• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
    • Jeff’s Mom Joins Fundraiser
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
    • Feasts Website
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Theodore Marier Is the Most Important Liturgical Musician—Even Today.

Richard J. Clark · July 26, 2023

BELIEVE that Dr. Theodore Marier is even today the most important liturgical musician in the English Speaking world, despite a life in relative obscurity and service. Few know his name. Yet, his influence and importance certainly surpass postconciliar giants like Richard Proulx and Alexander Peloquin, whose work live on today. And his liturgical works are in greater demand today than when they were composed. My assertion specifies the parameter “most important liturgical musician”—one who worked in a parish with parish choirs in addition to being a composer, scholar, and editor of hymnals. Certainly, Pope Saint Pius X is the most important figure in liturgical music of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries; he is referred to by name twice in SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM for having “explained more precisely the ministerial function supplied by sacred music in the service of the Lord.” (S. C. §42). Pope Benedict XVI certainly looms as a most prominent figure in the Twenty-first Century. But a liturgical musician working in the trenches to implement Vatican II? Undoubtedly Theodore Marier.

My Presentation • The following presentation was given at the Sacred Music Symposium in California. It was the closing event of a glorious week of sacred music and prayer.

EW KNOW Marier’s work. He was not an international figure as a composer of concert works, although he traveled in circles that included Olivier Messiaen, Jean Langlais, Dom Joseph Gajard of the Solesmes Abbey, Seizi Ozawa, Kurt Masur, and others. His liturgical compositions, influence, and guidance throughout the Twentieth Century and the Conciliar changes are exceedingly important today in the Twenty-first Century especially in light of Pope Francis’ motu proprio, Traditionis custodes. Regardless, his influence stands on its own. Marier is best known as the founder of the Saint Paul’s Choir School (Archdiocesan Choir School) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and as the editor of the landmark hymnal, Hymns Psalms and Spiritual Canticles (1974, 1983) which modeled the sung Mass in the brand new Novus Ordo. His Psalter will be that hymnal’s most lasting contribution. (Listen here to the Boston Cathedral Choir sing Marier’s Psalm 128.) The founding of the school in 1963 (an extraordinary year in the Church!) was to him the natural conclusion of the liturgical documents put forth by Popes Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII, and ultimately Vatican II. He took these liturgical directives to heart and acted upon them. He demanded excellence not only from his students, but from the institution he founded.

Marier’s Qualities • His postconciliar liturgical compositions addressed the desperate need for sacred music in the vernacular that was required overnight. His compositions were deeply steeped in Gregorian Chant and demonstrate the continuity of the old rite and the new in a manner that was not only accessible, but beautiful, sacred, and universal. He was the model of a servant leader and servant composer. He spent his life building bridges. He began preparing those bridges in the 1940s with longtime Saint Paul’s pastor, Msgr. Augustine Hickey long before Vatican II. He built bridges during Vatican II (listen here to his Lux Aeterna in English recorded in 1965!) and in the years after Vatican II until his death in 2001. He always built a bridge out of love for God and the faithful. He was a man of deep faith, a loving husband, father, and family man. All of this made him a better liturgical musician.

Personal Takeaway:

I never met Theodore Marier. I did not grow up in New England. However, I have met countless souls whose lives have been changed forever by him. For someone I never met, he has had the most profound influence on my career. Whether one uses his compositions or not—they will have to stand on their own merits—I have one final personal conclusion: The more I learn about Marier, his life and career, the more I am inspired to be a better human being.

Acknowledgments:

This presentation is just a small offering, giving an overview which I hope others can build upon. I wish to extend profuse thanks to Dr. William H. Atwood, Diocesan Director of Music for the Diocese of Bridgeport Connecticut for his dissertation The Influence of Plainchant on the liturgical Music of Theodore Marier. I also wish to thank William Endicott, Class of 2008, for his thesis, Repleatur Os Meum Laude Tua, A History of the Music and Mission of the St. Paul’s Choir School and for supplying recordings and scores. I also wish to thank Br. Paul J. Murray, Class of 1996, for his tireless editorial work on Marier’s compositions. Finally, I wish to thank the late John Dunn (1943-2022), Headmaster & Director of Music Emeritus, Saint Paul’s Choir School for his painstaking editorial updates of Marier’s psalter—a true labor of love—and generous sharing of institutional knowledge.

Soli Deo gloria

Oremus pro invicem.
Let us pray for each other.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Dr Theodore Marier Last Updated: January 13, 2024

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

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).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 27th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 5 October 2025, which is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the spectacular feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin. Readers will want to check out the ENTRANCE CHANT posted there, which has a haunting melody (in the DEUTERUS MODE) and extremely powerful text.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Kids’ Choir Sings Thomas Aquinas
    Last Sunday, a children’s choir I’m teaching sang with us for the very first time at Sunday Mass. Females from our main choir sang along with them. If you’re curious to hear how they sounded, you can listen to a ‘live’ recording. That’s an English version of TANTUM ERGO by Saint Thomas Aquinas. That haunting melody is called GAUFESTRE and was employed for this 2-Voice Arrangement of a special hymn for 9 November (“Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome”) which replaces a Sunday this year.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Prex • Particularly Powerful
    The Third Edition of the SAINT EDMUND CAMPION MISSAL contains a Latin-English translation for the ‘old’ Holy Week published by Monsignor Ronald Knox in 1950. His version is utterly splendid, and it’s astonishing it was totally forgotten for 70+ years. I find his translation of a prayer from Palm Sunday (Deus qui dispérsa cóngregas) particularly powerful: “O God, who dost mend what is shattered, and what thou hast mended, ever dost preserve, thou didst bless the chance comers who met Jesus with branches in their hands. Bless these branches too, of palm or olive, which we take up obediently in honour of thy name; rest they where they will, let them carry thy blessing to all who dwell there. All harm thence banish, and let thy power defend us, in proof that thy Son, Jesus Christ, has redeemed us…”
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Reminder” — Month of September (2025)
    Those who don’t sign up for our free EMAIL NEWSLETTER miss important notifications. Last week, for example, I sent a message about this job opening for a music director paying $65,000 per year plus benefits (plus weddings & funerals). Notice the job description says: “our vision for sacred music is to move from singing at Mass to truly singing the Mass wherein … especially the propers, ordinaries, and dialogues are given their proper place.” Signing up couldn’t be easier: simply scroll to the bottom of any blog article and enter your email address.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Canonic” • Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Fifty years ago, Dr. Theodore Marier made available this clever arrangement (PDF) of “Come down, O love divine” by P. R. Dietterich. The melody was composed in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (d. 1958) and named in honor of of his birthplace: DOWN AMPNEY. The arrangement isn’t a strict canon, but it does remind one of a canon since the pipe organ employs “points of imitation.” The melody and text are #709 in the Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Did they simplify these hymn harmonies?
    Choirs love to sing the famous & splendid tune called “INNSBRUCK.” Looking through a (Roman Catholic) German hymnal printed in 1952, I discovered what appears to be a simplified version of that hymn. In other words, their harmonization is much less complex than the version found in the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal (which is suitable for singing by SATB choir). Please download their 1952 harmonization (PDF) and let me know your thoughts. I really like the groovy Germanic INTRODUCTION they added.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

From 1827 until the last month of his life, Liszt gave lessons in composition and piano playing. He wrote in 1829 that his schedule was “so full of lessons that each day, from half-past eight in the morning till 10 at night, I have scarcely breathing time”

— Re: Abbé Franz Liszt

Recent Posts

  • “Toward a More Sacred Style With Pastoral Charity” • Guest Article by Dr. Myrna Keough
  • “Music List” • 27th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • Kids’ Choir Sings Thomas Aquinas
  • “Fulfilled!” • Bride’s Musical Request
  • Incredible Message of Hope from Michael Olbash

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.