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If only I could sing

Ah, this sounds like something close to heaven. Musica Sacra has posted a brief report on the recent Sacred Music Colloquium and I can only wish someone with musical talent from my diocese had gone. I’d like to have gone, but my musical talent doesn’t extend beyond my grammar-school trumpet days and I wouldn’t want to have taken someone’s seat who could truly have done some good. But oh…

The Masses explored a wide range of options within the Roman Rite. The first Mass was in English, with English propers adapted from the Graduale and Psalm tone by Samuel Weber. The choirs sang Kyrie XVIII, a Pater noster setting by Mahrt, and the Sanctus and Agnus Dei set to chant in English from the Sacramentary. The principle celebrant was Rev. Skeris.

The next day’s Mass was a requiem for the deceased members of the CMAA. The propers were from the Graduale, the ordinary was Mass XVIII, the sequence for the Mass was sung in alternatim, and two motets were sung: Ave Verum by Edward Elgar and “I Am the Resurrection and the Life” by William Croft. The Mass was in Latin.

The remaining Latin Masses were for the feast of Ss. Thomas More and John Fisher (Robert C. Pasley was the principle celebrant) and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. The sung ordinaries in these Masses were from Victoria’s Missa O quam gloriosum and Croce’s Missa sexti toni. Motets were Bruckner’s Os Justi, Tallis’s O nata lux, Monteverdi’s Cantate domino, and Palestrina’s Ego sum panis vivus.

How long, O Lord, must we suffer in the shadows of Haugen and Haas? Some day, hopefully soon, the beauty of our musical heritage will be uncovered again. This effort sounds like a tremendous start. Oh, and they’ve posted pictures here and here as well.

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