A Musically Model Parish

Anglican Choral Revival, Choir Schools, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Music for the Liturgy, Uncategorized

I have written before about the serious need for church musicians to posses vision in order to create and maintain a great music program, so I thought today I would share some visioning ideas with the reader regarding music in the Ordinary Form parish.

The greatest visioning challenge I find is wedding the “objective” desires of the Church to the “subjective” needs of each individual parish and then creating a strategy for implementation. As for the desires of the Church, it would be redundant on this blog to rehash everything She has taught about sacred music over the last century, but in short remember that the Mass should be sung (which means the priest’s parts as well as the congregation’s)Gregorian chant, being the official music of the Latin Rite, should actually be used and not left sitting on a dusty shelf in our secular universities where professors with nothing better to do argue over the use of the ictus and finally, the treasury of sacred music should be used (and not left sitting on a dusty shelf…), and finally, all of this must be integrated into an individual parish within the context of a certain culture and period in time. At this point the faint of heart realize the impossibility of such a task and give up its ghost, but for those of us who love a challenge, let’s dive in.

First, you simply must convince your pastor to sing the Mass (and recourse to the documents is generally of no use in this point). Whether you have to beg, plead or bribe, it doesn’t matter, just get him singing (and don’t tell him your ultimate goal is that he sing the entire Mass, it will only give him a heart attack). If you work for a priest who simply won’t budge or even listen to you, you might want to find another job anyway! More often than not, however, the pastor simply doesn’t feel his voice is good enough and he is probably terrified of singing in front of 400 people. That means it is up to you to encourage him and build him up every chance you get. I generally ask our pastor to add something new to his singing responsibilities every year or two. Currently he (and our vicar) sings the Collect, the Prayer over the Gifts, the Preface Dialogue, the Preface, the Lord’s Prayer and the Prayer after Communion at all Sunday Masses. You will be amazed at what this alone will do to raise the sense of the sacred in your parish.

Secondly, integrate Gregorian chant into your Masses. I personally began with the Kyrie because of the repetitive nature of the chant, but singing the Agnus Dei is another good option. There are also lots of great Gregorian melodies whose texts have been translated into English and make a great introduction to chant for your congregation. The Adorote devote and Attende, Domine are two such hymns that I have found to be very popular with children. We have a youth camp in our archdiocese that annually hosts thousands of young people, and they make it a point to end every night at the camp by singing the Salve Regina. Every child who has attended the camp loves that particular antiphon. I will admit that it is going to be harder for your adults to accept the chant. One thing a number of adults in our parish have come to appreciate (and it took several years for this appreciation to develop) is the quiet and reflective nature of the sung Communio from the Roman Gradual, which several men of the choir sing for about the first 3-5 minutes of the Communion procession, after which the choir leads a congregational hymn.

The one thing I would caution other directors about is the tendency for chant to drag, especially when done a cappella. Not singing chant would be better than chant sung ploddingly. I have been to parishes and even cathedrals where chant is butchered this way and even I have to admit that it becomes a boring distraction. Don’t immediately assume that your parishioners hate chant when they tell you they think it is boring. Record your choir and make sure that your parishioners don’t have a valid point.

Thirdly, integrate a few of the Church’s great choral works into you choir’s repertoire. Even if you arrive at a new parish to take up the post of choir master and you find your choir can’t sing a cappella, start by teaching a simple chant (such as the Adorte) or a 4 part hymn a cappella for them to sing after Communion. These works, too, are part of the Sacred Treasury of music. If you begin in this way, within two years they will be ready to tackle Byrd’s Ave verum corpus and other such liturature.

Finally, one must integrate the Church’s teachings on sacred music into the time and place in which he lives. Merely adapting to the local culture won’t do! Remember that Gregorian chant and 16th century polyphony have a universal appeal and can be used everywhere. At the same time, we need to bring our own cultural offerings to the table. There are a number of fine composers in the English speaking world today as well as a strong tradition of hymnody. While I realize that there are no hymns to speak of in the Roman Rite of the Mass, the reality is that the music director in the Ordinary Form will be using them anyway, so why not look to some of the great English translations of Latin and Greek hymnody, such as Draw Nigh and Take the Body of the Lord. The hymn texts of Kathleen Pluth are great examples of modern American hymn texts, and don’t forget the many wonderful American hymn tunes, such as those from Southern Harmony. Lastly, we need to raise up a new generation of composers. This will only happen if we train our young people in the incredible art of Sacred Music, which is where I will end my ramblings by putting in a plug for the choir school. If your parish already has a school, all you need is a little vision and a capable musician, and you too, can have your very own choir school!

St. Paul’s Choir School, Harvard Square

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum

Last week I mentioned that Having a Vision is critically important to my life as a church musician (or, as I like to refer to myself in front of my wife, a sacred musician), and that my vision must be informed by the mind and heart of the Church. Make no mistake, you will get nowhere without such a vision. Today I would like to share with you an incredible place where such a musician had a great vision, informed by the mind and heart of the Church.

In 1963, Dr. Theodore Marier founded St. Paul’s Choir School at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Boston in response to De musica sacra (1958). What I find so interesting is that by opening himself to the Church’s vision for liturgical music, he founded such a school in the very same year that the Second Vatican Council Fathers were drafting and ratifying Sacrosanctum Concilium (read through paragraphs 112-116–Dr. Marier could have composed those lines himself). I guarantee you that the music those boys sing on a daily basis is just as important of a formator in their lives as the lectures and homilies given by their teachers and priests. I think that the St. Paul Hymnal is simply another fruit of such a vision. I also think St. Paul’s provide a blue print for us.

What I want to know is why doesn’t every Cathedral in the US work toward such a vision? Why can’t every parish implement such a vision? What, you don’t think they have the funds, the talent, the proper support? Who cares. The apostles were twelve of the biggest bunglers Christ could have chosen. St. Peter might have been the second worse, and he was made the Rock! Still, those men changed the entire course of history. Stop finding excuses and get started! If I can do it, that means ANYONE can! Just do it!

They Lied to Me in Grad School

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Discipline, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training

Alright, so perhaps it was a sin of omission instead of commission, but no one in graduate school ever told me that building (and I haven’t even gotten to maintaining) a world class choral program required advanced degrees in music, organ, voice, choir, conducting, child psychology, adult psychology, theology, liturgy, Latin, phonetics, economics and budgeting, fundraising (oh, I could write a book on that subject alone), event planning, computer science, PR and HR, conflict management as well as a host of other subjects. Sometimes it makes we want to chuck it all and pursue my other passion (farming), but the Holy Spirit keeps me here, and to be honest, I wouldn’t be happy any other way. So… I thought today I might share with you some things that I do on a daily basis to stay energized and keep returning to my job that really isn’t a job-it’s my passion.

1) Start your day ahead of the rest and put God first. I get up at 5 a.m. Yikes, that seems early, but I have learned it is better to let the day come to me rather than waking up to the day. One of the first things I do every morning is make my daily meditation and examen. Please don’t think I am anywhere near sainthood or even within sight of it, but I know that I have to keep priorities straight. To be honest, I can only get to daily Mass two or three times each week, but I really try never to miss my 30 minutes each morning with the Lord.

2) Family must come next. If our relationship with God comes first, our relationship with our family has to come next, even if that means we can’t provide music for every single function at church. I have gotten in heated arguments with co-workers (yes, in the Catholic Church) before who believe that sometimes it is necessary to let family life suffer a bit in order to take care of what needs to be done at church. I WILL NOT compromise on this issue and have let others know I will take the pink slip first. I don’t believe this will ever be necessary, but it is amazing how much your family appreciates you just knowing that you think this way. The second thinh I do with my family is make sure that each day I have meaningful time with my wife and each child. It is too easy to come home tired and mentally check out. Don’t do it! There will be time to sleep when you are dead.

3) You must have vision. You will never build a world class program, much less a solid one, if you don’t have a vision of what it is you want your choral program to ultimately be (and this needs to be thoroughly informed by the mind and heart of the Church). I don’t care if you feel like you are a great musician or not, decide to have the absolute best music program at your parish, then make a list of what you need to do to make that happen and by (the grace of) God-DO IT! It is better to aim high and miss than aim low and hit. Besides, you will draw more people to your vision if you yourself believe in greatness. If all you can do is complain that you don’t have enough singers, that your pastor doesn’t appreciate good music and that nobody appreciates your hard work, guess what, no one will join you and you will have put the nail in your own coffin.

4) Always keep learning. One of the reasons I get up so early is because that is the only way I can get lots of reading in on a daily basis. I usually am reading several books all at the same time (one always has to do with the practice of music). It is all too true that when most people begin a new job, they learn everything they need to know within their first year and then they coast until they get their next job. That would bore me to no end.

5) Make a list of what needs to be done (and I don’t mean things like answering email and cleaning your office) and do those things first. A long time ago I realized that I could sit in my office answering email all day long. Yes, I would have been busy, but with the wrong things. Every morning I make a list and put the things first that will help me build a better music program, things like taking time to learn music thoroughly, spending extra time with choristers who need help, or even recruiting new choristers and avenues of funding.

6) Strive for greatness. St. Irenaeus wrote that “the glory of God is man fully alive” and he was right. However, as a friend of mine who directs the music at the cathedral in Sioux Falls, SD, once told me, most people in the church do not appreciate greatness. The attitude of “do your best” has been used as the greatest excuse for bad music, and don’t think this hasn’t affected the New Evangelization. So… no matter what anyone else thinks (even if it is your pastor) strive for greatness and never look back!

Choir and Cantor?

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Music for the Liturgy

I realize that I am somewhat late in posting on Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral, but I would like to share two observations. The first observation is a very simple one. If every Catholic funeral in the Ordinary Form were to show forth even a quarter of the noble beauty of Scalia’s funeral, or even if they were simply oriented toward our Heavenly Father as Scalia’s was, instead of focusing primarily on us “humankind,” the Faith in the United States would look very different. Having said that, I come to the second and actual reason for my post, the issue of the choir and cantor.

The role of both choir and cantor is to lead the congregation in singing. Okay, I understand that, but what I don’t understand is why some feel the need to have both leading the singing at the same time. The cantor often leads the congregation by himself, so why can’t the choir do the same. I have an assistant who helps me direct the choir. We often both direct the choir, but NEVER at the same time. Even if he and I were to direct exactly the same way (which would never happen), one of us would be superfluous. The same thing happens when the choir and cantor lead together, only in the end, the cantor will win over the choir because he/she is one large voice with a microphone. Not only that, but the cantor will win over the congregation. As I watched Scalia’s funeral, I loved listening to the Entrance Hymn, O God, Our Help in Ages Past. The choir and congregation sang it equally well, but there was always one big voice that I could never fully block out, that of the cantor. It was like listening to the most beautiful choir in the world, minus the one singer who decided to sing louder than everyone else in order to lead. I have been told before by “experts” that the reason to have a cantor lead even when the choir is singing is so the congregation will watch the cantor’s arms and know when to come in. Excuse me, but if we think that little of the mental capacities of our congregations, martyr me now, because there is no hope for the New Evangelization. Please, let the choir lead!

Learning Music and the Classical Trivium

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing, Uncategorized

Last week I had the pleasure of rereading Dorothy Sayer’s The Lost Tools of Learning, which is one of the most lucid and well written overviews of the Classical Trivium (part of the larger liberal, or free, arts) I have ever come across. For readers unfamiliar with it, the Classical Trivium consists of three stages of study (which happen to align with the natural learning stages of children), namely the grammar, logic (or dialectic) and rhetoric stages, which are necessary to be thoroughly grounded in before one is able to move to the study of “subjects,” especially the Classical Quadrivium. Sayer’s argument is that while young people today learn all kinds of subjects (and can therefore fill cogs in society’s wheels), they never arrive at Truth. Perhaps this only goes to show my ignorance, but after reading the essay, it finally hit me that the stages of music learning dovetail nicely with the Classical Trivium. By way of explanation I will give a brief description of each “tool,” or stage, of the Classical Trivium.

In the first stage, Classical Grammar (up to somewhere around the 4th grade), the child engages the mechanics of language, specifically learning an inflected language such as Latin or Greek. Only by learning the structure of language in general can one ever hope to understand and communicate effectively in any language. Children in the Grammar stage also excel in the use of their faculties of observation and memory.

In the second stage, Classical Logic, or Dialectic (somewhere around the grades of 5 and 6), the child learns the “logical construction of speech,” focusing especially on “the beauty and economy of a fine demonstration or a well turned argument.”

During the final stage, Classical Rhetoric (beginning around the 7th or 8th grade), the student learns how to communicate effectively himself. Only when he is able to do this should he be allowed to dive into the specialized learning of subjects, by which time he will have learned that all knowledge and Truth are one (or perhaps we could write One).

Now to the question of how this relates to the learning of music. I have found that at a young age, which we will term the Grammar Stage of Music, children love to sing all kinds of simple, but well constructed folk songs, hymns, chants, etc. Most of them can easily be trained to sing in the head voice and they find joy in learning about notes, rhythms, solfege and even singing simple two and three part rounds. The Kodaly method of teaching music works extremely well during this stage. Around the 4th grade children transition to what I will call the Dialectic Stage of Music, at which time they are ready to begin singing simple motets and anthems and have no difficulty analyzing this music, or even the works of the great composers. Children should also begin improvising their own short melodies and rhythms at this time. By the end of this stage they are capable of singing much of the intermediate four part repertoire (where children sing the upper two parts) of the Common Practice Period. When they enter junior high, which I will term the Rhetorical Stage of Music, they should be tackling the more difficult four to eight part music (again, where the children sing the upper parts) and delving into serious music composition. If you don’t believe this can be done, just look to the choir schools. I witnessed it myself at the Madeleine Choir School. Of course it is true that not every student, or even the majority of students, will be composing serious music by the age of 14 or even deciding to go into the field of church music. On the other hand, we will never inspire a new generation of great Catholic musicians, so sorely needed at this time, if we don’t open their eyes to the “Lost Tools of Learning Music” and point them to the One to Whose praises we hope to sing for ever in the Heavenly Jerusalem.

A New Composition

Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Music for the Liturgy

Several months ago I posted about Colin Mawby and his time at Westminster Cathedral as Master of Music and director of the cathedral’s world famous men and boys choir. I included information he had sent me several years prior, so Jeff Ostrowski asked if I had received Mawby’s permission to include his remarks. I told Jeff he had given me permission at the time, but decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask him again. I am grateful for Jeff’s prodding, because in the midst of my conversation with Mawby over the post, he told me he would love to compose a work for my parish’s children’s choir (The Children of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum) should I ever want him to. I told him of our upcoming trip to Rome and said we would love to premier one of his works in the Eternal City. A great priest/friend of mine agreed to pay the commission, and we decided on the text of the Ave Maria, since our parish is under Our Lady’s patronage. Within two weeks Mr. Mawby sent me the finished score, set in five parts (SSATB), and I passed it out to the choir—and they loved it! As one of the high school boys in the choir put it, “this is the piece that every other composer wishes he had written.” The work vacillates between D minor and D major, and is very contemplative in nature. Every time I listen to it, I find myself present at that historic moment when St. Gabriel uttered the words “Ave, gratia plena” to a young Galilean women so totally absorbed in prayer, that the Eternal Word pitched His tent in her and dwelt in her very body.

So… Jeff, thank you for a little extra prodding. Not only did the world gain a beautiful new piece of sacred music, but the choristers of our parish are able to contemplate the Incarnation in a new light. They are also excited to meet Mr. Mawby, who emailed me two weeks after he sent me the music saying he had already purchased his plane ticket and would see us in Rome!

 

Don’t Fall For It

Music for the Liturgy

I would be a wealthy man if I had a dollar for every time someone told me that the youth of today can’t connect with, or simply don’t like sacred music. I used to think “Okay, how do I get young people to like it, because I know there is real value in it?” However, I don’t buy the basic premise of the complaint any more.

Go to any of the vast majority of Catholic school Masses in the USA today and watch the junior high/high school students worship. They’re board with EVERYTHING! Count how many of them don’t attempt anything more than a mumble throughout the entire Mass, including the Lord’s Prayer. The only difference is that they have gotten used to being board with the Catholic Church’s “greatest hits” from the 70s, 80s and 90s. The crux of this issue is not that we don’t have the right music (although that is part of it) or that worship isn’t “cool” enough. The real problem is that these children were perhaps sacramentalized, but never evangelized and catechized. A wise deacon once told me, “God has no grandchildren. Every generation must be a first generation follower of Christ.”

It is true that Beauty draws many people to Christ, and this is an important part of evangelization we tend to forget today. However, when (not if) the accusation is laid at your feet as the Director of Music of turning people away from the Faith because you are striving to bring sacred music back into the sacred liturgy, take a deep breath and gently, but firmly respond, “No, they left because because they were never evangelized and catechized in the first place.”

Probationer Lesson Plans

Choir Schools, Chorister Training, Most Pure Heart of Mary Schola Cantorum, Probationer Training, Sight-Singing

In case you are interested, I thought I would post my entire set of lesson plans (here) I use for training our Probationers, who are generally children in the 3rd and 4th grade with very little (if any) musical training. I am leaving the lessons exactly as they are simply because I don’t have enough time to go through and clean them up right now. Also know that I always plan for more than I have time for, so I don’t always get to everything set for one lesson. I work with the Probationers for an entire year, so I have plenty of time to extend a lesson over two weeks, focus on music for the Christmas program or make allowance for any number of interruptions that might befall us. For the most part, you should be able to follow them, but if you have questions, please feel free to email me.

The Power of Music

Feasts of the Church, Music for the Liturgy

Recently, my family and I attended the funeral of a friend who succumbed to cancer at the early age of 54. She was the receptionist at the local university Catholic Center, a consecrated virgin in the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity and one of the most joyful Christians one could hope to meet. Having received the Sacraments and the Apostolic Pardon, she died holding the same crucifix that her father and other family members had held at their deaths, with her mother holding one arm and her cousin, a priest, holding the other and reciting the Prayers for the Dying, while family members filled the room.

One of the most amazing things happened after the service at the grave. Everyone stood around talking—young families and children, elderly, priests, sisters and some who looked like they hadn’t seen the inside of a church in years—so the cemetery worker began to close the lid on the vault. Suddenly, someone began singing a hymn, and soon everyone, young and old, joined in. We sang hymn after hymn as the coffin was lowered into the grave. A brother of the deceased, showing that grief filled with hope, reached down and picked up a handful of dirt and threw it into the grave, and then gave handfuls of dirt to his nieces and nephews. Soon other parents did the same and passed dirt to their children (who provided us all with a bit of laughter as they joyfully threw in the dirt). Finally, someone intoned the Salve Regina and we left.

On the way back to the church for the luncheon, my 4 year old son wanted to know why we threw dirt into the grave, so I asked him if he remembered the Mass (Ash Wednesday) when the priest put ashes on his head in the shape of a cross. The priest said “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” I explained that God created man from the earth, and while at death our soul goes, pray God, to be with Him, our earthly body returns to the earth to await the joyful day of Resurrection, when Christ will come in all of His glory (my son has been asking about these things a lot lately, so my wife and I try not to let any of these beautiful catechetical moments pass by). I happened to have Handel’s Messiah in the van so we listened to The Trumpet Shall Sound, Worthy is the Lamb and finished with the great Amen fugue. It amazed me how intently he listened and took it all in. I guess the point I want to make in all of this is, please, please don’t ever underestimate the power of good music to touch hearts in either the work of evangelization or catechesis, and I look forward to that great day when we will all hopefully join in the final Amen that will resound for all eternity!

Solfege

Uncategorized

During the first month of probationer rehearsals I set 3 goals, one of which is for them to become fluent in the use of diatonic solfege. Some children (although not nearly as one might presume) are familiar with the song “Do, Re, Mi” from The Sound of Music, which is a useful little ditty for introducing solfege syllables to children. I have the boys and girls sing this song during our first practice before we work more in depth on the first five syllables, do, re, mi, fah and sol. After we sing up and down those five notes a few times, we play any number of little games to help make them second nature. One of the probationers’ favorite games is to play “Around the World with Solfege.” Hopefully you are already familiar with the game “Around the World.” Basically, children compete against each other one-on-one until one child goes “around the world” and beats all their classmates. In my version, I give the name of a solfege syllable to the two students competing and they have to name the syllable higher or lower (depending on what we have established beforehand) in order to beat one another. This gets them thinking on their toes.

The second week I review sol, la ti and high do, and go through the process again. This time I draw middle C on the board and have them sing the note as Do, after which I add another note and another note until we sing up the major scale. I use these and various other games over the next two weeks to help the children reach fluency, both forward and back. For those who have tried solfege and didn’t seem to get anywhere, remember that this is only the first step. The ultimate goal is not to have children be able to parrot back nonsense syllables, but rather for each one to understand and hear how every note functions within the scale. The probationers will be working on this in the coming months.

This ultimate goal is why I use solfege. Simply put, I feel that solfege is the fastest and most secure route to establishing the scale (whether major, minor, or the variations of the minor scale) and the way its notes function within the scale in the minds of singers. If a student learns what the home note (do) of a scale sounds like, he will be able to hit that note every time it comes along in his music. Likewise, a singer who struggles with distinguishing between descending fifths and fourths within the context of a given work no longer struggles if he understands how those notes function within the scale.