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Views from the Choir Loft

Stepping off the hamster wheel

Wilfrid Jones · January 11, 2020

VEN IF WE DON’T take into account the years of training, we all know the investment of time and effort it takes to get to the point where we can offer our musical services in the sacred liturgy: not only the hours of practice and performance, but also the time taken selecting appropriate music, printing or buying scores, travelling to and from practice and so forth. Hopefully it isn’t as much of a burden, but music is an inherently social activity, relying on strong and trusting relationships between musicians, so making sure to spend time with other musicians while not playing or singing also requires a commitment measured in hours. Nearly all of us have other professional commitments during the week and families to whom we owe our time. It’s understandable, therefore, that many liturgical musicians simply don’t feel they have time to undertake serious study of theology or musicology alongside all of their other commitments.

My professional commitments are as a secondary school teacher. Teachers are often warned of the danger of getting trapped in the “hamster wheel” of professional practice. We can be so caught up in the cycle of planning, delivering and marking lessons, that we never have time to step back and consider the bigger picture in a way that would improve how we do our jobs. It strikes me that the same is true of parish musicians. As ministers and servants of the sacred liturgy, we need the opportunity to think about the theory of what, how and why we engage in our vocation.

Following the call of Sacrosanctum Concilium for musicians to receive “a genuine liturgical training” and for clergy and religious to have a musical formation (SC 115), we need to develop a reflexive practice in order to be able to offer the best of ourselves. That you’re reading Corpus Christi Watershed might suggest that you already think that this should be part of your vocation.

One of the great helps as a teacher is the growth of education and pedagogy blogs. The best of these publish short articles on one idea at a time, sometimes with an example or a practical application, in a quick and readable form. Over the next months I will be writing articles for Corpus Christi Watershed in the same vein. I hope that their format will allow busy liturgical musicians time to revisit ideas they already knew, and introduce some ideas that might be new.

The other great benefit of education blogs is their ability to spark debate and dialogue between differing points of view. In the same way, any feedback you can offer would be warmly welcomed and I hope that your lived experience can contribute to future posts.

 

Copyright © 2020 Wilfrid Jones

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Stepping off the hamster wheel Last Updated: May 1, 2020

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About Wilfrid Jones

Wilfrid Jones is a PhD student in the theology faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs University of Freiburg, studying the theology and practice of sacred music.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

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This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

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Random Quote

Let us ponder the incontrovertible fact that Eucharistic Adoration in the Ordinary Form (“Novus Ordo”) is always and everywhere celebrated “ad orientem.” Why, then, is there such opposition to Mass being celebrated in that way, which is actually stipulated by the 1970 Missal rubrics?

— A Benedictine Monk (2013)

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