I was particularly happy with the sound the women are making. It is sounding more and more clear and unified. We continue to work on solfege... last night's 'name that tune' mystery song was Pange Lingua... aka Tantum Ergo. It didn't take long for them to get that one, although it didn't get the groans and chuckles that 'On Eagle's Wings' got before.

Chant Intensive or Colloquium

Since the announcement of the upcoming 'Chant Intensive' (June 9-13, 2008) course, to be directed by Scott Turkington (pictured), I have been thinking about my desire to learn more about the direction and interpretation of chant and this wonderful opportunity to really dig into it. I have been registered for the CMAA Colloquium, which follows the Chant Intensive course in Chicago (June 16-22, 2008), since it was first announced some time ago. Knowing full well that I cannot possibly be away from my family for two entire weeks in the middle of the summer, I have had to make a decision about whether I should attend the Colloquium or the Chant Intensive course.

Month by month, week by week, my understanding and comfort with the music of the chant increases as I learn more, sing more, direct more. But still, after only a year or so under my belt, I am such a novice. Although I can now easily sight-read chant pieces (navigating the 1/2 and whole steps fairly easily) and understand the various neumes pretty well -- even if I can't always come up with the proper name for them immediately -- I have yet to really dig into the chironomy lesson that is offered at the front of the Liber Usualis. My understanding of the proper methods of directing with the arsis and thesis concepts in mind still needs work.

So... I've decided that I still need a bit more self-study before attending the Chant Intensive course. I am thinking I'll save that for next summer (betting and hoping that there will be another such course next year). I'll continue my own study and try to increase my home book library on chant books. With another year of schola directing under my belt by next year, I should be better able to get maximum benefit from the course.

I'll be among the 500 or so attendees at the Chicago Colloquium this year then... having attended the Colloquium in Washington, D.C. last year, when the 140+ attendees rocked the CMAA world, I am very curious to see how this dramatic increase (again) will work logistically.