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Views from the Choir Loft

Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium 2020

Fr. David Friel · June 11, 2020

ANCELLATIONS, postponements, and reconfigurations have become normative during the COVID-19 pandemic. One bit of good news in all this is that the Church Music Association of America (CMAA), which traditionally offers a week-long Sacred Music Colloquium each summer, will proceed with a virtual substitute.

This summer was to be the 30th annual Sacred Music Colloquium, hosted at Jesuit High School in Tampa, FL. Although the virtual substitute will be somewhat reduced, a remarkable lineup of presenters and topics remains in force. All the details of this year’s colloquium are presented on the event homepage.

What will this event include, and what will it look like?

Instead of being an in-person gathering, it will be conducted via Zoom, and instead of being an all-day affair, the presentations will be limited to the evenings (from 5 PM to 10 PM EDT). The dates for the conference will be Monday through Friday, July 6-10, 2020. Some of the highlights include:

Medieval Analysis • Dr. William Mahrt
Organ Repertory/Improvisation • David J. Hughes
Vocal Pedagogy • Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam
Spanish Resources • Heitor Caballero
Rationale for Repertoire: Programming for your Choir • Dr. Timothy McDonnell

Several sessions will be especially pertinent to musical matters during Covidtide:

Congregational Singing Within Local Restrictions • Panel Discussion
Sacred Music During the Pandemic • Chat Session
Catholic Music in Time of Pandemic • Dr. Susan Treacy

One silver lining is that the CMAA, concomitant with the reduction in programming, has reduced the Colloquium registration cost to only $10 per day or $30 for all five days. There will also be several parts of the program made freely available, including 1) daily spiritual reflections from the CMAA chaplain, 2) daily Compline, and 3) two sessions presented in Spanish.

Registration for the Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium 2020 is available here.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Church Music Association of America CMAA, Coronavirus Pandemic, Sacred Music Colloquium, William Mahrt Gregorian Chant Last Updated: June 11, 2020

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About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

23 May 2022 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I wasn’t looking for it. But, I stumbled across your hand-dandy arrangement of Pachelbel’s Canon. Jeff, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I had to play a wedding on Saturday. The bride requested the Canon. There were 11 bridesmaids! The organ loft is a football field away from the communion rail. It’s so difficult to play and keep checking the mirror. Your arrangement is absolutely genius. One can skip and choose which variations to use. The chord names are handy so that when my eyes are off the music, I always know where I am at. A thousand times thank you for sharing this arrangement!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

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.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

When you consider that the greatest hymns ever written—the plainchant hymns—are pushing the age of eight hundred and that the noble chorale hymn tunes of Bach date from the early eighteenth century, then what is the significance of the word “old” applied to “Mother at Thy Feet Is Kneeling”? Most of the old St. Basil hymns date from the Victorian era, particularly the 1870s and 1880s.

— Paul Hume (1956)

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