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Views from the Choir Loft

The “Little Rock Nine” & Sacred Music

Jeff Ostrowski · July 22, 2015

478 Little Rock Nine OMETIMES IT CAN FEEL like we’re “all alone” in our battle to promote authentic sacred music, which Fr. John Selner rightly tells us we need in our Catholic churches. When discouraged, it often helps to remember what others have gone through to promote a cause worth fighting for.

Some of us have suffered greatly, but I doubt our trials come anywhere near what was undergone by black children in the 1950s and 1960s. Did you know that in many places, small numbers of children—sometimes only one black child—were sent into schools that were totally white, to promote racial integration? 1 The riots in Little Rock, Arkansas, escalated after nine (9) black students were chosen to attend a white school. The violence forced President Eisenhower to send in federal troops from the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. Each black student had a soldier waiting outside the classroom door to make sure nothing bad happened during the school day. The soldiers would escort the “Little Rock Nine” with rifles drawn each morning. This definitely helped the situation, but black children still underwent great sufferings (because the soldiers only stayed for a limited time). But Faubus couldn’t fight the federal troops sent by Eisenhower, so he closed down the schools. Did he really feel that his plan would succeed? How could closing down the schools be a good plan? Governor George Wallace declared in 1963: “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” Such words & actions of seem ridiculous and unsustainable, looking back.

Our struggles for sacred music have nothing to do with civil rights. However, perhaps someday we will look back upon our situation and notice progress has been made. Perhaps someday we will look back at our times—when 95% of music directors in Catholic churches “roll the dice” each week to select the hymns instead of using the texts assigned by the Church—and find it strange.

YouTube has a bunch of videos about the Little Rock Nine. Here’s one:


When I consider what the Little Rock Nine underwent, I realize how truly blessed I have been in my life.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   By the way, not all schools were segregated. For example, in Topeka, KS—where Brown Vs. Board of Education happened—the high schools & middle schools were not segregated. My understanding is that only elementary schools were segregated.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: The Little Rock Nine Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“…I started down the road of the liturgy, and this became a continuous process of growth into a grand reality transcending all particular individuals and generations, a reality that became an occasion for me of ever-new amazement and discovery. The incredible reality of the Catholic liturgy has accompanied me through all phases of life, and so I shall have to speak of it time and again.”

— Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

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