Spanish liturgical music resources

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Pentecost Vigil

If you've got a few minutes and an ordo, check out what the Pentecost Vigil is meant to be.

Elevation

If great music lifts the mind and heart, and if, as I believe, poor and predictable music keeps the mind from transcending the workaday world, what do we make of the middle case, that is to say, hymns?

Hymn tunes are somewhat predictable, easily memorized. The chordal structure is simple. In other words, they can be comprehended--surrounded and domesticated. A hymn tune, once learned, has an engaging simplicity similar to a folk tune. If the tune is one of those domesticated by Vaughan Williams, it probably actually is a folk tune.

So the question is: is music that is so easily tamed able to engage and elevate the mind? Is it food for the soul?

Is the association that a hymn tune maintains with holy words and theology enough to lift it and give it elevating power?

Why does the Bible encourage us to sing to one another in psalms, hymns, and inspired songs?

Why does it encourage us to sing a new song?

Let me put this another way. The theme from Beethoven's 3rd, the Eroica, is very predictable after a first hearing. Does it stir the soul less after one has learned it?

Could there be a music that is ever fresh?

Pope Benedict on Art and Life

"It is no coincidence that Christian tradition shows the spirits of the blessed as they sing in chorus, captivated and enraptured by the beauty of God. But true art, like prayer, is not foreign to everyday reality, rather it calls us to 'irrigate' that reality, to make it sprout that it may bring forth fruits of goodness and peace."

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With a Little Help from My Friends

Yesterday I was working on the Hymn list for May. Because our diocese transfers the celebration of Ascension Thursday to the following Sunday, every single Sunday in May is a special feast day: Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi.

Still, I think we'll manage to bring in some Marian hymns.

Anyway, since we have the custom of singing a Psalm to begin the Communion Procession, I was thinking that Psalm 33 would be a good choice for Trinity Sunday. I have often thought that there was a Trinitarian sense to the couplet: "By his word the heavens were made/ by the breath of his mouth all the stars." This seems to me to be consonant with the idea that the Trinity acts together. In this case, creation was done by the Trinity together: the Father with the Word (Jesus Christ the Son) and with the Breath (the Holy Spirit).

So while I was on the phone with a friend of mine I asked, fully expecting the question to be too obscure and trivial to find a ready answer, whether Psalm 33 was ever interpreted by the Fathers in a Trinitarian sense. Now this is no ordinary friend. She has the Gospel of Luke, in Greek, written out and taped to the wall of her house, with a pencil hanging nearby so that she can make translation notes whenever necessary. Still, it's an obscure question.

She immediately responded, "You must speak to my husband about this." So she hands the phone to him and I repeat the question. He said, "Okay. I just looked into this." And he proceeded to tell me that Irenaeus and [someone obscure] made this interpretation, but then it does not reappear in the literature until the late 4th century.

Again, he's no ordinary husband-of-a-friend.

Continuity

At the National Shrine last Wednesday (was it only 5 days ago?) the Holy Father and all the American bishops sang the Vespers hymn, At the Lamb's High Feast. This is an admirable choice for several reasons, all important. Only a few relatively inconsequential points argue against it.

For:

• It is a translation of Ad regias agni dupes, an Ambrosian Hymn--that is to say it was either written by St. Ambrose himself, or else good enough and venerable enough to be ascribed to him


• For centuries it has been the traditional Vespers hymn for the Easter season before Ascension, that is to say, now


• Considering the congregation it was exceedingly fitting that the hymn would include the lines "Praise we Him whose love divine/ gives His sacred Blood for wine/ gives His Body for the feast/ Christ the Victim; Christ the Priest." Priests are all called to be good shepherds, laying down their lives for their people. So it is fitting that the bishops (who have the fullness of the priestly sacrament of ordination) would recall the tie between the Eucharist and the offering of their lives.


• The hymn is an excellent translation of an ancient text. Providing excellent translations of ancient texts, I believe, is one of several steps which the bishops might well choose to take in their efforts to provide better liturgical music for their people. So it was fitting that they should enjoy singing together this particularly excellent example.


• The translator, Robert Campbell, was a convert to Roman Catholicism from the Episcopal Church of Scotland.


• The hymn itself, just as it comes to us in English from the page, is rich with sacramental and biblical imagery that is at the same time clearly expressed and intensely poetic. It's simply a worthwhile hymn, one of the very best. Having translated a few hymns into English, I admit that sometimes all that I want is to make a translation. Campbell did not stop there; he made a hymn!
  

Against:

• In the current confusion over Eucharistic theology, it generally seems best to me to avoid any hymn that refers to the Eucharist as "bread" and "wine," because these words can give the impression that the real change of consecration has not occurred. It should be a simple rule to follow: Do not use hymns in the Liturgy that weaken faith! In this case the effect of using these words is mitigated by the obvious sense that these gifts derive from the Crucified, and from "above." It's not just bread, it's "Paschal bread," in parallelism with the "Paschal victim." I've used this hymn in my parish, at Communion, several times during this Easter season. I think its goodness outweighs this misgiving. And yet the misgiving remains...


• The tune was written by one Lutheran, arranged by another. Of course, the arranger was Bach, and it is a wonderful composition. I've ordinarily been singing the alto line for this hymn this Easter, and it's a melody in itself. (That is not something that can usually be said about an alto line!)

Both for and against:

• This text was among those altered by the Urbanite reforms of 1632. In fact this text was in fact so changed that even its title, formerly Ad cenam Agni providi, was lost. We live in interesting times, liturgically, in which the Holy Father has taken authoritative steps towards the restoration of the sacred in the liturgy. One of his most important moves, the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, authorized wider use of the Mass of 1962, even without the permission of the local bishop. The motu proprio is opposed by many bishops in the US and elsewhere. So the question arises: given the existence of this tension and the generally paracletic tone of the Apostolic Journey, is it a good idea to use a hymn that reminds bishops of a papal decision (the Urbanite reforms of the hymnary) that seems to many modern scholars to have been ill-advised and capricious? Or is this consideration too trivial--and far too obscure--to enter into the conversation?

In my opinion the bulk of the argument falls in favor of the use of the hymn, because of its excellence in English, its ancient origins, and probably most importantly its use in the immediate centuries of the past as the Vespers hymn for Easter. Singing it is an exercise of--an act of faith in--the diachronic unity of the Church. The Church is one, throughout time, and the bishops of the Churches of the US sang with one voice, with the Pope, a song that has resounded (in some form) through most of the Church's centuries.

A great hymn selection.

Music Fit for a Pope

The music suitable for a Papal Mass is not too much different, in my opinion, from the music suitable for any Mass. Every Mass hosts a Guest--or rather is hosted by a Master--to Whom we owe all allegiance and the best work that our attention and skill can manage.

The sequence for Corpus Christi says "Praise him [Christ] as much as you can, for he is beyond all praising and you will never be able to praise him as he merits."

How, then, to praise well? How to pray well? These are among the questions happily raised by the events of the last few days. So let's put our thinking caps on and try to sort the wheat from the chaff--and more importantly, to separate opinion from principles. Let's try to think well.

What's Wrong with "Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether?"

First of all, if you mean Holy Spirit, try to say Holy Spirit. Not Spirit.

This hymn is not suitable for an ecumenical gathering in which Catholics participate, because of its low Eucharistic theology and overemphasis on the priesthood of believers to the disregard, if not disdain, of the sacramental priesthood.

In verse 1, the quotation from the Gospel of Matthew (although skillfully paraphrased and metered) has been used for centuries now by low Protestants to "prove" that there is no need of a sacramental priesthood. "Wherever two or three are gathered in my name..." the Lord said, He would be among them. Yes, but isn't there something here that needs an explanation? What can this mean: "In my name?" For Catholics, praying in the name of Jesus means more than simply saying His name. It means praying as He taught us to pray in His memory: together, with Peter, with the apostles, at the Eucharist.

Which is a different kind of meal than is described in verse 2. Addressed now is not Jesus, but "us." We are breaking bread and blessing the cup "as the disciples" who used to gather, the song says. They met for the breaking of bread and the prayers, the Acts of the Apostles tells us. But again, they met with Peter and the Eleven. And they considered the friendship to be with Christ and the Father as well as with each other, bound in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 3, the hymn extends the non-priestly communion fellowship into all areas of life, asking Jesus (here again the addressee) to make "all our meals and all our living...as sacraments of you." The precision of the word "sacrament" is striking, and in the context of an ecumenical gathering seems actually designed to contradict the teaching of the Council of Trent that there are seven Sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ.

Taken as a whole, for all of the above reasons, the hymn promotes an ideal of ecumenism which I like to think of as "lowest-common-denominator" ecumenism. I encountered this idea many times during my ecumenical work. Lowest Common Denominator ecumenism holds that what is needed is a return to a purer, more primitive, Christianity. If we were able to recover the essentials, rather than holding on to the accretions we have developed over the centuries (such as clarifications of Eucharistic theology, for example) we would all be united.

In other words, the hymn promotes Protestantism.

What is sad about this choice is that there are other quite acceptable options. One choice could be to retrieve a hymn from ancient times, such as a morning or evening hymn from the Office. These hymns are acceptable to all, and there are several outstanding versions of the great hymn Phos Hilaron in English. For an ecumenical gathering, one might well steer clear of the Gregorian chant "O Radiant Light, O Sun divine," but why not sing "O Gladsome Light, O Grace of God the Father's face"?

In other words, an evening hymn focused on our true Common Denominator, Christ the Lord, would be most appropriate. Other options might be any other Trinitarian or Christological hymn of praise, such as Jesus Shall Reign (my personal favorite for this sort of event) or Rejoice, the Lord is King, Love Divine All Loves Excelling, or the modern classic, In Christ Alone.

In Honor of Pope John Paul's Third Anniversary

Staff of a shepherd for the faithful; heart of a father for the poor

Jesus was in him, and the Spirit, for the uplifting of the world

“Be not afraid!” a voice was calling, “Lay down your lives in sacrifice!”

“Be not afraid!” the sound re-echoes, “Open the doors to Jesus Christ!”

Long may his legacy of courage guide us in paths of good and right.

Angels of God, come forth to lead him into the mysteries of light.

There Mary reigns, the Queen of Heaven; there Lazarus is poor no more.

Be not afraid, O Holy Father! Enter the mercy of the Lord.

To the tune of Father, We Thank Thee Who Hast Planted (Rendez a Dieu)

The Two Americas

Regarding the public Masses: without going into too much commentary on the actual selections, I will mention that the mostly-modern Washington selections and the mostly-classical New York selections represent fairly accurately The Two Americas: the two very different style selections of liturgical music in the US today. Generally speaking, parishes choose one of these two styles and run with it as best they can. The first has a casual feel and low, from-below theological content. This is represented by(sigh) the Mass that I will be attending, here in Washington. I won't comment too much, although I will quote a colleague who commented ironically, "Great. Let's invite the Supreme Pontiff to America and sing The Mass of Creation." The funny thing is, the irony here expressed by a citizen of America 2 would be completely lost on America 1. For America 1, the Mass of Creation is a no-brainer. Everyone knows it! It's the most popular Mass setting in the United States! Of course we're going to sing the Mass of Creation!

For America 2, a small but increasing minority opinion, considerations of popularity are radically off the subject. Liturgical music should not sound like life on the easy-listening station. It should sound like the angels wouldn't mind singing it. It is from above. It lifts us to its level and lets us soar to God. And its words are true.

That's the music they'll be singing at Yankee Stadium.

This may sound very theoretical, but in practical terms, one very necessary consideration for someone interviewing as a music director or organist at a parish would do well to find out if s/he and the pastor have similar ideas about music. It really helps; this kind of agreement is one of the reasons I'm so happy in my job.

Another consideration ought to be, when you invite the Supreme Pontiff over for a Mass, take a look at his writings on sacred music and try not to directly antagonize his sensibilities, convictions, and pastoral program.

Update: The Archdiocese of Washington has issued a press release giving some details of the music.

Update 2: Unfortunately, some of the information I mentioned here was mistaken and has now been deleted.

In Honor of the St. Patrick's Day that Isn't (this year)

This year's Lent, so unusually early, has moved our major March feasts around. Holy Week and Easter Week take precedence over all other observances and so they must make way. St. Joseph's Feast is celebrated today instead of March 19, and the Feast of the Annunciation is celebrated March 31 instead of March 25.

But much more significantly for your average American, the memorial of St. Patrick (which is much less significant liturgically) has for all practical purposes fallen right off the calendar this year.

Doesn't that make you want to sing O Danny Boy?

Have you registered yet?

All the cool kids are going to the Sacred Music Colloquium this June!

This is like summer camp for music geeks. You wouldn't want to miss that, would you?

Of course not. I'll be there, too. Details here.