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Views from the Choir Loft

If we took music seriously

Veronica Brandt · July 5, 2014

Soccer in Hungary OMESCHOOL SPORTS DAYS can be frustrating to watch. I’m guessing the same can be said of school sports days, but school kids are guaranteed some minimum level of training in the lead up to the event. The level of preparation amongst homeschoolers seems to vary more wildly.

I see in my kids this fatal presumption that sports that look easy should be easy when they go out and try them themselves. They don’t see the hours of practice, several times a week for years beforehand. Then when they do fail, they assume that the problem is that they just don’t have “the gift”.

There are any number of people ready to help out. Every Saturday (and Sunday) morning our local playing fields display various athletic endeavours. The local paper proudly showcases the best of our local swimmers, runners, riders, archers, shooters, boxers, martial artists as well as tennis, football, basketball, netball and cricket players. Schools announce their participation in the various athletic systems.

There are lots of people putting in an awful lot of effort into what is essentially a game.

Which brings me to music.

Let’s look at Vatican II’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 1963

115. Great importance is to be attached to the teaching and practice of music in seminaries, in the novitiates and houses of study of religious of both sexes, and also in other Catholic institutions and schools. To impart this instruction, teachers are to be carefully trained and put in charge of the teaching of sacred music.

It is desirable also to found higher institutes of sacred music whenever this can be done.

Composers and singers, especially boys, must also be given a genuine liturgical training.

116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Art. 30.

I don’t think there is any equivalent passage recommending the importance of sports.

Is it naive to expect Catholic schools to put equivalent resources into choirs giving pride of place to Gregorian chant and second place to polyphony?

So we have volunteers putting in weeknights and weekends – which is the same for many sports too.

And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. (1 Cor 9:25)

Hopefully we can bring more people past despair at not having “the gift” and onwards towards mastery of the treasure of sacred music which “is to be preserved and fostered with great care.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium §114)

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

5 April 2021 • When Girls *SING*

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • Condemned?

On Palm Sunday, the Passion was read. Immediately after mention is made of the betrayal by Judas, the Holy Eucharist is introduced. Is this not a condemnation of “Christians” who deny the Church teaching on the SANCTISSIMUM? Here is Matthew 26: And Judas that betrayed him, answering, said: “Is it I, Rabbi?” He saith to him: “Thou hast said it.” And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke: and gave to his disciples, and said: Take ye, and eat. This is my body.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Catholics in America have been the heirs of a sentimental and subjective hymn tradition that, for some reason or other, has taken a deep and fast hold on the fancy of the average person.”

— Fr. Francis Brunner (1953)

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