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Views from the Choir Loft

“Performance” and the Liturgy.

Dr. Gregory Hamilton · January 28, 2020

AVE you ever been accosted with the accusation that you are giving a “Performance” during the Liturgy? I have sometimes been told that I was “performing” in the Liturgy, and this has made me think about the meaning of this term and why people say it… I think it is possible that it indicates that anything above the musical run of the mill is so unusual in our present day liturgies as to appear odd or out of place.

Sometimes, when we just wish to bring something extra to the liturgy, whether it’s to sing a proper, or to add a descant to a hymn, or to offer a choral motet in parts, one can hear this retort.  But it seems to me that it is an unjust epithet, because it is not a question of how grand the music is, how florid and glorious, but rather the Issue is one of MOTIVATION. Why do we spend so much time preparing music for the liturgy? Why do we attempt to offer something better, something as good as our talents and time can make it?  If the motivation is to bring attention to ourselves, then -perhaps the accusation has some validity, however, if our aim is truly to give our music for the Glory of God, to render praise to the Lord of all beauty, our motivation is certainly in the right place.

Let’s try to slay some more mediocrity in the liturgy this coming year!

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 29, 2020

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About Dr. Gregory Hamilton

Dr. Gregory Hamilton is a composer and performer currently on the faculty of Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas TX.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
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    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
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    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

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“I left music college swearing never to write another note again … It was during the mid-1980s when esoteric and cerebral avant-garde music was still considered the right kind of music to be writing.”

— James MacMillan

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