Views from the Choir Loft

Safety in Music is a Pro-Life Issue

Richard J. Clark · December 11, 2020

RECIOUS FEW are fortunate enough to make music with others on a consistent basis. I am one of the lucky ones. Most are not. Despite more favorable personal circumstances I still mourn the absence of my fellow choristers. We are in the desert. This trial heightens appreciation, love, and respect.

We are responsible for each other. While the gradual rollout of a vaccine that may help choral life transition towards past glories, the world continues to suffer horrifically and tragically. Protecting those for whom I am responsible is of grave importance.

UPDATED PROTOCOLS IN BOSTON

A few weeks ago the Archdiocese of Boston updated its protocols on safety and ventilation which includes music protocols (No. 12-14). These protocols include required singing with masks in a small ensemble. The biggest concern is safe rehearsal.

For musicians, I am a believer in multiple layers of protection: masks, ventilation, distance, time. Do not rely on one or the other. Rely on all. I consider singing with masks and observing multiple safety protocols a pro-life issue. This is not hyperbole. It is a matter of love and respect for each other.

Here is my personal message on this and the protocols.:

Here is what a quartet can sound like wearing masks:

Oremus pro invicem

Let us pray for each other.

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

About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

20 January 2021 • REMINDER

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—Jeff Ostrowski

19 January 2021 • Confusion over feasts

For several months, we have discussed the complicated history of the various Christmas feasts: the Baptism of the Lord, the feast of the Holy Family, the Epiphany, and so forth. During a discussion, someone questioned my assertion that in some places Christmas had been part of the Epiphany. As time went on, of course, the Epiphany came to represent only three “manifestations” (Magi, Cana, Baptism), but this is not something rigid. For example, if you look at this “Capital E” from the feast of the Epiphany circa 1350AD, you can see it portrays not three mysteries but four—including PHAGIPHANIA when Our Lord fed the 5,000. In any event, anyone who wants proof the Epiphany used to include Christmas can read this passage from Dom Prosper Guéranger.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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