Views from the Choir Loft

Sacred Music Camp in Allentown, NJ

Fr. David Friel · June 16, 2018

ET ANOTHER opportunity for young people to learn sacred music this summer in the United States has been announced. In addition to the annual chant camp in San Diego (which has spread to the Bay Area), we highlighted last week the inaugural Cantate Domino Festival in Philadelphia. Today, we pass on the happy news that a new Sacred Music Camp will be hosted by St. John the Baptist Church in Allentown, NJ.

This will be a three day event, running from 10 AM to 2 PM, August 14–16, 2018. The camp will conclude with Mass in the Extraordinary Form at 7 PM on August 16.

Sacred Music Camp is open to students in grades 3 through 12. Children with and without experience in Gregorian chant are welcome. Participants will learn to read chant notation, and they will receive training in vocal technique and musicianship.

Instructors will include Peter Carter and Lauren Walters, who serve as director of sacred music and coordinator of religious education, respectively, at St. John the Baptist Church in Allentown, NJ. Last fall, the parish hosted a workshop to introduce non-musicians to important themes in sacred music.

Online registration for Sacred Music Camp is available here.

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

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski

2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski

31 December 2020 • “COMITES CHRISTI”

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—Jeff Ostrowski