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“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

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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

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful.

— Pope Benedict XVI, Letter accompanying “Summorum Pontificum” (7/7/07)

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