HEN HOLY JESUITS like Father John Brébeuf came to America, they had no roadmap to follow. Father Brébeuf never thought of himself as a linguist. Yet, he ended up spending countless hours deciphering the native languages and creating a Montagnais dictionary as well as a Huron phrase-book, dictionary, catechism, and grammar. Dr. John A. O’Brien said “Brébeuf’s pioneer studies of the Huron and Petun languages laid the foundation for most subsequent work in these tongues.” In a moment, I’ll explain why I bring this up.
Ordinary Form • Vatican II was clear and explicit when it comes to the THESAURUS MUSICAE SACRAE. Specifically, Vatican II said the THESAURUS “must be preserved and fostered with great care.” Even someone who’s 95% brain-dead can easily comprehend those words. There’s no ambiguity—no wiggle room. Vatican II also gave this mandate: “choirs must be diligently promoted.” Technically, that statement is superfluous because the THESAURUS is choral music. By way of analogy, if I were to order you to perform a bassoon sonata, “fingers and mouth” are clearly required.1
Below are two ‘live’ recordings of my choir singing CHORAL EXTENSIONS. Since these were recorded during our parochial Mass on Sunday, you can hear babies crying and pews slamming:
* Mp3 Download • HOSANNA CHORAL EXTENSION—‘live’ recording
—Rehearsal videos and score are #29982.
* Mp3 Download • KYRIE with Extension—by Willam Byrd
—‘Live’ recording by a volunteer choir.
Of course, improvement can always be made. On the other hand, our choir has existed for less than five months—and I feel we’ve made good progress. My wife snapped this photograph after Christmas Midnight Mass:
Conclusion • In spite of the overly-explicit language we just examined, many priests and bishops claim Vatican II outlawed choirs, polyphony, and Latin. Therefore—just like Father Brébeuf—we have to be “creative” or “imaginative” or “enterprising” in how we add polyphony to the Ordinary Form. Using CHORAL EXTENSIONS is one excellent way! We will talk more about this during the 2025 Sacred Music Symposium. Very soon, we’ll be opening up registration: Stay tuned!
1 Nevertheless, I’m glad the Second Vatican Council went out of its way to be explicit (“choirs must be diligently promoted”) in case some idiot wanted to pretend the THESAURUS MUSICAE SACRAE could be “preserved and fostered with great care” without choirs.
