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Views from the Choir Loft

Frank La Rocca • Contemporary Music for the Sacred Treasury

Richard J. Clark · August 28, 2015

SACRED BANQUET! The Eucharist gives us food for a difficult journey. Appropriately, the Mass is our greatest prayer. It is in a way, a rehearsal for our life in heaven. The chant Ave Verum describes Jesus’ body as “a foretaste (of heaven) in the trial of death.” The Mass is nothing less than this. But we are human and we fall short. Faith and reliance upon God must bridge our failings.

As such, music for the Sacred Liturgy must trend toward the transcendent—holy, beautiful, and universal. What it is not called to do is to please anyone other than God. This is a very tall order. Once again, our frail humanity is a frequent obstacle to such ideals. Again, we must rely upon God and the gift of the sacrament of Himself–the Eucharist.

But there are many gems that area beautiful, sacred, and universal. It is our sacred treasury of music, given highest value by Vatican II: “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art…”(Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, §112.) Occasionally, there are gems added to this sacred treasury.

F YOU ARE NOT FAMILIAR with the works of composer Frank La Rocca, you should be. His transcendent setting of O Sacrum Convivum is rooted in traditional polyphony, yet is thoroughly modern at every turn. The harmony is modal yet often very accessible to the contemporary modern ear. At other times, the harmonic language is defiant of traditional harmony in the vein of progressive works of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries.

Through it all La Rocca achieves symmetry and wholeness and therefore holiness. It depicts the eternal Eucharist, while simultaneously addressing and calming the anxieties, evils, and depression of modern life. He paints the text beautifully, ultimately filling a besieged world with the hope promised by the Sacred Banquet.

A work such as this moves contemporary sacred music towards the realization of Vatican II. It represents an ideal not because of style or preference but because of transcendence and significance. Anchored in tradition, it speaks with the authority of the ages yet with the innovation of modernity. Imbued with the Spirit, it is timeless.

O Sacrum Convivium
text: St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

O sacred banquet!
in which Christ is received,
the memory of his Passion is renewed,
the mind is filled with grace,
and a pledge of future glory to us is given.

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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Richard J. Clark

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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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

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Religious worship supplies all our spiritual need, and suits every mood of mind and variety of circumstance.

— John Henry Cardinal Newman

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