Fostering the revival of sacred music


The Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory have set up the Blessed John Henry Newman Institute for Liturgical Music in association with the Maryvale Institute. The Patrons of the new Institute are Archbishop Longley and James MacMillan.

The idea is to provide formation in liturgical music that can benefit the ordinary Sunday Liturgy celebrated in parishes. The launch date is 17 September: the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman. During the first term, there study mornings on Saturdays. As well as giving practical instruction on singing the Mass, there will be formation in the theological and historical background to Church Music. On Saturdays at the Oratory there is the Blessed John Henry Newman Pilgrim Mass which will be sung as part of the programme.

The inauguration of the Institute is timely in view of the introduction of the new translation of the Missal which provides a good opportunity for parishes to review the music that is used at English Masses; perhaps in many places the important move will be made to singing the texts of the Mass itself (including the Propers) rather than singing hymns at the Mass. The institute is also offering evening sessions for the clergy so that they can learn to sing their parts of the Mass in Latin and English.

The Oratory is also setting up a new choir for children to sing at the 12noon Mass for families. I’m guessing here, but I expect the clap-clap Gloria won’t be featuring ;-)

Congratulations to the Fathers, and especially to Fr Guy Nicholls who is the Director of the Institute. Fr Nicholls is a highly competent musician with a comprehensive knowledge of the theology and history of Church music. You can read his extended introduction Music and the Oratory, in which he also talks about the important project of the Graduale Parvum which is the work of László Dobszay, Liturgist, Musicologist, and Fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The work is available in Latin already. A full translation into English is being prepared and an introductory volume is soon to be released, which will provide chants suitable for any celebration of Mass in English.

We are at an important moment for resacralising liturgical music. Many good young priests are keen to revive genuine sacred music. It will be something of a battle to get over the entrenched practice of having music based on beat rhythm and emotional crooning but it is beginning to dawn on people that the justification for this of attracting the young simply does not work, and that reviving a sense of the sacred at sung Masses should be given a fair chance even on those grounds. The Blessed John Henry Newman Institute for Liturgical Music is another brick in the wall as part of the “brick by brick” process.

I know that Fr Nicholls will smile at my quoting from the Pink Floyd song which features the line “We don’t need no education”: we used to quote it frequently when we were in Rome together and collapse in fits of laughter. Here is the full, live version, which goes to show that there is no telling what you can work into a blog post about sacred music (go to 1:40 if you want to miss the extended build-up):

Popular posts from this blog

1962 Missal pdf online

The Church Music Association of America and Jeffrey Tucker of the New Liturgical Movement have made available the 1962 Missal online in pdf format (72Mb). The file is hosted at Musica Sacra , the website of the CMAA, thanks to a generous gift from Fr Robert Skeris While you are at it, take a look at the articles clarifying the rules for music at Low Mass and music at High Mass .
Read more

Request for Novena to Blessed Pius IX

Image
A priest friend of mine is ill in hospital. He has a special devotion to Blessed Pius IX. Could I ask you, of your charity, to say a Novena for his speedy recovery. Novena In Honour of Blessed Pius IX Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX, who consecrated the Universal Church to you. (Our Father...) O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you Immaculate. (Hail Mary...) Saint Joseph, spouse of the most pure Virgin Mary, hear our prayer and glorify your servant Pius IX who declared you the Patron of the Universal Church. (Glory be...) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Mary, our Hope, and Saint Joseph hear our prayers and glorify your servant Pius IX , granting to us through his merits and intercessions the graces which we ardently desire: that the glory of God be revealed through Father's illness. (Our Father..., Hail Mary..., Glory be...
Read more

Saint Gabriel

Image
The angels call for our veneration and awe as part of God’s creation. Part of the destructive modernism of the 1970s included advice to Catholic school teachers that they should not talk to children about angels. This wrought lasting damage which continues to need rectifying. We should include in our prayers a heartfelt recourse to our own Guardian Angels. The Archangel Gabriel “God is my strength” would be terrifying were he to appear to any of us. Our Lady was “troubled” at the word of Saint Gabriel and wondered at the manner of the salutation. Immediately, according to his mission, the awesome messenger explained himself. Modern retelling of the event is often reduced to the jejune “Mary said Yes to God”. In fact, she said “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word”. This conveys more accurately the flawless faith and trust of the Immaculata. In the infinitely wise providence of the Father, we now know the structure of the event in even more detai...
Read more

Saint Ignatius on heresy, and the capsizing boat

Image
On the feast of St Ignatius, I offer my prayers and good wishes to some great Jesuits. Just off the top of my head, I think of Fr Joseph Fessio SJ the founder of Ignatius Press which has not only published the English translations of various works of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict, but has also given a break for good Catholic authors both of theology and of Catholic fiction. Then there is Fr Bob Spitzer SJ, with whom I studied in Rome many years ago, and Fr Paul Mankowski SJ who has written some superb articles over the years. Here in England, I recall Fr Anthony Meredith SJ, the great fatherly commentator on the Fathers of Cappadocia and in Rome, there is Fr Gilles Pelland SJ, the fierce French-Canadian patristics scholar was a bit harsh when I first arrived in the Holy City, but seemed to soften a bit when after 5 years he seeme satisfied that, though English, I was not a modernist. Many of my Jesuit priest friends and mentors have now reached “that night when no man can work”...
Read more

Downloadable booklets for Vespers

Image
Gregorian Chant Hymns is a most helpful website that I mentioned in a post just over a year ago. As I said then, the site "[...] promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites." Work has continued at the site and there is now a section which makes available pdf (or .docx format) booklets for Vespers for every Sunday of the Year and a few major feasts. There is the basic booklet for ordinary Sunday Vespers which is supplemented by separate files for the Sundays after Pentecost which contain the Magnificat and Collect. Then there are booklets, for example for Advent and Lent, where the office is different from the regular Sunday Vespers with its antiphons. All of the booklets have texts and notation for Benediction and the Maria...
Read more