Views from the Choir Loft

Biography • Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew R. Motyka · January 4, 2013

NDREW R. MOTYKA is the Director of Liturgical Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Director of Music at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. He previously served as Director of Music at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and held positions at churches in Maryland, Massachusetts, and western Pennsylvania. He holds a Master of Music in Sacred Music from Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from The College of Saint Rose.

Andrew is composer of the Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons (communionantiphons.org), and has published other pieces with CanticaNOVA. He believes that creative implementation of the musical propers of the Mass is the key to liturgical renewal and the improvement of sacred music in our Church.

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About Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

“Progress Made!” • 10-Nov-2022

My volunteer choir has felt the repercussions of this year’s (particularly severe) flu season. Nevertheless, I believe in always—always—giving one’s best as a choir director, even when many singers are absent. You can hear by this brief recording that our singers are starting to blend very nicely. And you can download that choral “warm-up” exercise if you click here.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Mark Your Calendars!

Have you marked your calendar for Sacred Music Symposium 2023? The dates were recently revealed. You don’t want to miss this! This annual event has gained a reputation as the church music conference par excellence vis-à-vis Catholic musicians “in the trenches.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

A God We Cannot “See”

By the Incarnation, our Savior’s divinity was hidden. In the Eucharist, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, our Savior also ‘hides’ His manhood. We cannot see God—although we can see Him (through faith) in the SANCTISSIMUM, in the eyes of the poor, in the grandeur of the mountains, and so forth. Hymn #746 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal contains a text from the 12th century called LUX ALMA JESU MENTIUM, whose second stanza says: “You are the companion of the Father at His right hand. You are the light that consoles heaven, but is unseen by man on earth” (Carnis negatum sensibus).

—Jeff Ostrowski

Many declare that Vatican Council II brought about a true springtime in the Church. Nevertheless, a growing number of Church leaders see this “springtime” as a rejection, a renunciation of her centuries-old heritage, or even as a radical questioning of her past and Tradition. Political Europe is rebuked for abandoning or denying its Christian roots; but the first to have abandoned her Christian roots and past is indisputably the post-conciliar Catholic Church.

— ‘Pope Francis’ Chief Liturgist (31 March 2017)’