• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
    • Jeff’s Mom Joins Fundraiser
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Feasts Website
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

The Real Reason We Sing

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · November 8, 2017

4015 Alfred Calabrese OST PEOPLE join a church choir because they love to sing sacred music. Some love the chance to sing chant or Renaissance polyphony, some love the chance to sing in extra things like concerts or during the Christmas season, some sing because they have their favorite pieces and they know that eventually the choir will get around to singing it again. There are several other reasons why people join choirs and they’re all good reasons. But sometimes it’s important to remind choirs the real reason we are doing what we’re doing.

Last Thursday we had the opportunity to sing for the first ever Requiem Mass for All Souls in our parish. We hired an orchestra, and for the propers sang the Fauré Requiem (with movements shifted appropriately). I constructed a catafalque, someone sewed a black pall, our priest wore a beautiful black vestment, we used the altar bells at the epiclesis and elevations (which has not happened here for years), and we had lots and lots of incense. It was a beautiful and seminal moment in the life of this parish. The choir loved doing it, but I felt that I needed to remind them that apart from the good feeling they got about themselves for being part of this, there was a bigger reason to consider.

Below is the letter I wrote to them following the Mass.

Dear Choir,

Thursday night was wonderful and I’m proud of your hard work and commitment. Like anything else, live renderings have their strengths and weaknesses and we can talk about all of that another time. But I’d like to bring a perspective to what we did, and why.

Q. Was it great fun to sing the Fauré Requiem? Of course.

Q. Was it neat to see the black vestments and black draped catafalque? Yes.

Q. Was it a cool to hear the altar bells rung during the Mass? You bet.

All of that is great and gives us reasons to love doing this. But here is what is really important. We, the Church, are the custodians of the good, the true, and the beautiful. What’s true is beautiful and what’s beautiful is true. The ars celebrandi (the way Mass is celebrated) is directly related to the idea of lex orandi, lex credendi (what we pray is what we believe).

Bells, smells, Latin texts, chants, beautiful vestments, reverent gestures, formal traditions, are more than just cool, neat, warm memories of days gone by. The art of the church in all its forms brings us out of the everyday culture and places us nearer to heaven. The Mass is truly the near-collision of earth and heaven, as close as we can get without actually piercing the veil.

We, as liturgical musicians, are caretakers of the most important of the sacred arts, and it should at all times be good, true, and beautiful. In a culture that is absent of beauty, when noise is all around us, when goodness is an unknown quantity, when ugliness and iconoclasm reign supreme in our architecture, when the secular has replaced the sacred, then what we did is important. Not because we are good, but because it is good.

I will always consider myself an academic, a teacher. And so you, by default, are a teaching choir, teaching those gathered in our church what the deposit of the faith is all about. The spiritual effect is immense and yet unknown. We may never know the fruits of it. But we know it is good, and true, and beautiful.

God bless,

Al

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Why A “Fugue” Here?
    I believe I know why this plainsong harmonizer created a tiny fugue as the INTRODUCTION to his accompaniment. Take a look (PDF) and tell me your thoughts about what he did on the feast of the Flight of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Egypt (17 February). And now I must go because “tempus fugit” as they say!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Reminder” — Month of October (2025)
    Those who don’t sign up for our free EMAIL NEWSLETTER miss important notifications. Last week, for example, I sent a message about this job opening for a music director paying $65,000 per year plus benefits (plus weddings & funerals). Notice the job description says: “our vision for sacred music is to move from singing at Mass to truly singing the Mass wherein … especially the propers, ordinaries, and dialogues are given their proper place.” Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Canonic” • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Fifty years ago, Dr. Theodore Marier made available this clever arrangement (PDF) of “Come down, O love divine” by P. R. Dietterich. The melody was composed in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958) and named in honor of of his birthplace: DOWN AMPNEY. The arrangement isn’t a strict canon, but it does remind one of a canon since the pipe organ employs “points of imitation.” The melody and text are #709 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Did they simplify these hymn harmonies?
    Choirs love to sing the famous & splendid tune called “INNSBRUCK.” Looking through a (Roman Catholic) German hymnal printed in 1952, I discovered what appears to be a simplified version of that hymn. In other words, their harmonization is much less complex than the version found in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal (which is suitable for singing by SATB choir). Please download their 1952 harmonization (PDF) and let me know your thoughts. I really like the groovy Germanic INTRODUCTION they added.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“For me, religious music ceased with the sixteenth century. The fresh, childlike souls of that time alone expressed their vehement, untainted fervor in music free from worldliness. Since then we have had pious musical improvisations more or less made for show. That wonderful man Johann Sebastian Bach only escaped because of his natural genius. He built harmonic edifices as a devout architect and not as an apostle.”

— Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Recent Posts

  • The Real Miracle of Gregorian Chant
  • Why A “Fugue” Here?
  • “Three Reasons To Shun Bad Hymns” • Daniel B. Marshall
  • “Puzzling Comment” • By A Respected FSSP Priest
  • New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.