ERSONAL. Are you someone who immediately gets “personal” with strangers? I’m certainly not (for a variety of reasons). I tend to be guarded when it comes to revealing personal details. For one thing, I highly doubt readers come here to learn about my personal life, thoughts, dreams, experiences, and so forth. But today I will reveal something rather personal—and it has to do with autumn. I love winter, spring, and summer. But my favorite season has always been autumn. It’s difficult for me to imagine anything more enchanting, beautiful, or idyllic than walking to school on a brisk autumnal morning, filled with excitement to learn new things and gain wonderful experiences. Those days attending school—so long ago!—when summer turned into fall are among my fondest memories. In a moment, I’ll explain how we can restore something else which is greatly beneficial to our sojourn in this vale of tears.
“For Every Rule…” • I’ve put together a Mass in Honor of Saint Noël Chabanel for the Ordinary Form. It involves your CONGREGATION, your CANTOR, and your CHOIR. The Mass consists of seven movements. The other movements will most likely be released next week. We’re putting finishing touches on the rehearsal videos. My setting was designed to be extremely brief and—since it’s vernacular—suitable where the pastor has forbidden the traditional lingua sacra of the church. The “Our Father” is a rather bizarre exception (!) since it’s designed to be sung by a choir, not the congregation. Regarding whether it’s wise to employ my arrangement, I make this declaration: “If you can figure out a way to work this piece into your Masses, please do so! And if you have success, let me know.” My use of dissonance and consonance will be a real challenge for amateur choristers, so please leave ample rehearsal time to drill it—especially when the men sing in 2nds. The PDF score can be freely downloaded (see below) and includes an organ accompaniment on its third page, to be sung when the people and choristers sing in unison.
To freely download the PDF score, locate #38886.
Men’s Version • I’m not sure how many choirs these days consist of men and boys, but here’s something interesting! You can hear a version of my “Our Father” arrangement performed entirely by men’s voices:
Stepwise Bass Motion • Around the year 2008, I concocted a number of harmonizations for the “Our Father” melody sung in the Ordinary Form. I employed multifarious techniques; e.g. one version had a bass line that started very low and ascended (stepwise) all the way up. The version I released today—as part of the Mass in Honor of Saint Noël Chabanel—has a bass line that slowly descends (stepwise) for a total of eleven notes:
Beauty Can Still Live • I need hardly inform readers that choral music is virtually nonexistent in today’s culture, even in the Catholic Church. This is such a pity. How much joy has been robbed from Catholics by “reforming” philistines who shamelessly blacklisted Palestrina, Victoria, Guerrero, and Cantus Gregorianus while promoting the ‘hootenanny’ creations of non-Catholics like Marty Haugen and ex-priests like Carey Landry and Dan Schutte. And yet, in places where a parish priest is supportive, I believe it’s possible to reclaim this precious Catholic heirloom—but doing so does require an energetic choirmaster who’s on fire for the Catholic Faith, musically gifted, and unflaggingly optimistic.
What Are We Waiting For? • Let’s get rid of undignified, puerile, uninspired, Broadway songs. Let’s replace that garbage with authentic, enduring, mysterious, thrilling music from the THESAURUS MUSICAE SACRAE (treasury of sacred music) which must be “preserved and fostered with great care” according to the official decrees of Vatican II. If we do this, we will be providing something delightful, memorable, and life-changing to those entrusted to our care. Our children will then have memories of learning the discipline of music. What’s more, they will forever retain memories of singing breathtaking choral music, just as I have priceless memories of attending school in autumn.
“Nattering Numbskulls of Negativism” • Victory can spring from adversity. I don’t remember RONALD REAGAN, since he was elected president several years before I was born, but many Americans consider him to have been a very successful president. Indeed, in 1984 he won reëlection against Walter Mondale in a landslide. Reagan won 49 states (!) whereas Mondale only won (by a 0.18% margin) his home state of Minnesota. One reason Reagan was able to attain such success had to do with adversity. You see, on 30 March 1981, fewer than 100 days after being elected, President Reagan was wounded by an assassin’s bullet. At the hospital, doctors were able to save his life—and this assassination attempt garnered for him considerable support and sympathy from the American people. It’s true that music in the Catholic Church has been (broadly speaking) “on life support” since the 1960s. But in a funny kind of way, this adversity might just provide an opportunity for us resurrect it.
Whatever you do, make sure to ignore the “nattering numbskulls of negativism.” I guarantee that anyone attempting to improve the church music situation will come up against bitter opposition. Human beings love to criticize, to belittle, to attack, and to tear down. Never doubt that there will be 100 billion critics lining up to ridicule your efforts. Ignore them! Say your prayers each morning and offer all your sufferings to JESUS CHRIST. Never turn on your phone in the morning before you’ve made your daily offering. If you don’t currently say the daily offering, consider praying this excellent one by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val.
