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William Byrd and the beckoning of beauty

William Byrd and the beckoning of beauty | Peter M.J. Stravinskas | The Dispatch at CWR

Style and class have been banished from most Catholic sanctuaries in our land – and we are all the poorer for it. The transient, the ephemeral, the cheap have replaced the beautiful, the uplifting, the inspiring.

Editor's note: The following is a homily preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., on October 17, 2016, at the Votive Mass in honor of the English Martyrs, at the Church of the Holy Innocents in New York City.

As spiritual preparation for our lecture later this evening, we are celebrating a votive Mass in honor of the English martyrs. I am not going to preach about them, however, because Joanna Bogle knows infinitely more about them than I. Instead, I want to connect those martyrs and that era to other very important realities. Philosophers talk about “the transcendentals,” among which we count the good, the true and the beautiful. After all, it was none other than Aristotle who taught us that “the good, the true and the beautiful” coinhere, that is, you can’t have one without the other.

We Catholics are often very intent on leading others to “the true,” that is, to a submission of the intellect to Catholic doctrine and dogma – and that is a good and holy goal. However, resistance to “the true” is not uncommon. Indeed, when the intellect is darkened by habitual sin, “the true” not infrequently cannot be perceived as worthy of acceptance and is thus rejected out of hand as either incredible or absurd.

I suspect that people most often are brought to the truth by being exposed to “the good” or “the beautiful.” William Byrd, arguably the most accomplished liturgical musician in Reformation England along with Thomas Tallis, can provide us with flesh-and-blood evidence for this intuition of mine.

Byrd was born into a Protestant family and eventually became the court composer (with Tallis) under Queen Elizabeth. By the 1570s, Byrd was increasingly attracted to Catholicism. This was, humanly speaking, a strange attraction – a fatal attraction, one could say – given that the martyrdom of those loyal to “the old religion” was in full swing. Yet precisely under those circumstances did Byrd become a Catholic. I would maintain that he was drawn to the truth of Catholicism by the goodness, the holiness of the martyrs.

Byrd’s Catholic commitment found expression in his many motets with themes highlighting the persecution of the Chosen People in the Old Testament and their long-awaited deliverance. Who could not see (and hear) in these works an application to the plight of Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth? Interestingly, even though known to be a recusant (that is, one who refused to attend Anglican services), he continued to enjoy royal favor. Can we say that the Queen was so captivated by the beauty of his work that she was led to a good action in his regard – turning a blind eye to his practice of the Catholic Faith? Even more bizarre is the fact that the Episcopal Church in the United States honors Byrd with a feast in their liturgical calendar on November 21; just another sign of Anglican confusion, I suppose.

Byrd is also well known for his magnificent Mass compositions for three, four and five voices. You have heard some of them in this very church, and his Mass for Four Voices enhances our worship this evening. Most devotees of Byrd’s Masses, however, do not realize that they were not composed for and performed in grand cathedrals – those edifices had been purloined by the Protestants. No, those masterpieces were sung at “priest-hole” Masses – clandestine liturgies celebrated by priests under a death sentence and attended by laity whose very lives and fortunes were at stake for participating in “popish” worship.

Even in such dire straits, Byrd and the Catholic faithful wished to offer to the Triune God their very best and to be nourished themselves by those soaring melodies which brought them to contemplate heavenly realities.

Twenty years ago in this church on the feast of St. Gregory the Great, I bemoaned the reduction of language, art and music to the least common denominator.

Continue reading on the CWR site.

FANFARE magazine Interviews Robert Reilly about the recovery of beautiful music in the 20th century

San Francisco, October 4, 2016 – Fanfare magazine recently interviewed Ignatius Press author Robert Reilly about his fascinating new book, Surprised by Beauty, which examines the recovery of beautiful modern music in the 20th century. This interview, conducted by Walter Simmons, is included in its entirety here:

FANFARE: Robert R. Reilly has pursued a most unusual career. He was the music critic for Crisis magazine for 16 years, and continues to review concerts and operas for Ionarts, an arts blog that covers the Washington, D.C. area and elsewhere. He has also written for such publications as High Fidelity, Musical America, and the American Record Guide. But, like most of us who write about classical music and are not on university faculties, he has earned his living in other fields. Reilly’s “day jobs” have included 25 years in American government. He served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and in the White House under President Ronald Reagan, as well as in the U.S. Information Agency. He was the director of Voice of America, and has published widely on foreign policy and “war of ideas” issues. He is the author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind and other books.

As a critic Reilly’s chief interest is the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, and that is the subject of his 2002 book Surprised by Beauty. Readers may not associate the word “beauty” with 20th- and 21st-century music, and that offers a clue to the unusual perspective presented in this book. Now Ignatius Press has just issued a much-expanded and updated edition of Surprised by Beauty, with additional material provided by Jens F. Laurson, a close associate of Reilly’s and a former contributor to Fanfare. Having been acquainted with Reilly’s thoughtful and perceptive writing for a number of years, I am pleased to have the opportunity to interview him. (In the interest of “full disclosure,” I should add that he has commented favorably in print on my work, although we have never met.)

I guess that my first question stems from my curiosity about your dual careers. I would think that working in government doesn’t put one in contact with many people who are as focused on the arts—and on classical music in particular—as you are. Are the people with whom you have worked aware of the musical side of your life? Have you found others who share your passion? (I once ran into Newt Gingrich in the men’s room during the intermission of a Washington production of Barber’s Vanessa, so I guess you’re not totally isolated.)

REILLY: (That’s very amusing, as I recently ran into Newt Gingrich and his wife at the Washington National Opera production of Götterdämmerung.)

Government and classical music are, as you indicate, often unrelated, if not antithetical to each other. I remember that, at Fort Lewis, it created some puzzlement in my armored cavalry unit when I went to hear Joan Sutherland sing Turandot at the Seattle Opera. Eyebrows were raised. However, sometimes music and government can be good partners. Early in the Reagan administration, from my U.S. Information Agency office, concert pianist John Robilette began the Artistic Ambassadors Program. The program was John’s inspiration, and he conducted it brilliantly for seven years. My principal contribution was to urge that a new piece of American music be composed for each artistic ambassador who went on tour for USIA. John and I spent hours in my home listening to records of American composers to select the commissions. The government wasn’t used to doing this kind of thing, or at least hadn’t been doing it for some years. So it was with some amusement that we sent composers such as George Rochberg, Morton Gould, or Lee Hoiby government purchase orders for “1 each, piano music, 10 minutes” or for other kinds of compositions. In any case, the program was very successful overseas and represented our country very well as one with a vibrant musical culture. There is now a significant collection of the manuscripts of all the works commissioned for this program at the Library of Congress. The program died, along with the heedless destruction of USIA, in 1999.

When I was the VOA director, I had the privilege of working with Robilette again. (By the way, Fanfare interviewed him around this time in its September/October 2001 issue—25:1.) I asked John to arrange a series of live recitals at the Voice of America’s beautiful auditorium in honor of the VOA 60th anniversary. These we recorded and broadcast all over the world. John attracted such notable artists as Byron Janis, the Jacques Thibaud String Trio, and tenor Robert White. They were given only token honoraria, as we had no real funding to do this. I should also mention that composer Steve Gerber, who became a dear personal friend, wrote the Fanfare for Voice of America that was premiered in the same auditorium. He later incorporated it into his Second Symphony. Steve was very excited that there was to be a separate chapter on his music in this edition of Surprised by Beauty. I was very grieved that he was taken by a virulent form of cancer last year and did not live to see it in print.

In any case, if the government has a functioning brain, it should harness classical music to help represent this country at its very best. Unfortunately, it has suffered from a bipartisan lobotomy. As I began my short tenure as VOA director, the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which exercises executive power over VOA, decided to eliminate our Arabic service, which was aimed at adults, and substitute for it a new all–pop youth music station with J Lo, Eminem, and Britney Spears. That was a very interesting thing to do in the middle of a war. And what a way to help win the war against the terrorists! Just keep those Arabs dancing. The condescension implicit in this approach was felt in the Middle East, as I know from my personal experiences there. Also, I might add, as I departed VOA for the Defense Department, the Board eliminated the concert series I had begun with Robilette, canceling the scheduled appearance of the Tokyo String Quartet. In another mindless act, though one taken earlier and not directly by the Board, Rich Kleinfeldt’s excellent classical music program on VOA was eliminated. (It is lucky for us in the Washington, D.C. area that Rich continues to broadcast on the WETA-FM classical station.)

One other anecdote, this one in a more lighthearted vein: I was meeting with conductor José Serebrier and his wife Carole as they were having lunch with the lady who was, at that time, the manager of the Washington National Opera. When she learned that I was at the Defense Department, she said that she knew Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was an opera aficionado, and asked exactly what I did at DOD. I answered, “I am his musical advisor.” I didn’t even personally know Rumsfeld, but at least it got a good laugh.

FANFARE: I know that one question that often arises in the minds of classical music aficionados with regard to critics with dual careers is: Does this person have any formal training in music? Care to comment?

REILLY: Outside of some piano lessons in grade school and some choir boy singing, I have not had formal training. My graduate studies were in political philosophy. Like George Bernard Shaw (with whom I would not compare myself in any other way), I have largely learned on the job, with the help of musician and composer friends, as well as a great deal of personal study. I hasten to add that that study went on for 15 years before I began to write about music. (I should add that I have been an avid Fanfare reader since vol. 1, no. 2.) I have been driven to put into words what I love or admire in what I hear—because I want to understand it and for others to listen and love it, as well. That’s how I see myself—as a music missionary more than as a critic.

As you know from having read the book, there is not a lot of technical language in it. Most of it should be accessible to the educated layman. In my many conversations with composers over the years, by the way, I found that they seldom speak in technical language. If anything, they are more likely to use metaphysical or philosophical language to get at what they are trying to express. The way they compose really is directed by their conceptions of reality. You can clearly see this in the composer interviews in the last part of the book.

Anyway, I don’t write for experts because I’m not one. I’m simply a lover who is trying to sing in words what really can only be sung in music. You yourself know how difficult this is, as you have done it so well in your books and reviews.

FANFARE: Thanks very much. Can you describe for us just how you became so interested in classical music—and of the past 100 years, in particular?

REILLY: I think I was about 19 years old when, quite by accident, I heard Leonard Bernstein’s recording of the Sibelius Fifth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic. I was seized by it. It changed my life. Sibelius famously said, “God opens His door for a moment and His orchestra plays the Fifth Symphony.” That is what I heard. It lifted me so far outside of myself, I was never the same afterward. I had not known human beings were capable of such things. Classical music immediately became my avocation. I bought a portable record player and would make friends sit down and listen to Sibelius. Had I only heard the Fifth Symphony earlier in my life, music would’ve become my vocation in some form. In any case, that started my rampage through the world of classical music.

Mozart was really my window onto every form of classical music. I hadn’t initially been attracted by opera until I listened to Mozart’s operas. The same is true of chamber music. I then began to listen to music of every genre and period. I found myself eventually gravitating to late 18th-/early 19th-century music, and to 20th-century music.

I was fascinated by 20th-century music not only because I found much of it immediately attractive, but also because it underwent such profound transformations and, in fact, at least partially, a derailment. Why would someone want their music to sound like a catastrophe in a boiler factory? I wanted to understand what was behind these transformations. I also wanted to know how some composers held up under the pressures of the avant-garde to continue their vocation of beauty. As you know, there were many of them—far too many to include in my book. I avidly followed what composers said about their music, read their books, and then sought some of them out to hear firsthand what they thought they were doing. Some composers contacted me after reading my reviews. It enriched my life incomparably that some of them became my friends.

FANFARE: Your book presents a rather unusual point of view, hinted at in your title, and it is one that I share to a large extent. I think that we both agree that music of the past 100 years is not uniformly ugly, atonal, or anti-musical; that there have been many composers who have pursued the traditional musical values of emotional and spiritual expression, seek to communicate those values to listeners, and have done so by drawing upon the formal processes that have served as the foundation of Western classical music for some 500 years. But the additional notion that you add, quite explicitly, is that the dissolution of tonality proclaimed by some composers coincided chronologically with the breakdown of religious faith, and that that correspondence is no accident. Would you agree with that summary of your central thesis?

REILLY: Yes, I would generally agree with that, except it is not simply my thesis but what many composers have told me, including those who do not consider themselves particularly religious. And I wouldn’t necessarily tie it to loss of a specific religious faith as I would to a loss of the transcendent, coupled with a metaphysical breakdown of the teleological order in nature. John Adams sensed this when he related that he had “learned in college that tonality died somewhere around the time that Nietzsche’s God died, and I believed it.”

Here is another way to put it. If there is a natural order to creation, you will be impelled to write a kind of music that reflects it. You will search for the “harmony of the spheres.” If there is no such order, there will be a different kind of music, if one can call it music at all when it reaches a certain point of disintegration. If there is no “harmony of the spheres” to approximate, you will most likely end up with some kind of organized or unorganized noise—in either case it will be arbitrary. I am alluding here, of course, to the centrifugal forces unleashed by Arnold Schoenberg, who held that tonality does not exist in nature and, therefore, we can be habituated to hear dissonance as consonance. However, as Aristotle observed, no matter how many times you throw a stone in the air, you cannot habituate it to fly upwards. It will always drop down. Likewise, Schoenberg’s system neither achieved the supremacy of German music for another century, as he claimed it would, nor succeeded in habituating us to dissonance. The reason is because there actually is a natural order to things, and tonality exists as a kind of natural law in the world of sound.

Some music critics have gotten quite upset because of what I have said about Schoenberg’s serial system. They insist that it’s just another technique, like any other technique. That’s certainly not how Schoenberg thought of it. My criticism of Schoenberg is more against his faulty metaphysics than it is of his music. Of course, the one reflects the other—that is my point.

Throughout the 20th century and today, there has been and is a broad range of composers attesting to the connection between the spiritual and the musical. Sibelius—not what you would call a traditional believer—said that, “The essence of man’s being is his striving after God.” Therefore, composition, according to him, “is brought to life by means of the Logos, the divine in art. That is the only thing that really has significance.”

I know some composers who have left the faith to which they once belonged or even to which they at one time converted, but who nonetheless retain a very deep sense of the spiritual and the transcendent. Scottish composer James MacMillan recently said, “In spite of the retreat of faith in Western society, composers over the last century or so have never given up on their search for the sacred.” So my thesis is not sectarian in a religious sense, though as a Catholic I am very much aware of the musical treasures that Christianity has inspired, including, say, MacMillan’s Seven Last Words.

FANFARE: Now let’s talk for a moment about the word “beauty,” because of its importance in your title, and because it can mean different things to different people. For example, I think that for many people “beauty” is used to describe the sort of warm, slightly poignant serenity exemplified by, say, the second movement of Barber’s Violin Concerto. Others think in terms of Keats’s line, “Truth is beauty, beauty truth,” which opens the word to a wider interpretation. I’m inclined to reserve the word for the Barber sort of expression, but I consider other qualities in music equally valid, in the Keats sense; I just don’t use the word “beauty” for them. I think of the highest musical values as authenticity and depth of emotional and often spiritual expression, as articulated through meticulous craftsmanship. I think of this as a broader concept than “beauty,” which may, of course, be one manifestation of such expression. Can you speak more about what the term “beauty” means to you?

REILLY: I understand the distinction you’re making, but I would take the word beauty farther in the Keats sense. I’ve always liked Dostoyevsky’s statement that “Beauty will save the world.” In other words, beauty is in some way salvific. In this sense, beauty means more than the second movement of the Barber Concerto. Beauty can pierce; it can slay; it can upset the soul and engender wild longings. It provokes wonder. It can also, in a way, redeem. The great German theologian Josef Pieper spoke of the “recollecting power of the fine arts, for the emotional shock brought about by eros and caritas—in short, through the attitude rooted in the mysterious experience that Plato called theia mania.” Plato knew that all beauty is reflected beauty and that beauty is a sign of, and a path to, ultimate goodness.

I think that’s what George Rochberg was after when he told me, “I have re-embraced the art of beauty, but with a madness.” He said, “But what do I mean by what is beautiful? I mean that which is genuinely expressive, even if it hurts….I know that what is really beautiful hurts.” Then he exclaimed, “Music remains what it has always been: a sign that man is capable of transcending the limits and constraints of his material existence.”

I think music was derailed in the 20th century when it lost this sense of beauty as its mission. The loss of vocation is powerfully reflected in Schoenberg’s statement that he was “cured of the delusion that the artist’s aim is to create beauty.” One can imagine how Dostoyevsky or Plato would’ve reacted to that remark.

FANFARE: It’s clear that a religious or spiritual core is very important in your understanding of a composer’s work, and when it’s relevant in the case of a particular composer it becomes your central focus. Yet there are some composers whom you have highlighted whose music—from my standpoint—has no particular connection to spiritual concerns at all. The most striking example to me—without making a qualitative judgment of my own—is Morton Gould. Can you comment on that?

REILLY: The highest vocation of any art is to make the transcendent perceptible, and I think music is uniquely suited to this hieratic goal. As the great Swiss mystic Max Picard said, “In sound itself, there is a readiness to be ordered by the spirit, and this is seen at its most sublime in music.”

But not all music has to be sublime. Not everyone has to be at the top of Mount Parnassus—there are ascending slopes or steps. Mozart reached the heights, but he also wrote wonderful divertimenti for entertainment on social occasions. Dvořák composed most of his music in the kitchen, and its great warmth and domesticity reflect this. In music, the good is not the enemy of the great. If all we listened to was Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, Bruckner’s Eighth, Mahler’s Second, and Nielsen’s Fourth, etc., we would probably suffer from acute altitude sickness.

Morton Gould was certainly a very good composer who mastered a number of colloquial musical styles. He had great fun with them, which is why it is such fun to listen to him. In terms of my general theme, I think Gould clearly demonstrated that tonality was not exhausted. He worked within the traditional tonal frames of reference, and produced works that still sound fresh. In some of his compositions, I think he also caught that sense of yearning in the American soul. He clearly had an appetite for beauty. I think it’s a big mistake to condescend to composers writing his kind of music. That’s why he and others of his kind are in the book.

FANFARE: I suppose it is inevitable that I would find some of the composers you highlight less worthy of attention than others who would seem to illustrate your thesis through music of the highest caliber, yet are not included by you. I am thinking, for example, of Daniel Catan, Joly Braga Santos, Nicolas Flagello, Andrzej Panufnik, Arnold Rosner, Lee Hoiby, Samuel Jones, and Alan Hovhaness, who seem conspicuous by their absence. I’m especially surprised by the omission of Peter Mennin, as his approach to musical composition shared so much in common with that of Edmund Rubbra and Vagn Holmboe, both of whom you treat with great respect and understanding.

REILLY: You have touched a sore spot. My publisher was panicking at the size of the book, which is slightly more than 500 pages as it is, and unfortunately I had to cut 28 composers out of it, including a number of those you mention. Taking them out was heartbreaking. If all the Fanfare subscribers will buy the book, perhaps then I can persuade the publisher to bring out a new edition that would include everyone you mention, plus the others who ended up on the cutting room floor—like Havergal Brian, William Alwyn, Boris Tchaikovsky, Paul Juon, Harold Shapero, Joseph Jongen, etc. As for Mennin, I am not sure I would have the nerve to write anything after the brilliant job you did concerning his music in your book Voices of Stone and Steel.

FANFARE: Thank you for such kind words. I hope to be worthy of them.

This article originally appeared in Issue 40:2 (Nov/Dec 2016) of Fanfare Magazine.
 
Robert Reilly, the author of Surprised by Beauty, is available for interviews about this book. To request a review copy or an interview with Robert Reilly, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]

Surprised by the Beauty of 20th-Century Music: Interview with Robert R. Reilly

(Photo: us.fotolia.com/BillionPhotos.com)

Surprised by the Beauty of 20th-Century Music | Paul Senz | CWR

While avant-garde art dominated the past century, notes Robert R. Reilly, glorious and melodic music was being written all along, even if often suppressed or neglected.

Robert R. Reilly has written about classical music for more than 35 years, including for Crisis magazine, where he was music critic for 16 years. He has also written about music for High Fidelity, Musical America, Schwann/Opus, and the American Record Guide. He is the director of The Westminster Institute, which was established in 2009 to "promote individual dignity and freedom for people throughout the world by sponsoring high-quality research, with a particular focus on the threats from extremism and radical ideologies." During a quarter century of government service, Reilly worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the White House under President Ronald Reagan, and in the U. S. Information Agency; he was also the director of Voice of America. In addition to his writings about music, he has written widely on foreign policy, "war of ideas" issues, Islam, and culture. 

 

He recently corresponded with Catholic World Report about a new and expanded edition, published by Ignatius Press, of his book Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music. 

CWR: You have been in the military, served in the White House under President Reagan, and were director of Voice of America. How did you become a music critic? And how, in particular, did you become interested in modern classical music? How did you end up writing music reviews for Crisis magazine?

Robert R. Reilly: Well, I was thunderstruck by music when I heard, quite by accident, Jan Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony. By the time the recording was over, I was a changed person. I was 19 years old at the time; my music quest began. I plunged in in search of the experience and for an explanation as to why I had had it. What was it about? French poet René Char wrote that the “grace of the stars resides in their compelling us to speak.” This music compelled me to speak. So, some 15 years later, after I gained the right vocabulary and enough experience, I began writing about it and the other treasures I had discovered. As you pointed out, this was not my day job. My day job was fighting the Evil Empire.

So, as an avocation, I wrote for a number of musical journals like High Fidelity and Musical America. Then Deal Hudson, whom I did not know at the time, moved to Washington, DC, to take over Crisis magazine. He came to my house and, out of the blue, asked me to contribute a monthly article about classical music. He is one of those rare conservatives who are culturally literate in every sphere, including classical music, about which he is equally enthused. I did that for 16 years.

It was Deal who suggested that we publish a book of my essays. It turned out that most of what I had written was about 20^th century music. That had not occurred by any design of mine or his. That book, the first edition of Surprised by Beauty, came out in 2002, with Deal as the publisher.

Lo and behold, some 14 years later, now the second edition of the book is out—this time from Ignatius Press. It is more than twice as long as the original and completely revised. There is so much more good news about the recovery of modern music in this listening guide. I hope readers will be enticed to explore some of the many CD recommendations in it. I emphasize that this is not a book with technical jargon written for music specialists. It is for the general reader who has an open mind, an open heart, and who opens his ears.

CWR: The terms "modern music" and "modern classical music" are usually not met positively by those who hold to more traditional beliefs about the arts, culture, and religion. Is it the case, however, that stereotypes and assumptions have obscured necessary distinctions between various composers, movements, and schools of music?

Reilly: Modern art strove hard to earn its bad reputation. It succeeded. People fled the concert halls because they did not want to hear what sounded like a catastrophe in a boiler factory. Likewise, many people shunned modern painting when canvases looked like someone had spilled a plate of spaghetti. Modern architecture seemed to be a contest as to who could design a building that best disguised the fact that human beings would be in it.

Unfortunately, the avant-garde gained control over the levers of the art world—by which I mean the commissions, the prizes, the positions in academe, the cultural press, etc. Unless you played ball with the avant-garde, your artistic goose was cooked. This was not true for some of the giants who continued to write in the traditional tonal manner, but it was decidedly true for the up-and-coming younger composers from the mid-20^th century until about 20 years ago. They suffered a lot.

The whole point of my book is to announce that it is safe to come out of the bomb shelters now. Not only is beautiful music being written again but, it turns out, beautiful music was written all along, throughout the 20^th century. It simply went underground. Some of it was suppressed (literally the case in some Communist regimes), some of it was simply neglected, but it is surfacing once again. And it is glorious. These are the composers I write about in this book, along with the recommended recordings of their works. They are the other 20^th century about which most people have never heard – though there are a number of composers, like Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, whom they probably have heard of, who are in the book. Of course, I also include contemporary composers. The tremendously good news is that we are living at the time of a major musical renaissance.

CWR: In the Introduction, "Is Music Sacred?", you explain how destructive musical revolution of the 1920s, directed by Schoenberg and others, rejected tonality and melody. What were some of the deeper reasons for this revolution? In what way that revolution relate to the cultural upheavals in Western societies?

Reilly: Yes, there were deeper reasons that were ultimately metaphysical and spiritual. Music, art and architecture reflected a wholesale rejection of form, which is another way of saying Nature. I recall one artist saying, “If I don’t do anything else in my artistic life, I want to smash form” – which expresses, shall we say, a certain resentment of reality. 

Going back to Pythagoras, the traditional understanding of music held that it was somehow an approximation of “the music of the spheres.” In fact, Pythagoras thought that music was the ordering principle of the world. The whole point of approximating the heavenly harmony was to instill inner harmony in the soul. Following Pythagoras, Plato taught that “rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful”. This idea of “the music of the spheres” runs through the history of Western civilization with an extraordinary consistency, even up to the 20th century. At first, it was meant literally; later, poetically.

Then it was rejected.

Read the entire interview at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

A noteworthy (but little noted) revolution at World Youth Day 2016

A pilgrim prays during the opening Mass for World Youth Day July 26 at Blonia Park in Krakow, Poland. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

by Carl E. Olson | The Dispatch at CWR

I've never been to a World Youth Day event, but have followed the last few as closely as possible via news accounts, blogs, and conversations with friends who have attended. This August 7th blog post by Fr. David Friel, a young priest (ordained in 20110 from Philadelphia, highlights something I'd not seen in other coverage of the recent events in Kraków (granted, I read only a slim portion of the countless articles and posts out there):

There was one truly remarkable part of the WYD celebrations that did not receive as much attention as these other details, yet it was revolutionary. I am speaking about the music used at the major English-speaking catechesis sessions.

This year, the main English-speaking catechesis was held at Tauron Arena, renamed “Mercy Centre” for the week. Each day, roughly 15,000 pilgrims packed the arena to hear keynote talks by Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Cardinal Tagle, and Cardinal Dolan. At the conclusion of the morning session, Mass was celebrated in the arena.

Nothing is new about the general structure of the catechesis I have just described. The revolutionary part was the music used at the Masses in Tauron Arena. Typically, these Masses feature pop concert-style praise & worship led by an on-stage band. This year, however, the preparations for these large-scale liturgies were entrusted to the Dominican Liturgical Centre in Kraków. Fr. Lukasz Misko, OP was invited to serve as Director of Music for the English-language liturgies, and he, in turn, invited fellow-blogger Christopher Mueller to serve as conductor for all of these liturgies (as he announced here). The result was an experience very different from the norm.

Notably, not a single hymn was sung during Mass. Praise & worship songs were used throughout the day at the arena, before and after Mass, but no garden variety metrical hymns or songs were sung during Mass, from the Sign of the Cross to the Final Blessing. This, in itself, is revolutionary.

Fr. Friel provides some details about the music and then notes: "This sea change is not insignificant. It means that the project of advocating truly sacred music within the present liturgical movement is bearing practical fruit. Even three years ago, at WYD 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, no one would have expected what transpired at the Mercy Centre in Kraków." He also provides the text of a letter that was included in the program for music, written by Fr. Lukasz Misko, OP, who was Director of Music for English-language liturgies, WYD 2016. Fr. Misko states, in part:

These English-language liturgies are the fruit of a long and ongoing collaboration between Dominican Friars in Poland and their Dominican brethren in the United States. And one of the first impressions you may have is, a lot of this music is unfamiliar. What we hope you’ll take away from these Masses, though—alongside the presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the camaraderie of thousands of new Catholic friends from around the globe—is a sense of how beautiful the music of the Mass can be.

Dominicans especially cherish Gregorian chant, and yet they believe that the beauty of sacred music does not belong to one particular genre. It flows from a basic requirement found in different musical styles, which might be summed up as, “it’s all about God, and He’s a Mystery.” Inexpressible and ineffable, the Mystery of God is always ahead of us, approached but never comprehended, and therefore our liturgical music—filled with awe and love for Him—should reflect that fundamental humility. This week we are drawing from a wide variety of the Church’s music, including Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, traditional hymnody, and contemporary praise and worship. ...

And it’s all about God, and He’s a Mystery. The unfamiliarity of this beautiful choral music gives us a chance to experience God anew at each liturgy. We can’t apply our usual “traditional music = conservative” or “contemporary music = liberal” thinking. We must become open to the vastness of God, and beauty offers us a powerful means of doing that; true beauty calls us out of ourselves, orients us to something greater, and stirs up a longing for the transcendent. Sacred music, the expression of the deepest human yearning for the most profound Mystery of Love, creates in us a special dimension whereby we can be permeated and transformed by the Eternal beauty of God, Himself.

Do read Fr. Friel's entire post.

Robert Reilly offers a guide to discovering the beautiful music of our times

Recovery of modern music stems from a spiritual recovery

San Francisco, May 25, 2016 – The single greatest crisis of the 20th century was the loss of faith. Noise—and its acceptance as music—was the product of the resulting spiritual confusion and, in its turn, became the further cause of its spread. Likewise, the recovery of modern classical music – and the whole point of this book is that there has been a major recovery – stems from a spiritual recovery. As a result, beauty is back! This theme of Robert Reilly’s book, Surprised by Beauty: A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music, is made explicitly clear by the composers whom he covers – both in their own words (some in interviews with Reilly) and most especially in their music, which Reilly describes in layman’s language.

Robert Reilly, along with contributing author Jens Laurson, spells out the nature of the crisis and its solution in sections that serve as bookends to the chapters on more than 70 individual composers. He does not contend that all of these composers underwent and recovered from the central crisis he describes, but they all lived and worked within its broader context, and soldiered on, writing beautiful music. For this, they suffered ridicule and neglect, and he believes their rehabilitation will change the reputation of modern music.

It is the spirit of music that this book is most about, and in his efforts to discern it, Reilly has discovered many treasures. The purpose of this book is to share them, to entice you to listen—because beauty is contagious. English conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes that experiencing Bach’s masterpieces “is a way of fully realizing the scale and scope of what it is to be human”. The reader may be surprised by how many works of the 20th and 21st centuries of which this is also true.

Surprised by Beauty includes hundreds of CD recommendations to help the reader find this music and this list will be regularly updated on the website for the book: www.SurprisedByBeauty.org.

Ted Libbey, the NPR music critic who wrote the Foreword to this book, explains that the best music of the 20th century “developed our capacity for feeling, deepened our compassion, and furthered our quest for and understanding of what Aristotle called ‘the perfect end of life’”.

Composer David Diamond explained, “Robert Reilly is at all times attuned to a composer’s spiritual inner strength but balanced by a vital and original intellectual stamina. He is a pleasure to read and a treasure to cherish.”

“Reilly’s vision of music is profoundly spiritual, expressive of what is best and most enriching in human life, and having the possibility of leading us to encounter God Himself, says Composer and Pianist Stephen Hough.

Terry Teachout, Music Critic for Commentary, claims, “Reilly is a critic with open ears and a disciplined mind that helps him to understand and explain the larger significance of what he’s hearing.”

“It is rare that one can offer such unbounded enthusiasm for a book about modern music, yet I can confidently state that this book is a joy for both layman and music expert alike. Surprised by Beauty provides a valuable and illuminating perspective, all while providing the surprise promised in the title,” says Mark Nowakowski of the Foundation for the Sacred Arts.

James V. Schall, S.J., of Georgetown University says, “Reilly is very good in talking about the philosophy and history of music, and the importance of modern music, especially sacred music, but also its beauty. It is this beauty that Reilly makes every effort in this excellent book to teach us how to find.”

“This book is a work of love. Every page is filled with longing for beauty, yearning for the transcendent to be made perceptible. Reilly is a faithful guide and will lead many of his readers to musical beauty where they did not expect to find it,” says Christopher Flannery of the Claremont Review of Books.

Lee Bockhorn of the Weekly Standard says, “Robert Reilly has done music lovers a service by reminding us that ‘modern music’ and ‘beauty’ are not always enemies.”

About the Author:

Robert Reilly has written about classical music for more than 35 years, including for Crisis magazine, where he was music critic for 16 years, High Fidelity, Musical America and others. He is the director of the Westminster Institute. He was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006) for the US Secretary of Defense, after which he taught at National Defense University. He was the director of the Voice of America (2001-2002) and served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President (1983-1985). A graduate of Georgetown University and the Claremont Graduate University, he writes widely on “war of ideas” issues, foreign policy, and classical music. His previous book is The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist Crisis.

About the Contributing Author:

Jens F. Laurson writes an online classical music column for Forbes and contributes to Listen magazine. His writing has won the Deems Taylor Award granted by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

Robert Reilly, the author of Surprised by Beauty, is available for interviews about this book. To request a review copy or an interview with Robert Reilly, please contact: Rose Trabbic, Publicist, Ignatius Press at (239) 867-4180 or [email protected]

Product Facts:

Title: SURPRISED BY BEAUTY
A Listener’s Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music

Author: Robert R. Reilly
Contributing Author: Jens F. Laurson

Release Date: May 2016
Length: 512 pages
Price: $34.95
ISBN: 978-1-58617-905-2 • Softcover

Order: 1-800-651-1531 • www.ignatius.com

You are Who you eat: "Let Christ be eaten..."

Detail from "Institution of the Eucharist" (1441) by Fra Angelico (www.wikiart.org)

You are Who you eat: "Let Christ be eaten..."

A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for August 16, 2015, the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time | Carl E. Olson

Readings:
• Prv 9:1-6
• Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
• Eph 5:15-20 
• Jn 6:51-58

“You are,” my mother—like most other mothers—used to tell me, “what you eat,” 

“You are Who you eat,” says my Mother, the Church, as she has for two thousand years.

The Eucharist, wrote Ignatius of Antioch on his way to martyrdom, “is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death …” The person “who receives the flesh of our Savior Christ and drinks his precious blood,” wrote Cyril of Alexandria, “shall be one with him.” Augustine put it boldly and simply: “Let Christ be eaten; when eaten he lives because when slain he rose again.”

“Let Christ be eaten”—that is the essence of today’s Gospel reading. It contains the fourth and final “Amen, Amen” statement from Jesus in his Bread of Life discourse. With each statement (Jn. 6:26, 32, 47), Jesus took his listeners deeper in the mystery of his person, mission, and gift of salvation—a mystery rooted in the Incarnation, pointing to his death and resurrection, and given to the Church in the Eucharist.

As Jesus revealed more, he met more resistance. At first his listeners asked questions (v. 30), then made demands (v. 34), then murmured openly (v. 41), and then began to quarrel over his words. Jesus’ claim that the bread of life he offered was somehow closely linked with his actual flesh was deeply offensive. It smacked of cannibalism, which was an offense providing evidence God had cursed his covenantal people (cf. Lev. 26:27-29). So if Jesus, in saying that “the bread that I will give is my flesh”, was using metaphorical or poetic language, surely he would have cleared up any misconceptions created by his startling language.

Jesus did clear up misconceptions, but not as many of his listeners probably hoped or expected. He clarified his remarks by emphasizing that, yes, he was speaking of his actual flesh and of real eating: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do have life within you.”

These words, more than any other in Scripture, stopped me cold in my tracks many years ago. As a Fundamentalist and, later, as an Evangelical Protestant, I had never heard a sermon or attended a Bible study that grappled with these words. The various books and commentaries I studied did not address satisfactorily the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ declaration, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” I asked the same question as those listening to Jesus in person: Whatever did he mean?

Part of the answer is found in how Jesus described himself as the “living bread that came down from heaven.” G. K. Chesterton, in The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic, expressed it well, “Heaven has descended into the world of matter; the supreme spiritual power is now operating by the machinery of matter, dealing miraculously with the bodies and souls of men.” Put simply, the Eucharist is a continuation of the Incarnation. By becoming man, the Son of God took on flesh—not in appearance only and not for just a few years, but in actuality and for all of eternity.

The Creator, having taken on flesh, now brings about a new creation by inviting man to receive his flesh and blood in the Most Holy Eucharist. Having become man, the Son gives himself to us so that we, made sons of God through baptism, might continue growing in truth and grace and divine life, feeding on his life-giving flesh and blood. The Eucharist does not just sustain us, but transforms us; it does not just fill us, but completes us.

John Paul II, in his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, wrote, “The Church draws her life from the Eucharist”, and explained that those who receive the Eucharist become “the Body of Christ—not many bodies but one body.”

How do we remain in Christ and become more Christ-like? By eating his flesh and blood. You are Who you eat.

(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the August 16, 2009, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)

Great Catholic Music Debate: “Post-Vatican Folk” vs. “Reformist Retro”

Great Catholic Music Debate: “Post-Vatican Folk” vs. “Reformist Retro” | Bill Kassel | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

A funeral I attended recently illustrates a musical dilemma that fuels the ire of Catholics on Facebook whenever the subject of liturgy comes up.

To set a tone of solemnity, two women chanted a Latin prelude as mourners entered. The casket was wheeled in with family members processing to the opening hymn, “Here I Am, Lord” (by ex-St. Louis Jesuits member, Dan Schutte), a classic of the post-Vatican “folk” musical repertoire.

The offertory song was Michael Joncas’s “On Eagles’ Wings,” another “folk” favorite, and one that has become a staple at funerals in churches of pretty much all denominations.

Two hymns of more traditional pedigree, “Adoro te Devote” and “The Strife Is O’er” were sung during Communion. There was also an instrumental interlude: Schubert’s “Ave Maria,” played on what sounded like a hammered dulcimer.

The final prayers of commendation were followed by another Latin chant. And the recessional hymn was “Be Not Afraid” (by Schutte’s former colleague, Bob Dufford).

The musicians did a fine job, though it can’t be said that these disparate elements fitted together all that well. But the music had been chosen by the family, and the selections demonstrated a basic fact of human nature: At times of emotional intensity and spiritual significance people like to hear familiar songs that comfort, encourage, and, in various ways, uplift them.

This emotional dimension is often not top-of-mind among Catholics who think about liturgy. That’s especially true for those of traditionalist sentiment (amply represented among my Facebook friends).

These people are drawn toward what they would call a more “sanctified” worship experience in which hymn preference skews to the classical and time-honored, if indeed hymns are included at all. Many urge abandoning hymnody altogether in favor of singing the Mass propers.

It goes without saying that the “folk” repertoire is anathema, seen as a flawed product of the worship form referred to contemptuously as “guitar Mass.” Countless Facebook postings (and articles linked to them) are replete with tales of wandering into some parish where the dreaded guitar group still prevails, and having to endure the pain and embarrassment of liturgical desecration.

Facebook traditionalists also comment on the poor quality of this music—poor in both composition and performance. Their complaints are often justified. Who hasn’t sat through at least one teeth-grinding rendition of “I Received the Living God” offered by a slipshod, three-chord guitar ensemble?

What the tradition-minded have difficulty recognizing (and find dispiriting when they do) is that many Catholics like the “folk” stuff. 

Continue reading at www.HPRweb.com.

What’s Changed? Comparing Pre- and Post-Vatican Hymns

Mystic Lamb (detail, angels), by Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441).

What’s Changed? | J. E. Sigler | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

A Comparison of Self- and Divine-Referential Pronoun Usage in Hymns Written Pre- and Post-Vatican II

“He that sings praise, not only sings, but also loves him of whom he sings.”—St. Augustine

Some HPR readers may be unaware that people have been arguing about the language of Church hymns since at least the 18th century. Dovring describes one side to a mid-18th-century Swedish Protestant hymnal controversy, as arguing that “the whole dispute (surrounding the new hymnal) was, essentially, not about doctrine, but simply about the manner of presentation,” whereas the other side insisted that “the public was not aware that they were being exposed to a new way of thinking because of the familiarity of the words and phrases (being) used”(pp. 391–392).¹ To Catholics active on the music front of the post-conciliar “liturgy wars,”² these 250-year-old Swedish battle cries probably sound pretty familiar.

They are certainly familiar to me. As both a faithful Catholic and a doctoral student in communication, I pay close attention to communication within the Church. In fact, all my previous research has centered on Church communication. So, even before Brummond’s March 2015 HPR article on the “Sanctus,” I was planning to study the Council’s effect on Church music. But Brummond’s article summed up my inspiration for the study exceptionally well:

Certainly we can point to tendencies in the postconciliar Church toward a more anthropocentric liturgy. Consider the popular hymn, “Anthem,” as an example of this trend:

We are called, we are chosen.
We are Christ for one another.
We are promised to tomorrow,
(W)hile we are for him today.

We are sign, we are wonder.
We are sower, we are seed.
We are harvest, we are hunger.
We are question, we are creed.

That’s 13 uses of the pronoun “we,”just in the chorus. The focus on the community is primary. That’s a far cry from the angelic cry of the “Sanctus,” which is wholly focused on God. ³

As a convert to the Faith from Orthodox Judaism—where hymns aren’t exactly central to worship—I had felt a weird disconnect in the hymns I’d been singing at Mass for the last three years. Some of them seemed really centered on God; others, not so much. I had worked in publishing before returning to grad school, so I started paying attention to those “publisher’s notes” in the footer of every hymn, which most people just ignore. Very quickly, I began to be able to predict what I’d see there: specifically, when a hymn was written. I couldn’t predict the precise year, or even decade, but about 98 percent of the time, I could predict whether it was a pre- or post-conciliar hymn. So I determined to study this difference more methodically, and to do it as simply and neatly as possible: using pronouns.

Together with a non-Catholic colleague, Max Renner, I selected two hymnals: one more “traditional” (the 2015 Ignatius Pew Missal), and one more “modern” (the 2015 Breaking Bread pew missal).

Continue reading at HPRweb.com.

"Benedicta": Chant to Make the Heart Glad

(Photo Credit: Christopher McLallen)

Benedicta: Chant to Make the Heart Glad | Christopher S. Morrissey | CWR

Benedicta, the debut Gregorian chant CD from the Benedictine Monks of Norcia, takes the form of a concept album about the life of Mary. And it is a perfect soundtrack to prepare you for the practice of prayer.

In the midst of the day’s work, a little break is always welcome. Sometimes this takes the form of a clever YouTube diversion recommended by a friend. For example, a recent favorite of mine was a highly intelligent Latin rendition of “Let It Go” from Disney’s hit movie Frozen: “Libere.”

It got me thinking. What if a hit musical was first composed in Latin, and then only later translated into various national languages? Well, I can only wish. Having taught Latin at the university level for a decade and a half, I know how small the interest and appetite would be for such a thing.

Besides, the movie musical is a quintessentially American art form, and so it is only appropriate for the songs from Frozen to appear first in English. Nowadays, Latin translations of any pop culture phenomenon — take Harrius Potter, for example — are merely the final seal of approval bestowed by unassailable mass appeal.

But what if we could have access to a genuine cultural sensation that was in fact native to the Latin tongue? What kind of experience would that be?

Last week, the Benedictine Monks of Norcia released Benedicta, their first recording of Gregorian chant. As I have been listening to it, I can’t help but take it as the answer to those very questions.

Just as movie musicals are best experienced in the language of their birth (pace clever translators), so too are the liturgical meditations on Scripture best experienced in the Latin tongue that has sung those daily prayers for centuries.

Eighteen men strong, the Benedictine Monks behind this album have set up a monastery at Norcia, the fifth-century birthplace of St. Benedict, ancient Nursia. Impressively, the average age of these men is 33. Many of them have come from America to Norcia, where they live according to the perennially wise monastic Rule of St. Benedict.

Recently, they learned the art of brewing from some Trappist monks. And so their monastery has become famous for its delicious Birra Nursia, which is not yet available in North America, but which is nonetheless worth the trip to Umbria, Italy. The beer has a Latin motto: Ut Laetificet Cor, “To Make the Heart Glad,” which is a clever allusion to the approbation of wine in Psalm 104:15.

Scriptural allusions — made in Latin, no less — are hardly the stuff of today’s pop culture. And yet what would be more appropriate for Catholic religious who brew beer? “A cold beer never bothered me, anyway”; that may be the right sentiment, but surely Ut Laetificet Cor is the motto that is right and just.

In the same way, there is a tradition of prayer full of Latin allusions that stretches across centuries. And these monks are part of that still-living tradition. They spend hours every day chanting the Divine Office in a prayerful and meditative spirit. Just as they share the fruits of their labor with us in their beer-making, so too do they now give us, with this recording, a taste of their prayer life.

I must admit I was skeptical when I was presented with yet another Gregorian chant CD to review.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Preaching, Music, and Acoustics

Preaching, Music, and Acoustics | Deacon W. Patrick Cunningham | Homiletic & Pastoral Review

The work of the New Evangelization is identical to the work of evangelization in every age: to communicate to those who are unaware of the saving work of the Son of God those things that will bring them to accept the gift of faith, and come to new life through the sacraments entrusted to the Church. What is “new” is the environment and the means. The environment in which we operate most of the time is, at best, neutral to the work of the Church. At worst, it is actively hostile to the teachings of Christ in the Church. It is necessary, then, to use new methods and new communications media to help Jesus Christ and the Church become visible and attractive to modern humans.

Now the Catholic Church has many advantages in this mission, as she always has. These advantages are summarized in the “three Cs” which are creed, cult, and code/community. I prefer to speak of the three transcendentals that are embodied in the Church as they are in no other institution. They are Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The fullness of Truth is preached, and always has been, in the Catholic Church. The sacraments and the doctrines of the Church have helped and continue to help many to attain to saintly Goodness. And in the sacramental forms, prayers, architecture, and music, there is Beauty that is truly a making present on earth the Beauty of the Kingdom of God.

In the 21st century, however, the Church operates at a distinct disadvantage within the culture, and some of that problem is of our own making. Relativism, as communicated through the media, universities, and political institutions, is rampant in society. Many believe that there are many truths, not just One Truth. When we preach the Truth, particularly in sexual and family morals, we are teaching things that annoy, rather than attract. The media have, since the dawn of the new millennium, made it a daily objective to find people, particularly clergy, doing evil in the Church. The sexual abuse scandal and occasional financial irregularity casts doubt on the moral integrity of the leaders of the Church. Thus the millions who find Goodness in the Church, and who daily do good for others, including their persecutors, are ignored.

Beauty, however, has a way of disarming the critic and providing an instant experience of transcendence. As Dr. William Mahrt says, “beauty persuades by itself.”¹That is, as traditional philosophy teaches us, in the very perception of the Beautiful, “the intellect is delighted,” and that delight is intrinsic and immediate. By contrast, the apprehension of Truth must come from reasoning, and the apprehension of Goodness by a positive act of the will, informed by the actions of the intellect. These processes can be corrupted because of the weakness of the intellect and will, engendered by Original Sin. Our apprehension of the Beautiful is immediate, and so, is harder (but not impossible) to corrupt.

Thus, if the Catholic Church is to appeal to modern humans, we must “lead with Beauty.”

Continue reading at HPRweb.com.

In This Place: In Praise of the Music of Frank La Rocca

(Images: www.franklarocca.com)

In This Place: In Praise of the Music of Frank La Rocca | R.J. Stove | CWR

The sacred music of the American composer is remarkable and unaffected, breathing the atmosphere of mystical devotion

Perhaps the most pernicious single delusion to have afflicted musical thought over the last two centuries is what might be called, for want of a comelier description, The Myth of Artistic Inevitability. The central teaching of this myth can be summarized in the slogan, “You can't keep a good man down.” More specifically, the myth maintains that musical genius, merelyby virtue of being musical genius, will always find a mass public; that no agency for evil can ever thwart this process; and that if a particular musician of stature fails to find a mass public, it is fundamentally his own fault.

Belief in the myth presupposes what operated to a limited extent in the centuries before 1914 but manifestly could not be relied on after that date: a European civilization sufficiently filled with noblesse oblige to regard musical genius as worth rewarding, in and of itself. Yet even before 1914 such a civilization was provisional, dependent largely on the caprice of individual patrons' effort.

Take Wagner, whose monumental self-belief possibly brought him closer than any other great musician has ever come to giving the “inevitable” dogma a fighting chance.But Wagner owed—and he himself knew full well that he owed—hisenduring world fame to, above all, a House of Wittelsbach accident. Without King Ludwig II's patronage, several of Wagner’s masterpieces would have been unperformed and in some instances unwritten. A Wagner without Ludwig II would have occupied something like the same niche in general culture now assigned to, say, Charles-Valentin Alkan: in short, renowned (rightly or wrongly) more for freakishness than for actual lasting merit.

Moreover, the Myth of Artistic Inevitability cannot even begin to explain how so many musical giants were forgotten, for generations on end, once they had died. Monteverdi and Heinrich Schütz in the seventeenth century, Telemann in the eighteenth, Johann Nepomuk Hummel in the nineteenth: all these men—who had substantial, and deserved, reputations in their lifetimes—fell so completely out of favor within a few years of their respective deaths, that it was almost as if they had never breathed.

Still, the main reason the myth is absurd is that it utterly fails to take totalitarian cultures, or even ordinary modern Western leveling,into account. Suppose that there had emerged in the twentieth entury a composer who combined the gifts of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven in his own person. Those gifts, far from guaranteeing him popular acclaim and a berth in Grove’s, would not have done him a blind bit of good if he had been stuck amid the Holodomor, or amid Khmer Rouge Cambodia, or amid Maoist China’s Cultural Revolution, or (if he had possessed Jewish ancestors) amid Nazi-occupied Poland. Indeed, his exceptional abilities would have increased the likelihood of his being hunted down like a rat.

All this serves as a prelude to noting several facts: first, that there flourishes in America a composer named Frank La Rocca; second, that his creative talent for religious music is remarkable; third, that one can have been a professional musician—indeed a professional church musician—for decades without having encountered his name, let alone his output; and fourth, that those in that ignoramus category had included myself, until his CD In This Place, was recently brought to my attention—and by a non-musician! According to the Myth of Artistic Inevitability, such neglect could never have happened. I would, for certain, have discovered La Rocca’s work in the quotidian course of events; every decent-sized musical reference book would have alerted me to that work; it would be needless to accord him wider fame by writing the present article; and pigs would fly.

+++

A good case can be mounted for listening to all unfamiliar music, as it were, “blindfolded”. In other words, for judging it entirely upon what the ear apprehends, with no biographical or other data to affect one’s pleasure or distaste. Accordingly, before seeking any information about La Rocca’s career, I began playing the CD, and I concentrated exclusively on what I heard.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Think the music at your parish could use some improvement?

Want to be able to sing along to the hymns at Mass? The Ignatius Pew Missal, assembled with the input of many pastors and parish priests from around the country, is an annual subscription-based worship aid intended for Roman Catholic parishes.   Its purpose is simple: to provide worshipers with a liturgical resource that is consistent with the directives of the Church and accessible to the average parishioner, especially in regards to music. Pre-Order Now * pre-order offer for those who subscribe in the first year. Think your pastor might need some convincing? Pre-order him a personal copy today and save 20%* with the code PEWMISSAL* at checkout! Pastor Copy *This offer is valid online only from August 27, 2014 until September 03, 2014 midnight EST. Facebook Twitter Website Instagram YouTube Copyright © 2014 Ignatius Press, All rights reserved.   Share Tweet Forward

Villa-Lobos: The Clown Turned Devout

Left: Heitor Villa-Lobos at the end of a concert in Tel Aviv, 1952; right: Villa-Lobos, circa 1922 (photos: Wikipedia.org)

Villa-Lobos: The Clown Turned Devout | R. J. Stove | CWR

One of 20th-century music’s most industrious enfants-terribles understood, in his sacred works, Dr. Johnson’s advice: “time to be in earnest.”

On the morning of August 25, 1954, New York Times readers found much of Page One devoted to the news that Brazil’s president Getúlio Vargas – who had dominated his nation’s politics for a quarter of a century even when in short-term eclipse – had killed himself. The man so cryptic that historian Richard Bourne called him “the Sphinx of the Pampas” had sprung one last surprise on his foes.

Nobody accused Vargas of undue charm-offensives. In fact, through his diminutive physique (a mere five feet two inches tall), through his bespectacled face, and through his temperament, he made Gerald Ford look like Justin Bieber. Having achieved absolute office in a 1930 coup, Vargas first used his unbridled strength to smash Brazil’s hitherto influential Communist Party; then, when national fascist elements thought they had a faithful patron in him, he shunted them to the sidelines. Having bestowed upon the Third Reich’s representatives enough honeyed words to suggest that he would join the Axis, he proceeded to hurl the considerable weight of Brazil’s army on the side of the Allies. Brazilian troops saw particularly severe fighting against Mussolini’s Salò Republic. Forced to resign six months after Nazi rule collapsed, Vargas vegetated within the federal senate before returning to the presidential palace in a 1951 election that even his enemies admitted to be fair. But that same army which he had sent to oppose the Führer and the Duce increasingly gave up on him, as inflation approached Weimar Republic levels. Rather than aggravating what had already become a low-level civil war in the streets of Rio (the capital would not move to Brasilia for another six years), Vargas entered one of the palace bedrooms and there committed suicide. The pyjamas which he wore while doing the deed, and the revolver with which he did it, have been on museum display ever since.

Vargas would not require more than a footnote to cultural history if he had not done the arts a turn so good as to compel our gratitude long after his economic and administrative policies – the policies in which he took the greatest pride – had ceased to interest anyone save specialists. That good turn consisted of supporting Heitor Villa-Lobos, by every possible and many an impossible measure the most musically talented man that South America has ever produced.

***

In 1930 Villa-Lobos, having turned 43, could not forever continue brandishing the flag of enfant-terribilisme. He had eagerly waved that flag for as long as he could, and perhaps longer than was prudent. For example, he rewrote his own résumé with a frantic imaginativeness that might have made Lawrence of Arabia blanch. Like Lawrence, he showed such flair at having blended spin-doctoring with equivocations, half-truths, and periodic outright lies that the resultant heady postmodernist brew frustrated genuine scholarship for decades ahead.

Contiue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

“Too Late Have I Loved Thee”: On the Genius of Franz Joseph Haydn

“Too Late Have I Loved Thee”: On the Genius of Franz Joseph Haydn | R. J. Stove | Catholic World Report

He seems to need rediscovering with each new generation. And by the way, let’s lose the fatuous “Papa Haydn” tag.

Strange how certain extremely famous creators are not really famous after all. For proof of this sub-Chestertonian paradox, consult Franz Joseph Haydn, who seems in many respects the musical counterpart to Mark Twain’s definition of a literary classic: “something that everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read.” The normally perspicacious Schumann—possibly misled by the “Papa” which common usage all too swiftly attached to Haydn’s name —dismissed Haydn as “a familiar friend of the house whom all greet with pleasure and with esteem but who has ceased to arouse any particular interest.” Tchaikovsky remained only slightly more enthusiastic: “I also like some things of Haydn.” Kingsley Amis, in 1982, exhibited downright contempt: “Except perhaps for J.S. Bach, Haydn was the laziest of the great composers.” (Proof, if we required proof, that a verdict once passed upon Belloc fits Amis still more: “As he grew older the rather juvenile desire to ‘shock’ grew stronger and not weaker.”)

Overall it is surprising how accurate the remark credited both to pianist Paul Badura-Skoda and musicologist Sir Donald Tovey—“Haydn The Unknown”—continues to be now. For Cincinnati-based editor Donald Vroon, writing in 1992, “Haydn is almost like a secret.” Two years beforehand, former New York Times critic Joseph Horowitz had provided mostly illuminating specifics about this quasi-clandestine role:

[Haydn] … holds limited popular appeal. He is not a sufferer, a lover, a confessor, a combatant—all the personae we expect our heroic musical executants to embody. His knowing wit and repartee privately gratify the attuned interpreter. Interpreters otherwise attuned—to a mass public, for instance—smooth away his subversive detail, transforming him into a cut-rate Mozart.

In one respect Horowitz's conclusion is inept because parochial. Outside the New York Times mindset, no automatic contradiction exists between “a mass public” and Haydn's output.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Country Star Turns Catholic

Collin Raye's Biography, now available from Ignatius Press! Renowned country singer Collin Raye’s new autobiography, A Voice Undefeated, takes readers into the intimate, personal struggles of an international star finding faith amidst crises and critical acclaim. The book includes a FREE bonus DVD, featuring an exclusive interview and live performances of some of Collin Raye’s most beloved songs. Also available as an eBook, which includes a BONUS epilogue featuring heartwarming and inspirational stories of Collin Raye and his encounters with other celebrities around the world over the years of his musical career. Learn More Praise for A Voice Undefeated   "A treasury of information about a fascinating man who has captured many hearts with his music and charisma. Collin's story is heartrending and heartwarming . . . a witness of how the goodness of God can work miracles in anyone's life." - Governor Mike Huckabee ------------------------------   "A must-read book to meet the real Collin Raye, a fascinating bundle of seeming contradictions. He was raised in the Christianity of the Bible Belt, but was drawn to the Catholic Church. He dreamed of being a rock star, but became a top-of-the-charts country western singer. He sought fame and fortune, but valued nothing more highly than being a father and making the kind of music that lightens the load of others. " - Raymond Arroyo, EWTN Host, The World Over, New York Times Bestselling Author ------------------------------   "Like the biblical Psalmist who sang God's praises at time of exhilarating joy and devastating sadness, Collin Raye, gifted with a compelling faith and rich talent, carries the reader of his autobiography through life experiences of "indescribable joy" and "heart dissolving pain". Never doubting that God's guiding hand was upon him at every moment, Collin's struggle to integrate his faith into the whole of life is both inspiring and challenging to fathers, husbands and everyone who, despite our own brokenness, strives to be a witness to Jesus at home, at work and wherever we are. The guiding truth of Collin Raye's life story is well described in I John 4: 16: 'We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us.' " - Most Rev. Ronald Gainer, Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky See more reviews on the Ignatius Press website. For a limited time* Ignatius Press is offering a special 20% off discount on A Voice Undefeated and Raye’s hit album His Love Remains. Preview the album now.    Enter coupon code VUD2014 at checkout to get the special offer. * Offer ends Wednesday, April 9th, 2014 at 12:00 midnight  EST. This offer is available online only through Ignatius.com Buy Now! Don't Miss Collin Raye discuss his new autobiography, Live on the Radio Thursday, April 3rd, 2014 at 9:15am ET Teresa Tomeo interviews Collin Raye on Catholic Connection on EWTN Radio and Ave Maria Radio Thursday, April 3rd, 2014 at 2pm ET Jim and Joy Pinto interview Collin Raye on At Home With Jim and Joy on EWTN Radio  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2014 Ignatius Press, All rights reserved.

Country Music Star Collin Raye Releases Powerful Memoir: "A Voice Undefeated"

A Voice Undefeated chronicles inspirational story of faith, tragedy and triumph
 
SAN FRANCISCO, April 1, 2014 – Collin Raye is one of America’s best-loved country music singers, with 24 Top Ten Singles, including 16 No. 1 hits and a total of five straight platinum and two gold albums, a record for the Epic label. But perhaps most noteworthy is Raye’s remarkable personal story outside of country music, which includes his conversion to Catholicism; overcoming a devastating tragedy in his family; and his profound advocacy and love for the poor and disabled. Raye chronicles his unique and unforgettable religious journey and life as a country music star in his new memoir, A VOICE UNDEFEATED.
 
In A VOICE UNDEFEATED, Raye gives readers a down-to-earth account of his personal and professional life. From his childhood in Arkansas and Texas through his days with the Wray Brothers Band in Oregon and Reno to his rise to international stardom, Raye discusses his journey to the top of the music world and provides an intimate diary of a Catholic who has relied upon his faith to overcome great professional and personal losses — most recently, his beloved 9-year-old granddaughter, Haley, who died in 2010 from an undiagnosed neurological disease. Since Haley’s death, Raye has become an outspoken advocate for the sick and disabled, and has established the Haley Bell Blesséd Chair Foundation to provide wheelchairs to families with special needs children.
 
Raye also provides a revealing look inside Nashville: His climb to the top of the charts and production of hit after hit; his fallout with the giants of the industry; and his strong criticism of today’s raunchy lyrics that tear down our culture and war against the great country traditions.
 
“Collin Raye’s belief that an artist’s real success is in the quality and artistry of his work makes him a good showman,” says Mother Dolores Hart, author of THE EAR OF THE HEART. “The love he discovers though his faith in God makes him a great man.”
 
For more information, to request a review copy, or to schedule an interview with Collin Raye, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or [email protected]) of Carmel Communications.     

More about the book, now available from Ignatius Press:

When Collin Raye's powerful, golden voice dazzled the country music scene in 1991 with his Number One hit single "Love, Me", country music listeners fell in love with one of the great voices of our time. A new star was rising, and Collin's success continued throughout the nineties with over eight million records sold.

Raye's autobiography, A Voice Undefeated, gives readers a down-to-earth account of the author's personal and professional life. From his childhood in Arkansas and Texas through his days with the Wray Brothers Band in Oregon and Reno to his rise to international stardom, this book is both a journey to the top of the music world and an intimate diary of a soul that has suffered great professional and personal losses.

Many who love Collin Raye, the successful country music artist, don't know much about Collin Raye, the man, and the many trials he has endured with faith and courage. Most recently his beloved nine-year-old granddaughter, Haley, died in 2010 from an undiagnosed neurological disease. Since Haley's death, Collin has become an advocate for the sick and disabled and has established the Haley Bell Blesséd Chair Foundation to provide wheelchairs to families with special needs children.

This is a remarkable, inspirational story told by the man who lived it. It is a story of faith, of struggle, of suffering, of profound love, and ultimately of triumph in the midst of tragedy.

Includes 32 pages of color photos.

Includes DVD of never-before-seen personal interview and three songs written by Collin, "Undefeated", "She's With Me", and "Give Me Jesus" that are intimate to his story.

Collin Raye is one of America's best-loved country singers. He produced twenty-four Top Ten singles, of which sixteen were Number One hits, and a total of five straight platinum and two gold albums, which is a record for the Epic label to this day. He is an advocate for sick and disabled persons and continues to perform live throughout the country.

Learn more about A Voice Undefeated at: www.CollinRayebook.com

Praise for A Voice Undefeated:

"It was no coincidence that Collin Raye's signature piece of music was ‘Love, me'. His belief that an artist's real success was in the quality and artistry of his work made him a good showman. The love he discovered in his faith in God and his conversion made him a great man. His book, in his honesty and drive for real perfection, is a story written in mystical sensitivity. It is beautiful to discover how this boy from seedy bars, fairs and casinos, southern rock and jazz, became a voice undefeated for Christ."
- Mother Dolores Hart, Author, The Ear of the Heart

"With talent, drive, and hard work, Collin Raye reached the top of his game and was even once called the ‘star quarterback' of country music. His heartfelt story of perseverance and ongoing conversion is sure to encourage anyone striving to live by faith in a secular world."
- Marcus Grodi, EWTN Host, The Journey Home

"The sharp shadow of suffering has fallen across the life of Collin Raye in ways that would have felled lesser men. But, as the Bowie County hit-maker knows well, even the shadows are nothing without the Light. Through the astounding musical gift that earned him five Grammy nominations (and counting), Raye has a rare knack for transforming all that suffering into an experience of indescribable consolation. He's all about stories, and those told here are too unlikely to be fiction! Whatever your taste in music, A Voice Undefeated is part spiritual confession, part show biz memoir, and part rich slice of Americana."
- Patrick Coffin, Radio Host, Catholic Answers

"Like the biblical Psalmist who sang God's praises at time of exhilarating joy and devastating sadness, Collin Raye, gifted with a compelling faith and rich talent, carries the reader of his autobiography through life experiences of "indescribable joy" and "heart dissolving pain". Never doubting that God's guiding hand was upon him at every moment, Collin's struggle to integrate his faith into the whole of life is both inspiring and challenging to fathers, husbands and everyone who, despite our own brokenness, strives to be a witness to Jesus at home, at work and wherever we are. The guiding truth of Collin Raye's life story is well described in I John 4: 16: 'We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us.' "
- Most Rev. Ronald Gainer, Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky

"A must-read book to meet the real Collin Raye, a fascinating bundle of seeming contradictions. He was raised in the Christianity of the Bible Belt, but was drawn to the Catholic Church. He dreamed of being a rock star, but became a top-of-the-charts country western singer. He sought fame and fortune, but valued nothing more highly than being a father and making the kind of music that lightens the load of others. "
- Raymond Arroyo, EWTN Host, The World Over, New York Times Bestselling Author

"If there were ever a book to show modern day believers that in the end nothing matters but faith and family, then Collin's book is it. Despite becoming a country music superstar, Collin is breathtakingly truthful and transparent about how fleeting fame and fortune can really be. His fans will find his roller-coaster journey to the top of the charts fascinating but it is his walk with the Lord and into the Catholic church that is truly compelling, heartwarming, and challenging all at the same time. Collin illustrates how the Church's teaching on suffering and end of life issues carried him through some of the darkest times. Readers will also get the real scoop on the music industry and learn why Nashville has in many ways gone the way of the culture; losing its soul for the sake of profit. A Voice Undefeated is simply a great read all around offering valuable lessons no matter where a person is faith wise."
- Teresa Tomeo, Motivational Speaker, Best Selling Author, Syndicated Catholic Talk Show Host

"A treasury of information about a fascinating man who has captured many hearts with his music and charisma. Collin's story is heartrending and heartwarming . . . a witness of how the goodness of God can work miracles in anyone's life."
- Governor Mike Huckabee

"Powerful stuff! Collin Raye has faced it all, in life and in the oftentimes treacherous music business. Collin uses every setback to generate a step forward to a new level of his life and career. Read his story and learn from one of the strongest souls you'll ever meet."
- Lorianne Crook & Charlie Chase, Radio Hosts, The Crook & Chase Countdown

"Collin Raye has always stood up for causes that are near to his heart. A Voice Undefeated gives us a glimpse into his personal family life and heartaches, his music career, and his profound love of music. His analysis of today's music culture and his courageous challenge to Nashville to recapture the legacy of its roots is a stark reminder of the gift we all inherited from the great legends of Country music."
- Bobby Roberts CEO, The Bobby Roberts Company, Inc

Make Your Lent Beautiful with "Lent at Ephesus"

Make Your Lent Beautiful with Lent at Ephesus | Christopher S. Morrissey | CWR

A practical guide to incorporating the latest hit album from the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles into your Lenten meditations.

Lift high the cross? Yes, and right to the top of the classical music charts.

With their third hit album in as many years, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, have done it again. They are at the top of the Billboard Classical chart. And this time, they are proclaiming the love of Christ with a terrific new CD that is packed full of Lenten repertoire.

The album is called Lent at Ephesus because, since 2006, these cloistered nuns have been in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in Missouri at the Priory of Our Lady of Ephesus. The nuns, in their daily liturgical practice, are accustomed to chanting the very best of the Church’s musical treasures. They follow a monastic horarium as laid out by St. Benedict in his Rule. They chant the Divine Office together eight times a day in Latin according to the 1962Breviarium Monasticum.

Their first album, Advent at Ephesus (2012), spent six consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard’s Classical Traditional Music chart. Their second album, Angels and Saints at Ephesus (2013), spent 13 consecutive weeks at number one on the same chart.

What is so wonderful about each one of their CDs is that these nuns sing with such remarkable sincerity. They thus reveal to the listener why this traditional music exists: namely, in order to embody the lovely movements of a prayerful heart.

Pope Francis garnered much attention when, in Evangelii Gaudium, he condemned what he called “narcissistic and authoritarian elitism” (EG 95): “In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the concrete needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few.”

As if to illustrate precisely the opposite—how to avoid “narcissistic and authoritarian elitism”—the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, have made this beautiful music easily accessible and widely available.

Read the entire article on the CWR site.

Available from Ignatius Press: "Lent at Ephesus" by Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

Now available:

 Lent at Ephesus

by Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles

The critically acclaimed Benedictines of Mary, who have received accolades from USA Today, NPR, ABC's Good Morning America and beyond, now return with their latest release, Lent at Ephesus. This compilation of poignant chants, intricate harmonies and rousing hymns of glory and redemption includes: "O Sacred Head Surrounded," made famous by Bach's oratorios, "All Glory Laud and Honor," the well known "Adoramus Te Christe" and the entrancing "Improperia" from the liturgy of Good Friday. Three original pieces are also featured among the generous 23 tracks. Let the vibrant purity of their monastic sound peacefully escort you through the penitential season of Lent.

Track Listing:

1. Jesus, My Love
2. Christus Factus Est
3. God of Mercy and Compassion
4. Hosanna To the Son Of David
5. Jesu Dulcis Amor Meus
6. Jesu Salvator Mundi
7. Improperia
8. On the Way of the Cross
9. Pueri Hebræorum
10. O Sacred Head Surrounded
11. Adoramus Te Christe (Ravanello)
12. Stabat Mater
13. Divine Physician
14. Vexilla Regis
15. Mother of Sorrows
16. Vere Languores Nostros
17. Tenebræ factæ sunt
18. O Come and Mourn
19. Adoramus Te Christe (Dubois)
20. Crux Fidelis
21. All Glory, Laud and Honor
22. Ave Regina Cælorum
23. My Mercy

Video:

The Fortunate Faith of Audrey Assad

The Fortunate Faith of Audrey Assad | Carl E. Olson | Catholic World Report

The singer-songwriter discusses her new album, faith, conversion, and why she doesn't make “Christian music”

Audrey Assad (www.audreyassad.com) is a thirty-year-old singer, pianist, and songwriter who has steadily established herself in recent years as an exceptional musical artist with a gift for deeply spiritual lyrics and memorable melodies.

Assad was raised in a Protestant home in New Jersey, then moved with her family to Florida in her late teens where she began to study and learn more about Catholicism. She entered the Church in 2007. Her first album, The House You’re Building (2010), was recognized on Amazon.com as Christian Album of the Year and by iTunes as Christian Breakthrough Album of the Year. Her second album, Heart (2012), was critically acclaimed and reached #3 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart. The lyrics in those albums revealed the influence of St. Augustine, the Jesuit poet and priest Gerald Manley Hopkins, and the poet Francis Thompson.

Her new, self-produced album, Fortunate Fall, was released this past August.

Assad recently answered some questions from Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, about her music, her decision to become Catholic, the influence of Augustine on her writing, and why Catholic artists need to pursue beauty and truth, no matter the cost.

CWR: Your first two studio albums, The House You're Building and Heart contained many songs oriented toward worship, but your new album, Fortunate Fall, is focused entirely on music to be used in personal devotion and public worship. What inspired you to pursue making such an album? How do you envision your music being used in liturgy and in private prayer?

Assad: After making my first two albums (and after a few years in the music business) I found myself at a personal crossroads: I asked myself what, as a Catholic, I should be doing in the world—and how I should be making music. In that period of discernment I came to the conclusion that there is no room in my artist’s heart for making “Christian pop” — less still for making what has come to be known as “Contemporary Christian music.” In these phrases, the word “Christian” is a modifier, not a noun—essentially, it’s become a marketing term. I don’t believe that’s how the word should be used. So going forward, I don’t make “Christian music”, even when it’s intended for the Church. I make Church music, and that’s what Fortunate Fall is.

As you stated, the music on Fortunate Fall is intended for personal devotion and public worship. I envision it being incorporated into anything from prayer time in the car on the way to work to Adoration and even, in some cases, Mass -- based on the Church’s guidelines, we did our best to notate appropriate usages in the liner notes. Hopefully that’s helpful to those who pick up a physical copy!

CWR: The influence of St. Augustine is front and center, from the title of the album to the lyrics of many of the songs. When did you first discover Augustine and how has he affected you as a person and an artist?

Assad: I discovered St. Augustine as I was on my way into the Catholic Church—I was confirmed in 2007. In the two years of study I did before coming into the Church, St. Augustine was a steady and pulsing voice in my reading. Though he and C. S. Lewis are different, I think they share this similarity, and thus share a large amount of influence in my work: they both think like philosophers and write like poets. I can’t compare myself to either of them, but they inspire me in that way, and in that way I hope to be as like them as possible.

CWR: Three themes stand out upon repeated listens: the Incarnation, redemption, and abandonment to God's will. What are some of the key connections you see among the three? What other themes were central to the writing and making of the album?

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.

Liturgical Music Today: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Liturgical Music Today: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times | Carl E. Olson | CWR

Joseph P. Swain, author of Sacred Treasure: Understanding Catholic Liturgical Music, with straight talk about sacred music.

Dr. Joseph P. Swain is associate professor of music at Colgate University and author of several books about music, including A Historical Dictionary of Sacred Music (2006), Harmonic Rhythm: Analysis and Interpretation (Oxford, 2002), and Musical Languages (Norton, 1997). He has also written numerous articles for journals including Music Perception, Journal of Musicology, Music Analysis, Criticus Musicus, Opera Quarterly, and Catholic World Report. His most recent book is Sacred Treasure: Understanding Catholic Liturgical Music (Liturgical Press, 2012), which is described as “an exercise in pragmatic music criticism. … Sacred Treasure shows how the hard facts of music must be taken into account in any holistic conception and any lasting form of liturgical music.” Dr. Swain was recently interviewed by Carl E. Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, about his book and the state of liturgical music, what Vatican II actually said about sacred music, and what can be done to improve the music heard in parishes throughout the United States and beyond.

CWR: Taking up Dickens' famous opening lines in A Tale of Two Cities, you open your book by stating that when it comes to Roman Catholic liturgical music, it is both the worst of times and the best of times. What are some examples of each? What is unique about this particular era as far as liturgical music is concerned? 

Dr. Swain: At no time in history has the Church had to hand, in print music and recordings, such a wealth of liturgical music of amazing variety and of the highest quality. At no time have such numbers of highly trained church musicians been available to sing and play that music. At no time has there been such a pitch of interest in liturgy and its music on the part of everyday, churchgoing Catholics. These are the best of times.

At the same time, only a tiny fraction of the liturgical music thought by Catholics and non-Catholics alike to be among the most beautiful ever conceived is ever heard by everyday Catholics at mass. The fine professionals who want to contribute their services are often not allowed to perform it; they put aside their long training and look for other kinds of work. And the interest in liturgical music has apparently led only to strife within and between parishes, rather than healthy traditions of liturgical music, and there appears to be no end in sight.

Such paradoxes are what make our times unique in the history of liturgical music.

CWR: Sacred Treasure covers a tremendous amount of material—musical, theological, historical, and cultural—and you describe it, in the Preface, as "an exercise in pragmatic music criticism." What was your main goal in writing the book? How might, respectively, a liturgist, a musician, and an "average" lay person benefit from reading it? 

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.