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Views from the Choir Loft

As church musicians, what sustains us?

Richard J. Clark · July 10, 2015

ERSE ONE of the African American Spiritual, There is a Balm in Gilead says, “Sometimes I feel discouraged And think my work’s in vain, But then the Holy Spirit Revives my Soul again.”

This plea is answered even more directly in John 7—which we sing in the Communion antiphon for the Pentecost Vigil Mass, Ultimo:

“…Jesus said: “He who believes in me, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were about to receive…”

As musicians, what sustains us? Certainly, good music is a requirement. Not just good music, but beauty itself.

UT AS MUSICIANS OF THE CHURCH, we are sustained but the wedding of this music to Truth itself—to the Divine. In the Exsultet we sing, “O truly blessed night, when things of heaven are wed to those of earth, and divine to the human.”

We seek music that is heaven wedded to earth, and divine wedded to humanity. We find this in the Eucharist. In music we may find such beauty in William Byrd’s Ego sum panis vivus John 6:51: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

But not all music is beautiful, and frequently, music and the divine are quite far apart. As in our lives, we meet struggle, suffering and adversity. Ultimately, these curses are a gift for any number of reasons. They are at times even necessary to prune us and refine our souls to be put to better service of God.

O I PROPOSE A FEW IDEAS: One, that the experience of the divine in music and in life is not always a constant experience, i.e., everything is not always great all the time. (Mother Theresa suffered through crises of faith for years.) Suffering is necessary to achieve this understanding of the divine. One glimpse of the divine may be all we can ask, as in the Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis):

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; Your word has been fulfilled. My eyes have seen the salvation You have prepared in the sight of every people, A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people, Israel.

Two, I propose a sense of gratitude. I may complain of having to play something far less than beautiful or appropriate for mass, but I am grateful to be doing music and that I am in the House of the Lord. This is not to acquiesce to mediocrity, but when there is no choice, I am grateful for the life I live, the air I breath, and that my fingers touch a keyboard. I have nothing to complain about. I also do not presume to know at every moment what God’s plans are for me and how I must serve Him.

Our music must be in the service of the Body of Christ, in service of God, in service of the Mass, the greatest prayer, for it is a sung prayer.

Soli Deo Gloria

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Beauty in the Catholic Liturgy Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(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
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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.

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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

“With all the powers of modern music open to him, from romanticism through French impressionism to the German and Russian modernists, he is yet able to confine all these contradictory forces on the groundwork of the Gregorian tradition.”

— Theodor Rehmann (on Msgr. Jules Van Nuffel)

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