At The Colloquium: Extraordinary Form Mass

The Mass on Thursday Morning was an Extraordinary Form Solemn High Mass with the Canons of St. John Cantius in Chicago. The Mass Ordinary was sung by the Choir of St. John Cantius under the Direction of Fr. Scott Haynes. The Propers were variously sung by the Men's Intermediate Schola (Introit),Men's Advanced Schola (Gradual and Alleluia), the Women's Advanced Schola (Offertorium) and the Women's Intermediate Schola (Communion).

The audio recording may be listened to or downloaded HERE.

At The Colloquium: Two Lectures in One Night!

This evening's schedule was full with two lectures... back to back. The first was from William Mahrt on Sacred places....although the topic was a springboard for a much wider discussion about sacred music and the concept of "sacred"...

Dr. Mahrt's lecture can be heard HERE.

The second was from Fr. Phillips...from the Canons of St. John Cantius. His talk was much more pointed and critical of the status quo in Church music...ending with a very sten call to action for the restoration of truly sacred music.

Fr. Phillips' lecture can be heard HERE.

At The Colloquium: Rehearsal for Nos Autem Gloriosi

A beautiful motet by Palestrina which we're singing at Mass on Friday. The biggest challenges have been negotiating the tuning in what is a rather harmonically adventurous piece... for Plestrina at least!

THIS is an audio clip of the rehearsal run through during today's choir rehearsal.

At the colloquium: Mass with Cardinal George

Cardinal George celebrated the Ordinary Form Mas in Latin with the CMAA Colloquium this morning at 10:00AM in the Madonna Della Strada Chapel.

An audio recording of the Mass can be downloaded HERE.

The following selections were sung at today's Mass (the parenthesis indicate the point in the recording where you can hear the selection)

Ecce Sacerdos Magnus (7:10)

De Ventre (9:20)

Priusquam te Formarem (22:45)

Credo I (42:55)

Justus ut Palma -Chant (49:15)

Justus ut Palma- Motet (51:30)

Tu Puer (1:09:30)

Christi Fili Dei (1:18:00)

Ut Queant Laxis (1:24:40)

Organ Improvisation -Buchholz (1:27:30)

At The Colloquium: Chant Rehearsal (Advanced)

This morning's class with Wilko Brouwers (Advanced Men's Schola) was an hour of instruction on vocal techniques as well as interpretation of chant. The advanced Men's Schola has been charged with singing the more difficult Graduales and Alleluia settings for the sung Masses this week.

Today we worked on the Iustus ut Palma Florebit and Priusquam te Formarem from the Mass for the Nativity of John The Baptist (June 24th). The video below is of our rehearsal of the Priusquam Te Formarem.

At The Colloquium: Mass (OF in English)

One of the main components of the Sacred Music Colloquium is the Mass of the Day. These Masses are outstanding examples... the liturgy prepared in the way called for by the Second Vatican Council. Todays Mass was in the Ordinary Form (Novus Ordo Missale)English... the Mass that is celebrated in most parishes.

The Antiphons (Entrance, Offertory and Communion) are sung in English using adapted Gregorian melodies. This is the model that has most recently advocated in the USCCB Document "Sing To The Lord", and which has been incorporated into the new translation of the Missale. Also featured in this liturgy are the sung dialogues between the Priest and the assembly. This is an interesting example in that it is very much the liturgical form set out in the documents of the Second Vatican Council, and is very close to the liturgical form being proposed with the implementation of the new translation of the Missal.

You may listen to an audio recording of this Mass HERE.

At The Colloquium: Sung Morning Prayer

No rest for the weary... the day begins with sung Morning Prayer at 7:00AM. This is a simple and beautiful liturgy that could be easily done at any parish....OK, maybe a sung Evening Prayer would be more practical!

You can listen to our sung Morning Prayer HERE.