If you haven’t been, you can’t imagine the joy of being with and singing with 250-some like-minded people—all of them talented singers, music directors, and/or instrumentalists—who know the church’s teachings on sacred music, support them fully, and will never say "Why do we have to sing all this Latin?"

These Masses were the closest thing to perfect liturgies that I’ve ever seen or heard. The rubrics were respected. The church’s wishes for liturgical music were respected: full Gregorian propers for every Mass (except for Tuesday, for which English propers were sung) as well as Renaissance motets. For two of the Masses choirs sung polyphonic ordinaries (Mass parts).

You can listen to some of the sound files here.

Here is the advanced women’s chant schola (including yours truly) singing "Tu puer," the Alleluia from the Graduale on the feast of the nativity of St. John the Baptist. Our conductor was Dr. William Mahrt, one of the finest chant scholars in the world. Dr. Mahrt is president of the Church Music Association of America.

Here is Cardinal George’s homily–with an excellent message for church musicians.

When the Gregorian Alleluia from today’s Mass is posted, I will post a link. It included the most beautiful solo chant I’ve ever heard, by a soprano who obviously has not only a profoundly beautiful instrument but also a great mastery of chant technique.

Did you say you are not yet a member of CMAA? Join this year for $36. Dues increase next year to $48. At any price, membership is a bargain and includes a subscription to the excellent quarterly journal Sacred Music.

You can read my attempt on this site. I’ve also cross-posted the page to the website for the East Tennessee chapter of the Church Music Association of America.

The famously unfulfilled mandate of the Second Vatican Council, that Gregorian chant should enjoy a principal place (principem locum obtineat) in liturgy, is finally being taken more seriously by Catholic musicians and ecclesiastical bodies. But there are many issues that are unresolved, mostly due to the lack of consciousness on the part of the musicians and clergy. The Vatican document from 1963 assumed more knowledge than most Catholic musicians and pastors currently have on this issue.

For example, people might believe that one way to implement the mandate is to add a chant to the hymn selections. We can think of once-popular such as Adoro te Devote, Veni Creator Spiritus, Attende Domine, or Salve Regina. The belief persists that if you add one of those into the mix, you are living up to the ideal of the Council. There is nothing wrong and much right about taking this approach if the goal is a transition measure toward actually using chant in the Mass.

These chant hymns are a great place to begin. A choral director can easily add one of these in at offertory or communion, and invite people to sing. The people will pick them up and learn that Latin is a beautiful language and that chant has a special capacity for lifting the heart and mind toward heaven. But let us be clear that this action alone, as meritorious as it might be, has essentially nothing to do with with the Council envisions, what the GIRM states, or what the new USCCB document on music calls for. There is a massive difference between using an old Latin hymn as a one in a selection of musical picks for Mass, and actually using the chants as part of the Mass.

Read the whole thing.

The good sisters have done us all a favor by making it possible to buy the book online. Last time I ordered a copy—in September, as a gift for a friend—I had to pay the old-fashioned way, by mailing a check.

The book offers a handy chart of neumes (the symbols used to represent the notes), clear explanations of how each one is sung, detailed examples, and a CD with a series of short lessons. If you want to learn chant, this is an excellent resource to start with.

The goal is to shift to chant recordings submitted by U.S. scholas. So if you’re a member of such a group and have mp3s to share, please e-mail.

In the meantime, enjoy listening.

But the music directors at three [diocesan] parishes don’t see the document as signaling a return to traditional music and a phasing out of popular contemporary music. A balance of music styles is needed, the directors said, to give participants the music they find spiritually moving.

The diocesan newspaper in question is an especially good one, and I’m not slamming the editors or writers.

Here are the points I find curious: 1. This “special emphasis” on chant is nothing new. The Vatican II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, promulgated in late 1963, says this: “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman Liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (No. 116).

In how many parishes does this actually occur? I’m grateful that chant is promoted in STTL, but if Magisterial documents on sacred liturgy are ignored, who will attend to advisories?

Perhaps the newness of STTL will ensure that it gets a reading—and maybe music directors will be inspired to look more closely at the church’s musical heritage.

2. What do music directors mean by “spiritually moving”? Are we to believe that anything that possesses this quality for any person is worthy of the temple? If I find a paint-by-numbers version of The Last Supper beautiful, is it therefore just as good as Da Vinci’s? Is it equally worthy of exhibition?

Certainly not. There is excellent contemporary sacred music—and much that is far from excellent. What I like to hear, what I find “moving” is hardly a criterion for judgment.

Our standards for the Mass have to be higher than that. Our tastes may need purification. And if I find odious what the church recommends, I had better set about attempting to orient myself toward the church’s preference and away from my natural tendencies.

Bottom line: If we are in a position to select music for Mass, let us begin by making sure we have read the appropriate documents, and let us be formed by what the church teaches.

—————- Now playing: Alsfelder Vokalensemble & I Febiarmonici – Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz, SWV 478: I. Introitus: Da Jesus an dem Kreuze stund via FoxyTunes

Popes have consistently emphasized that it should be studied, perfected and used, not just in religious communities and cathedrals but in all parishes. That is in part because chant embodies the pace, rhythm and transcendent longings we find in Scripture, particularly the Psalms. The tradition of Gregorian chant in the Latin rite provides music that meets the needs of all ages, classes and ethnic groups, not just in our times but in all times. The chant is intimately linked with Catholic faith and its prayer life. It takes us out of our everyday environment to remind us that we are in a sacred space. It helps us pray. For all these reasons, chant has begun to move beyond the world of CDs and movie soundtracks, entering once again into our parish lives. The National Registry of Gregorian Scholas (choirs), for example, lists more than 100 groups singing in parishes around the country.