7th Day within the Octave of the Nativity

For Dec 31, 2009 which is the Seventh Day within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following due to Father's request for a Sung Mass instead of a Low Mass. Mass will be followed by Benediction and Te Deum:

1. Procession: Adeste, Fideles
   
2. Introit: Puer, natus est
   
3. Kyrie VIII (De angelis)
4. Gloria VIII
   
5. Gradual: Viderunt omnes
   
6. Alleluia: Dies sanctificatus
   
7. Credo III
   
8. Offertory: Tui sunt caeli
   
9. Offertory hymn: Ave Maris Stella
   
10. Sanctus VIII
    
11. Agnus Dei VIII
    
12. Communion hymn: Jesu Redemptor Omnium (O. Ravanello)
    
13. Communion: Viderunt omnes
    
14. Recession: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord

For Jan 1, 2010 which is the Octave Day of the Nativity of Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following. The Veni Creator Spiritus will also be chanted to gain the indulgence:

1. Procession: Adeste, Fideles
   
2. Introit: Puer, natus est
   
3. Kyrie VIII (De angelis)
4. Gloria VIII
   
5. Gradual: Viderunt omnes
   
6. Alleluia: Multifarie olim
   
7. Credo III
   
8. Offertory: Tui sunt caeli
   
9. Offertory hymn: Alma Redemptoris Mater (G.P. da Palestrina)
   
10. Sanctus VIII
    
11. Agnus Dei VIII
    
12. Communion hymn: Resonet In Laudibus
    
13. Communion: Viderunt omnes
    
14. Recession: The First Noel

Click on the links to hear samples where available

6th Day within the Octave of the Nativity & a wedding anniversary Mass

For Dec 30, 2009 which is the Sixth Day within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following for a private wedding anniversary Mass:

1. Procession: Adeste, Fideles
   
2. Introit: Puer, natus est
   
3. Kyrie VIII (De angelis)
4. Gloria VIII
   
5. Gradual: Viderunt omnes
   
6. Alleluia: Dies sanctificatus
   
7. Credo III
   
8. Offertory: Tui sunt caeli
   
9. Offertory hymn: Ave Maris Stella
   
10. Sanctus VIII
    
11. Agnus Dei VIII
    
12. Communion hymn: Resonet In Laudibus
    
13. Communion: Viderunt omnes
    
14. Recession: Lord, Who At Cana's Wedding Feast (tune: Kingsfold)

Click on the links to hear samples where available

Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity

For Dec 27, 2009 which is the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of Our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following:

1. Procession: O Come, All Ye Faithful
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Dum medium silentium
   
4. Kyrie VIII (De angelis)
5. Gloria VIII
   
6. Gradual: Speciosus forma
   
7. Alleluia: Dominus regnavit
   
8. Credo III
   
9. Offertory: Deus enim firmavit
   
10. Offertory hymn: Alma Redemptoris Mater (G.P. da Palestrina)
    
11. Sanctus VIII
    
12. Agnus Dei VIII
    
13. Communion hymn: Resonet In Laudibus
    
14. Communion: Tolle puerum
    
15. Recession: Angels We Have Heard On High
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available

Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium

We'll be doing this for Christmas Midnight Mass. Hope it works out well!

This is by Gabrieli Consort and Players, an all male ensemble.


Here's another version by the Westminster Cathedral Choir.

Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Dawn Mass)

For Dec 25, 2009 which is the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following for the Dawn Mass:

1. Procession: O Come All Ye Faithful
   
2. Introit: Lux fulgebit
   
3. Kyrie VIII (De Angelis)
   
4. Gloria VIII
   
5. Gradual: Benedictus
   
6. Alleluia: Dominus regnavit
   
7. Credo III
   
8. Offertory: Deus firmavit
   
9. Offertory hymn: Ecce Mundi Gaudium
   
10. Sanctus VIII
    
11. Agnus Dei VIII
    
12. Communion hymn: Jesu, Redemptor Omnium
    
13. Communion: Exsulta, filia Sion
    
14. Recession: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Midnight Mass)

For Dec 25, 2009 which is the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we are going to sing the following for the Midnight Mass:

1. Procession: O Come, All Ye Faithful
   
2. Introit: Dominus dixit ad me
   
3. Kyrie VIII (De angelis)
4. Gloria VIII
   
5. Gradual: Tecum principium
   
6. Alleluia: Dominus dixit ad me
   
7. Credo III
   
8. Offertory: Laetentur caeli
   
9. Offertory hymn: O Magnum Mysterium (T.L. de Victoria)
10. Sanctus VIII
    
11. Agnus Dei VIII
    
12. Communion hymn: Ecce Mundi Gaudium
    
13. Communion: In splendoribus
    
14. Recession: Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available

Third Sunday of Advent

For Dec 13, 2009 which is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: O Come, Divine Messiah
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Gaudete in Domino
   
4. Kyrie XVII b
5. Gradual: Qui sedes, Domine
   
6. Alleluia: Excita, Domine
   
7. Credo IV
   
8. Offertory: Benedixisti, Domine
   
9. Offertory hymn: Creator Alme Siderum
   
10. Sanctus XVII
    
11. Agnus Dei XVII
    
12. Communion hymn: Verbum Supernum
    
13. Communion: Dicite: Pusillanimes
    
14. Recession: Alma Redemptoris Mater (simple tone)
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Hassler's Cantate Domino

This is what we wanted to achieve. Unfortunately, we are still far, far away from this. So, practice, practice, practice!

Last Sunday after Pentecost

For Nov 22, 2009 which is the Last Sunday after Pentecost, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Dicit Dominus: Ego
   
4. Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)
   
5. Gloria XI
   
6. Gradual: Liberasti nos
   
7. Alleluia: De profundis
   
8. Credo III
9. Offertory: De profundis
   
10. Offertory hymn: Cantate Domino (H.L. Hassler)
    
11. Sanctus XI
    
12. Agnus Dei XI
    
13. Communion hymn: Adoro Te Devote
    
14. Communion: Amen dico vobis: quidquid
    
15. Recession: O Maria, Virgo Pia
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

All Saints

For November 1, 2009 which is the feast of All Saints, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: Faith Of Our Fathers I
2. Asperges me
3. Introit: Gaudeamus... Sanctorum omnium
   
4. Kyrie IV (Cuntipotens Genitor Deus)
   
5. Gloria IV
   
6. Gradual: Timete Dominum
   
7. Alleluia: Venite ad me
8. Credo III
   
9. Offertory: Iustorum animae
10. Offertory Hymn: O Sanctissima
    
11. Sanctus IV
    
12. Agnus Dei IV
13. Communion Hymn: Panis Angelicus
14. Communion: Beati mundo corde
15. Recession: O God Of Loveliness
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

For Nov 8, 2009 which is the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: Glory Be To Jesus
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Dicit Dominus
   
4. Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)
   
5. Gloria XI
   
6. Gradual: Liberasti nos
   
7. Alleluia: De profundis
   
8. Credo I
   
9. Offertory: De profundis
   
10. Offertory hymn: Cantate Domino (G. Pitoni)
11. Sanctus XI
    
12. Agnus Dei XI
    
13. Communion hymn: Ave Verum Corpus
    
14. Communion: Amen dico vobis
    
15. Recession: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

A Loss of High Art

by Mark Scott Abeln

FOR SIXTY-ONE YEARS, radio station KFUO has been broadcasting classical music in Saint Louis. This past week, its owner — the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod — sold the station to Gateway Creative Broadcasting, who will change its format to contemporary Christian praise and worship music, starting next year.

Those who are devoted to the high-art Western music tradition are dismayed that the city's sole remaining broadcast classical music station is going off the air. Classical music groups and venues are also worried, since KFUO was their major advertising forum, leading to the majority of their ticket sales. I listen to KFUO when I am in my car; its local and free content makes it potentially more interesting for Saint Louisians than many of its media alternatives, such as satellite radio or Internet sources, which will often broadcast only music with no commentary.

Classical music was one of the topics of my second posting on this blog, High art or low? from December 2004. With the sale of this radio station, its music will shift from high to low art.

The most important things ought to be done with the highest and best art, and as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the pinnacle of Man's life here on earth, the art associated with the Mass ought to be the best and highest. And so the Mass, through its musical settings, forms the core of the Western classical music tradition as its source, and is where the best of that tradition ought to return.

Of all the theories of art proposed, the virtue theory of art, coming from the Greek philosophical tradition through the Church, has the greatest explanatory power, and is universal: modern art theories are at best subsets. This provides a framework for judging artists and their work. According to this theory, the artist has in-born ability towards this virtue, intellectually understands this virtue via education, and builds upon and expresses this virtue through practice and from feedback from other artists who have perfected this virtue. The virtuous artist must master his tools and reliably make what he intends (or for the apprentice artist, what he is directed) beforehand. The artist also has to be open to divine inspiration. The virtuous artist makes his art a part of himself, he enjoys making his art, and the making of his art appears graceful and effortless. As this theory is not tied to culture, nor does it limit itself to merely non-utilitarian aesthetic works of art, it is applicable to all the various works of humans in all manner of places and times. Thusly we can judge the making of art objectively outside of the realm of personal preference. Classical music is very greatly a matter of artistic virtue as outlined here.

Good art is simultaneously true, artfully executed, and provides a lively response from its audience; the deficit of any of these three characteristics can indeed be judged negatively, and this judgement can and ought to be done using the full range of objective, subjective, and relative factors. That this framework has Trinitarian overtones is no accident, as we are made in the image and likeness of God, and is related to the three transcendental values of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Art can be judged as being closer to the high or low ends of the artistic spectrum depending on the transcendental factors and the virtue of art described above. While it is fitting that high art ought to be used for important occasions: the Mass, formal celebrations of a community, inaugurations or coronations of leaders, and such forth, most art will necessary be of the lower varieties. For example, a play put on by young children may have little appeal outside of their friends and family, but it will nonetheless have great value within that narrow circle: but still, it is not unreasonable to suggest that this play ought to be done as well as possible within the circumstances available.

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly,” wrote G.K. Chesterton. So true: a badly prepared meal is better than no meal at all if you are very hungry and have no alternatives. But the intent of making a poorly made meal shows a contempt for the eaters. This can lead to a reductionistic morality that excludes the feelings of others. Sadly, the decline of listenership to classical music seems to be due partially to apparent contempt for its listeners, with the introduction of unlistenable atonal works, as well as an elitist attitude that would often exclude the living, contemporary, and very popular works that are nowadays found in the best music for film and stage.

KFUO is criticized within its owner's ecclesial body as not being much of an instrument of evangelization, although it operates at a profit, which in turn is used for preaching the Gospel. But certainly the new owners of the radio station intend to make it explicitly evangelical, in preaching the Gospel through song in a way that is open to casual listeners.

Much of classical music is the Latin liturgy of the Church, some of which is broadcast on this radio station. But certainly the Latin texts of the Mass are lost on those who do not follow along in the Missal, particularly when divorced from its natural setting within the liturgy. The change of liturgical texts from Latin to the vernacular languages was done specifically for an evangelical purpose. However, even if a listener of sacred music fails to grasp the intellectual aspect of the music, he still may appreciate the technical ability of the musicians and feel his soul being pulled upwards, giving even untranslated music of the Latin liturgy power. On the contrary, much sacred music in the vernacular, although intellectually understandable, often is not artfully done, nor does it often inspire a lively uplifting response in the listener. Also, the vernacular texts are often poorly translated and hymns sometimes have questionable content. Certainly the use of classical music and the traditional Latin liturgy is somewhat of a challenge to worshippers: but active participation requires a certain preparation and intellectual understanding on the part of the congregation, in other words, the people have to do their part.

The apparent opposition between non-evangelizing high art of classical music and the explicitly evangelical content of low-art praise and worship music, as shown with KFUO, is false. High art, including the sacred core of the canon of classical music ought to be placed back into its natural environment of the liturgy of the Church, and ought to become a source of inspiration of new works within this living tradition. Popular devotion has been greatly reduced within the Church, but a recovery of this practice will mean that there is a greater opportunity for lower art to thrive. As Protestant worship tends to be entirely popular devotion, we shouldn't be surprised that they have an abundance of popular arts.

One strange thing I noticed about KFUO was how much of its advertising was explicitly Catholic, from ads run by various religious orders to Mass announcements from my parish, Saint Francis de Sales Oratory. In times such as these, you have to know who your friends are. I cannot imagine that the new owners of the station would care to run such advertisements, nor would the station's listeners care to hear them.

Source: Rome of the West

Christ the King

For October 25, 2009 which is the feast of the Christ the King (last Sunday in October), we are going to sing:

1. Procession: To Jesus Christ, Our Sov'reign King
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Dignus est Agnus
   
4. Kyrie VIII (De Angelis)
   
5. Gloria VIII
   
6. Gradual: Dominabitur
   
7. Alleluia: Potestas eius
   
8. Credo IV
9. Offertory: Postula a me
   
10. Offertory hymn: Sicut Cervus (G.P. da Palestrina)
11. Sanctus VIII
    
12. Agnus Dei VIII
13. Communion hymn: Jesu Rex Admirabilis (G.P. da Palestrina)
14. Communion: Sedebit Dominus
    
15. Recession: Hail Redeemer, King Divine (C. Rigby) followed by chorus of Christus Vincit
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Liber Usualis for iPhone

The NLM highlighted the availability (for free!) the 1961 Liber Usualis for iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

Use coupon code TFRPLT4NFPT4. Here's a short description:

Liber Pro takes the 1961 Liber Usualis, a book of over 2,300 pages of Gregorian Chant for use throughout the liturgical year, and literally puts it at your fingertips on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Liber Pro adds to this tome a linked table of contents, user-defined bookmarks, vertical and horizontal paging and zooming, browser-like navigation, a dynamic liturgical calendar, and more.

Liber Pro is more than just an eBook. It is also the complete 1961 Roman Calendar, capable of calculating the moveable feasts throughout the year automatically. This means you can select a date; view the proper, common, and feria for that date; and jump instantly to the relevant pages in the Liber Usualis.

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

For October 12, 2009 which is the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: Crown Him With Many Crowns (tune: Diademata)
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Salus populi
   
4. Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)
5. Gloria XI
   
6. Gradual: Dirigatur
   
7. Alleluia: Confitemini Domino, et invocate
   
8. Credo IV
9. Offertory: Si ambulavero
   
10. Offertory hymn: Dextera Domini (C. Franck)
11. Sanctus XI
    
12. Agnus Dei XI
    
13. Communion hymn: Adoro Te Devote
    
14. Communion: Tu mandasti
    
15. Recession: Holy Mary, Now We Crown Thee
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

On Rock Music

Joseph Ratzinger:

We can recall the Dionysiac type of religion and its music, which Plato discussed on the basis of his religious and philosophical views. In many forms of religion, music is associated with frenzy and ecstasy. The free expansion of human existence, toward which man’s own hunger for the Infinite is directed, is supposed to be achieved through sacred delirium induced by frenzied instrumental rhythms. Such music lowers the barriers of individuality and personality, and in it man liberates himself from the burden of consciousness. Music becomes ecstasy, liberation from the ego, amalgamation with the universe. Today we experience the secularized variation of this type in rock and pop music, whose festivals are an anti-cult with the same tendency: desire for destruction, repealing the limitations of the everyday, and the illusion of salvation in liberation from the ego, in the wild ecstasy of a tumultuous crowd... It is the complete antithesis of Christian faith in the Redemption.

Accordingly, it is only logical that in this area diabolical cults and demonic musics are on the increase today, and their dangerous power of deliberately destroying personality is not yet taken seriously enough. The dispute between Dionysiac and Apolline music which Plato tried to arbitrate is not our concern, since Apollo is not Christ. But the question which Plato posed concerns us in a most significant way. In a way which we could not imagine thirty years ago, music has become the decisive vehicle of a counter-religion and thus calls for a parting of the ways. Since rock music seeks release through liberation from the personality and its responsibility, it can be on the one hand precisely classified among the anarchic ideas of freedom which today predominate more openly in the West than in the East. But that is precisely why rock music is so completely antithetical to the Christian concept of redemption and freedom, indeed its exact opposite.

[Liturgy and Church Music, 1985]

h/t to Daniel Mitsui

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

For September 27, 2009 which is the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: O God Of Loveliness
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Iustus es, Domine
   
4. Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)
5. Gloria XI
   
6. Gradual: Beata gens
   
7. Alleluia: Domine, exaudi
   
8. Credo III
9. Offertory: Oravi Deum, meum
   
10. Offertory hymn: O Maria, Virgo Pia
11. Sanctus XI
    
12. Agnus Dei XI
    
13. Communion hymn: O Esca Viatorum
    
14. Communion: Vovete
    
15. Recession: Soul Of My Savior
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Singing as a responsibility

Dr. Jeffrey Tucker hit it on the nail again (double or triple whammy, I may say) with the state of singing in most Catholic parishes:

"There's also been a terrible price to pay in terms of people's level of dedication to the task. Catholics are under the impression that the music at Mass just happens. Pastors are unwilling to pay for it, and the people themselves are unwilling to make anything like a serious commitment to making it happen. As a result, most parishes have a hard-core group of a few people, perhaps 2 to 4 people, who make it all happen, while everyone else involved comes and goes depending.

In fact, as a person with a childhood spent in the Baptist Church, I'm astonished at the lack of service ethic in the Catholic Church regarding music. In the Baptist Church of old (I don't know if this is still true), if you could sing, you sang. Period. There was no choice about it. If you were a member with some musical talent, it was a tithe to sing in the choir. It was something you did simply because you were a member. If a true singer were sitting in the pews instead of the loft, he or she was considered a shirker and a bum.

So it was and so it should be, in my view. The contrast with the Catholic Church today is striking. In Catholic parishes, people will sing only under certain conditions: 1) if they have some talent and are not embarrassed to sing, 2) if there is nothing else going on the evening of rehearsal, 3) if the singers are praised to the skies by the director and the pastor, 4) if they are willing to come to Mass every week, 5) if they are willing to sit apart from their family, 6) if the music is something they like to sing, 7) if they like the other choir members and have unrelenting fun during every minute of participation, 8) if the singer in question is given a big solo, and so on.

In other words, many people are sitting on the fence waiting to find out what the choir will do for them rather than what their participation will do for the parish. This is an egregious attitude, one that stands completely contrary to a service ethic. It is like saying to God: "I know you gave me a certain ability but I will only use it under the conditions that I name, and otherwise I will not use my talent to serve people and serve you, simply because my own personal pleasure and well being comes before any obligation I owe to anyone, including God." I would go so far as to say that, other things equal, it may be a sin for those who can sing not to sing.

And yet this ethic is nowhere to be found in the Catholic Church today. People assume the posture of consumers of liturgy. They show up and take it all in, and complain about it as they see fit, without a moment's thought put into what he or she can personally do to make a difference."

Read the entire article here.

Mapping Gregorian pitches to keyboard

Dr Jeffrey Tucker over at the NLM highlighted a Mac program helpful for people to map Gregorian pitches to piano.

Mac program made by Ben George.

Pope Benedict Asks For Greater Composure in the Liturgy

From the NLM:

Last Sunday, the Holy Father visited the Italian cities of Viterbo with its papal palace, where the first papal conclave was held, and Bagnoregio, birthplace of St Bonaventure, about whom Pope Benedict wrote his habilitation treatise (which is being published these days, for the first time in its original version, as the second volume of his opera omnia). In Viterbo, he celebrated Mass in the Faul Valley, immediately below the walls of the papal palace. According to several reports in the Italian press (cf. here, here or here), at lunch that day with the local bishops, the Holy Father made some interesting remarks about the attitude of the faithful attending that Mass. While they are not new or surprising, they certainly bear highlighting. According to the reports, Benedict XVI explained to the bishops present that "he desires a greater composure in the liturgies, in which, he finds, applause and acclamations are out of place." In that sense he commended Sunday's celebration, because the more than ten thousand faithful attending "were very devout and composed." In this, the faithful also followed an invitation made through the speakers installed for the occasion "not to applaud and to remain recollected."

It's a Still Life That Runs Deep

Morten Lauridsen explains how this Zurbarán painting, filled with religious symbolism, inspired him to compose his "O Magnum Mysterium".

Read more here.

In the meantime, enjoy this world-famous composition by Lauridsen performed by the Nordic Chamber Choir:

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

For September 13, 2009 which is the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, we are going to sing:

1. Procession: Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
   
2. Asperges me
   
3. Introit: Inclina, Domine
   
4. Kyrie XI (Orbis Factor)
5. Gloria XI
   
6. Gradual: Bonum est confiteri
   
7. Alleluia: Quoniam Deus
   
8. Credo III
9. Offertory: Exspectans exspectavi
   
10. Offertory hymn: Ave Maria (J. Arcadelt)
11. Sanctus XI
    
12. Agnus Dei XI
    
13. Communion hymn: Quis Sicut Te
    
14. Communion: Panis, quem ego dedero
    
15. Recession: Hail, True Victim, Life And Light
    

Click on the links to hear samples where available.

Silver Jubilee of Rev. Fr. Daniel Couture

Here are some pics, again stolen from Kenny's Facebook :D

Blessing of the new St Pius X Priory

Here are some news from nearby Singapore:

The Sacrament of Confirmation will be administered by Bishop Fellay next Saturday, 22 August.

The following is the programme of 22 and 23 August., when Bishop Fellay is in Singapore:

22 August, Saturday
9.30 a.m.: Blessing of the Chapel; Confirmation; Solemn High Mass

23 August, Sunday
8 a.m.: Pontifical Low Mass
10 a.m.: Silver Jubilee Solemn High Mass of Father Couture
Afternoon: Potluck; Conference by His Lordship (Sentosa Golf Course)

St. Pius X Priory, 286 Upper Thomson Road, Singapore.

Photos stolen from Kenny's Facebook: