The St. Cecilia Schola will be providing the music for the ground breaking ceremony with ArchBishop Rodi at the construction site of the new Chuch on College Ave., 4:00pm on Saturday, September 13, 2008. We have invited all singers in the area to come join us on two English Psalms as well as a hymn and perhaps others pieces. We will meet at the current parish on Magnolia at 2:30pm for a rehearsal and then go to the site to sing.

Contact us if you are interested or just show up!

The St. Cecilia Schola has openings in its bass, tenor, and alto sections. Write us if you are interested, or call 334.703.0884

This fall we will begin a cycle of motets by William Byrd, pieces based on Mass propers published in 1604. They were circulated privately given the politics of the time. They are all masterful, and fit perfectly with the voicing of the schola. Our first piece is Confirma hoc Deus.

Our parish, St. Michaels of Auburn, Alabama, is in the process of building a new church facility, and during the planning stages, the issue of acoustics came up. It has been conventional in the last several decades to build acoustics under the assumption that the music will be projected by microphones and speakers, so spaces have tended to be dead to all forms of music except that kind that sounds good in a studio setting. To this end, many parish churches have carpet and acoustic tiling that deaden the space.

Of course this is a serious problem for sacred music, such as chant and polyphony, which depend heavily on a live acoustic. In many parishes around the country, this has become a major problem in bringing to life the heritage of Catholic music. It is also a problem for community participation in hymns and ordinary parts of the Mass.

Our Pastor, Monsignor Skoneki, working with a committee, has very wisely seen that the conventions here are not in keeping with progressing standards in church acoustics. He has instead decided to go forward with a different model of using a tile floor that is friendly to the sound and feel of a sacred space, to create an environment especially friendly to sacred music and participation in song by the community.

This is a wonderful decision, but it is also a costly one, adding an additional $110,000 to the total price of the building. If you agree that this is an essential step to take, please consider supporting this building project. You can write the pastor to arrange giving plans. His email is on the parish site. Thank you for your support of sacred music!

The transition to sacred music in most parishes needs to come slowly and simply, with easy settings that are quick to teach and learn, mostly in English. The idea here is to prepare the way for more complex settings in Latin later on. At the outset, however, vernacular plainsong can be wonderful, especially for parishes that are looking for periods of quiet reflection, using voice only settings that require no instruments.

This setting of Ambrosian chant was adapted for use at the 2008 Sacred Music Colloquium in Chicago. Feel free to print and use in your parish.

The St. Cecilia Schola would like to congratulate the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heiligenkreuz for their splendid new CD of Gregorian Chant that has entered at #9 in the UK charts, and is scheduled for a July 1 release in the United States. You can buy it here. The chant is sung with exacting standards and is exceptionally beautiful. The monastery itself was founded in the 12th century and has never stopped keeping this tradition of music vibrant and prayerful. Pope Benedict XVI visited the monastery last year and praised its work. Truly, this recording represents a model in its style and approach. May they teach Catholics of the world to sing through their latest efforts. Circulated widely enough, this CD can do so much good for all of us.

Here is a polyphonic Veni Creator by Palestrina, alternating with chant. We read through it last night, and liked it very much. Added to the sidebar.

Catholic musicians working within the context of the Novus Ordo have some difficult choices to make. The GIRM allows for either the antiphon (the Gradual) from the Graduale Romanum, the choir book featuring the sung parts of the Mass belonging to the schola, or the post conciliar concoction known as the Responsorial Psalm, sung according to the Lectionary texts.

Local powers that be often request that music directors opt for the Responsorial Psalm – partly out of what are perceived as pastoral reasons (i.e., they are in English!), or perhaps because music directors do not yet have scholas experienced enough to sing the propers from the Graduale Romanum on a weekly basis.

More often than not, when asked to select among settings of the Responsorial Psalm, music directors, because of a lack of singable resources available, end up working up the compositions found in the Missalettes and their corresponding choir editions put out by the big publishing houses like the OCP. Although in keeping with the directives of the GIRM, the option, well, has more to do with mildly pleasing, if not too sugary, contemporary sounds than the ancient tradition of Psalm singing.

But now there is a choice: one of the most useful resources available to Catholic musicians are the free downloads found at the Chabanel Responsorial Psalm Project website, a project sponsored by the Corpus Christi Watershed, a non-profit company dedicated for faith, art, and culture, and featuring the original compositions of Jeffrey Mark Ostrowski.

From the Chabanel Project Website:

The Catholic Church prescribes the text that must be used for the Responsorial Psalm at Mass. It will be noted that the official text has been adhered to with great scrupulosity. However, the formatting of this text (punctuation, capitalization, etc.) was done according to the author’s vision.

The Chabanel Psalms (generally speaking) are modal and based on Gregorian chant. They were harmonized using a very eloquent system of Gregorian modal harmony. However, many of them need not be accompanied by the organ. Then, too, many of the responses (and, actually, even the verses themselves) can be sung in harmony, but this is only recommended for groups that read music very well.

The Chabanel Psalms are based on the assumption that the Refrain (of a Responsorial Psalm) must be very simple, so the people can learn it easily. However, the varied and richly beautiful organ accompaniments, it is hoped, will raise the music to a higher level, endearing them to even highly skilled musicians.The Chabanel Psalm project corresponds to the ordinary (”Novus Ordo”) Church calendar, which employs a three year cycle of readings. The Chabanel Psalm project was begun in June of 2007 and released in August of 2007.

Mr. Ostrowski, composer and founder of the project, is interviewed by Corpus Christi Watershed president, Dr. Daneil Varholy, here.

As of today, more than 800 organist and vocal scores had been produced – this comprises all of Liturgical Year A. Years B and C are in the works. In addition to the organist and vocal scores composed by Mr. Ostrowski, the site features alternative settings composed by guest composers as well.

The Lord provides.

Here is a nice version of the piece we will sing on Good Friday:

After the great success of our workshop, several people asked if Wilko Brouwers would be available for conducting a workshop in their own parishes or cathedrals. The answer is yes. You can write him to discuss details and possibilities.

The fifth year of the sacred music workshop of the St. Cecilia Schola, attached to St. Michaels Catholic Church in Auburn, Alabama, was a tremendous success. Seventy singers from all across the region, under the direction of Maestro Wilko Brouwers of the Netherlands, gathered to sing Gregorian chant and music of the Renaissance. The workshop began on Friday morning February 1, and culminated in a vigil Mass the next evening at which the workshop choir sang the music they had learned and practiced.

The workshop began with a tutorial on the basics of Gregorian chant: reading and singing chant notation, style and text, and the place of chant in the Roman Rite. The following day focused on the music that grew out of chant: polyphony. But types of music were specifically named by the Second Vatican Council as appropriate for Catholic liturgy. Chant in particular was cited as holding pride of place.

Maestro Brouwers, director of the Monteverdi Kamerkoor Utrecht and the Ward Center in Holland, led the sessions with his legendary mastery and charisma. A notable feature of this year was the enhanced level of expertise of the singers themselves. Probably as many as half of the attendees had experience in chant. Many others were starting chant scholas in their parish and were looking to broaden their abilities to read, sing, and conduct, and, most of all, to understand the way in which chant and polyphony can be integrated into the structure of the Mass.

The repertoire was more ambitious than in previous years. Three propers of the Mass were sung in accordance with Roman Rite liturgical books: the introit Laetetor cor quaeretium, the offertory Bonum est confiteri, and the communion Beati mundo corde (which was unusually long and difficult). For offertory, the chant, sung with Psalm verses from the Nova Vulgata, was followed by a spectacular, 5-part setting of the same proper text by G.A. Palestrina. His Bonum est confiteri was the most challenging task that the workshop undertook in two days. The result of singing both the chant and the polyphony setting of this text was a rare instance in which the music achieved something close to the ideal model as presented in the musical rubrics of the Roman Rite.

Following communion, the choir sang a Magnificat setting by Orlando di Lasso. Though this piece is also from the Renaissance tradition, it had a different sound and feel from the Palestrina piece. In addition, two English hymns were sung as a meditation and a recessional.

The ordinary of the Mass was taken from several parts of the Kyriale, the Church’s book of chant for the people. The Kyrie was from Mass XII (Pater Cuncta). The Gloria was the Ambrosian melody, sung with alternating high and low voices. The Sanctus was from Mass XIII (Stelliferi Conditor orbis). The Agnus was also from Mass XIII. The Psalm was sung according to Psalm tone written by a member of the St. Cecilia Schola and the verses were adapted from an 18th century choral setting. The Alleluia was from the Graduale Simplex. The Pater Noster was sung in English with a setting that reflected the original Gregorian melody.

A casual session over lunch covered many issues in sacred music today, such as what liturgical books choir members need, the widespread confusion over language in understanding parts of the Mass, and the practical difficulties and solutions that come with the goal of starting a parish schola.

The celebrant of the liturgy was Monsignor William Skoneki, who thanked both the director and the workshop choir for their hard work and contribution to preserving and enlivening the liturgical tradition of the Church.

The St. Cecilia Schola hopes to continue its educational work in the future with additional programs and workshops. For more information, write contact@ceciliaschola.org

Arrangements are complete, supplies are on their way, and excitement is building for the 5th Annual Sacred Music Workshop at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Auburn, AL on February 1 and 2. You will not want to miss this opportunity to study under one of the great Catholic music directors of our time, Wilko Brouwers from the Netherlands.

Register now and help us get a final head count.

Please come to our 2008 workshop, February 1-2, 2008. The packet (chant, plus music by Di Lasso, Vitoria, Palestrina, and Tallis) is now available. It is under the direction of one of the finest choral conductors in the world. You can register online. If you have any questions, please write us. Hope to see you here in Auburn, Alabama! All information here.

The St. Cecilia Schola invites everyone interested in a bright future for Sacred Music come to sign up at the Sacred Music Forum. Some wonderful discussions are taking place, and the membership is growing. It is an ideal spot to knit together a community of discussion and support.

Beginning today and continuing for nine days until St. Cecilia Day, consider saying this novena for beauty, holiness, and universality to characterize the music of liturgy.