CMAA Notes - MusicaSacra Church Music Forum

Call for a CMAA member-wide novena

David Andrew — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:21:21 +0000

On another thread, I posed a question regarding some health issues I've been experiencing as a result of the stresses of my position as a DM in a typical (and very large) suburban parish.

As others began to weigh in, most recently one whom we know as "G", it has become clear that an organized prayer of a novena to Our Lady and St. Cecilia for the health, welfare and protection of all church musicians dedicated to the restoration of chant and polyphony to the liturgy is very much needed.

To that end, I have asked if anyone from the "management" of CMAA still has a copy of a novena to St. Cecilia which I believe I found here last fall and printed out.

Once we know that it's back up and available, I propose that we begin a rosary novena with the St. Cecilia litany at the end, beginning this Saturday, July 19 through Sunday, July 27, and if possible request Masses in our various parishes for the intention of all church musicians.

Is it on?

CMAA books at Lulu discounted 15% this week (April 6-10)

chonak — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:30:04 +0000

A coupon code is available this week for a 15% discount on our books printed at Lulu Press. See this list for more information.

Colloquium Accomodations

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:28:45 +0000

Anyone have a convenient, reasonable hotel or
motel to suggest for the Colloquium in
Champaign-Urbana?
TIA
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Parish Book of Motets, 3-Part - [updated] HERE! from CMAA

Jenny Donelson — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 04:50:24 +0000

The Church Music Association of America is delighted to announce that finishing touches are being put on the next book in our Parish Book of Motets series, this time for 3-part music.

The collection, edited by Dr. Aaron James, includes:
- 23 motets from the treasury, including compositions by Lassus, Isaac, Obrecht, Parsons, Palestrina, and many others
- 5 newly commissioned motets from Frank La Rocca, Christopher Mueller, Mark Nowakowski, Diana Corliss, and Peter Togni
- Motets appear in BOTH SAB(ar) and ATB editions, lending more flexibility for your choir
- Keyboard reductions book available

The book will again be accompanied by an excellent website resource with links to each piece which include a PDF of the score (in the creative commons), recordings of individual parts, all parts together, and muted parts, and text with translation for you to copy into your worship aid.

We hope that this forthcoming publication fills the need that so many choirs have for music with limited forces.

We will post again here when we are ready to take orders. We expect to go to print in the next week or so.

Now on-line: "Realizing Your Parish Organ Vision" and "Las antífonas marianas"

chonak — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 23:10:09 +0000

Some more of our autumn on-line events are now on-line:

The video recording of Nathan Knutson's talk on planning an organ-building project is on-line through the member portal at
https://connect.churchmusicassociation.org/page/2025wk#202510 (membership and login required)

And José Ballón's presentation, together with colleague Mario Fayas-Barceló, on the Marian antiphons (session in Spanish) is on-line at
https://churchmusicassociation.org/2026/01/12/las-antifonas-marianas/ (open to all)

Book update: "The Rhythm of Plainsong"

chonak — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 09:00:26 +0000

For some time, CMAA has offered a reprint edition of Dom Joseph Gajard's lectures on "The Rhythm of Plainsong", and a few days ago, we've released a newly typeset edition of this enlightening book. A sample of several pages is available at
https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/uploads/FileUpload/26/7603697e922938534360610e7a8c76.pdf

The book itself, printed by Amazon's on-demand service, can be found in the CMAA Shop at
https://shop.musicasacra.com/product/the-rhythm-of-plainsong-joseph-gajard/

Call for Submissions

Charles_Weaver — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 20:59:29 +0000

The editors of Sacred Music are pleased to announce the introduction of peer review to the journal beginning in 2026 with volume 153.

Published bi-annually, Sacred Music is the official journal of the Church Music Association of America and the oldest continuously published journal of music in North America. While Sacred Music has long published the work of distinguished scholars, we hope to highlight the academic nature of the journal through a new section of peer-reviewed articles. We invite contributions in the field of Christian liturgical music, principally that of the Roman rite, including hymnology, chant, sacred music history and analysis, the theology of music, and related topics.

All manuscripts will undergo a double-blind review process, and submission guidelines are available on our website.

The Parish Book of Chant, now easier to buy worldwide

chonak — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 05:21:11 +0000

Singers outside North America now have an easier way to buy CMAA's The Parish Book of Chant, as the book is becoming available through Amazon's print-on-demand service. We hope this will be a convenience, since it will reduce the need for buyers to use international shipping.

This offering is intended for customers outside the US and Canada, since the regular hardcover edition on thinner paper, with a ribbon, remains available through the CMAA Shop.

We hope to make the print-on-demand book available through all Amazon's sites except for the US and Canada. In some countries, Amazon only offers the softcover edition.

Here are some links for ordering:

Softcover:
BE, DE, ES, FR, IE, IT, JP, NL, PL, SE, UK

Hardcover:
BE, DE, ES, IE, IT, NL, PL, SE, UK

Sacred Music journal: second issue of the year is now on-line

chonak — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 22:37:15 +0000

Issue 152 no. 2 of CMAA's journal, "Sacred Music", is on-line now. Access requires a login on the member portal:

https://connect.churchmusicassociation.org/general/custom.asp?page=smj

Latest resources on the member portal

chonak — Sun, 10 Aug 2025 02:27:14 +0000

The CMAA member portal now has the latest issue of Sacred Music, and most of this spring's on-line presentations

Dr. Edward Schaefer on Mocquereau's relation to semiology
A session in Spanish on choir training, with Dr. Mario Fayas
Dr. Charles Weaver's beginner's guide to Gregorio chant notation software
A Q&A session with Dr. Cecilia Nam on vocal issues
(and one more yet to come)

Available from the Member Resources page:
https://connect.churchmusicassociation.org/page/mr

Updates to CMAA books

chonak — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 19:33:43 +0000

I've started moving some of our print-on-demand books from lulu.com to Amazon's KDP print-on-demand service, since they seem to deliver more quickly and charge slightly less.

These have been moved over so far:

Communio (softcover and hardcover)
Gregorian Chant for Church and School
Offertoriale
The Plainchant Gradual, Parts I and II
The Plainchant Gradual, Parts III and IV

About The Plainchant Gradual, the new version also has a table of contents for each book, which the previous edition didn't have.

Of course, the CMAA Shop website is updated with the latest links for both our print-on-demand books and the books we keep in stock.

help with a modest (?) Gregorio GABC project

Paul F. Ford — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:43:24 +0000

May I pay someone to re-engrave Justine Ward's Capturing the Modal Sound pages about the Eight Modes? Pages 155, 156, and 157 of her Gregorian Chant Practicum?

Reminder to readers: how to treat job announcements posted here

chonak — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 23:47:26 +0000

Dear Readers,

I'm posting this reminder about a custom we follow here on the Forum.

Here's the short version: Please don't post comments on a job notice: if you do, I'll probably delete them.

----

In fact, I did that today.

Job announcements on the Forum usually have a note from me, saying that the post has been "closed to comments as usual." That practice has ongoing since our friend Jeffrey started the site ages ago.

The purpose of this practice is to be very welcoming to employers. We want them to post their job notices, regardless of the style of music, the style of the building, the type of organ they have, etc. They don't even always have to be announcements for Catholic parishes. We want our readers to have the maximum of opportunities to choose potential jobs.

If you're old enough, you may remember how newspapers used to include job notices in their "classified ad" section. (It was like 'Craigslist', before the internet.)

Those ads didn't give anonymous strangers space to argue about the employer, the pay, or the job duties.

And following that pattern has worked: as far as I can tell, this Forum is one of the top sites for job announcements in Catholic church music in this country.

It's understandable if some of our readers might look at a job notice and decide it's not a great job. But there's really no need for you to add comments and say so. You can trust your fellow readers to use their good judgment.

If there is some issue you want to talk about, do not post your comments on the same thread. It's OK to start a new thread about the topic that concerns you -- but please don't name names: that's not necessary and not friendly.

Thanks for understanding.

Update: Leadership changes at CMAA

chonak — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 06:08:16 +0000

From Janet Gorbitz, Secretary of CMAA:

Dear Members and Friends of the Church Music Association of America,

We know that you, along with those of us on staff and on the board of directors, have been mourning with us the recent death of our beloved president, William P. Mahrt. Thank you all for your messages of condolence and remembrances that have been shared.

Striving to move forward with the organization Dr. Mahrt loved so much, the Board of Directors has elected Rev. Robert Pasley as our new President to lead the Association.

As many of you know from your attendance at the annual Colloquium, both in-person and online, Fr. Pasley has been a leader and source of encouragement to all of us in our work to promote sacred music through his input on the planning of all our events, the management of all our liturgies, and his sharing of his experience with us through breakouts, talks at our events, and online spiritual reflections. We are so grateful he was willing to accept this new leadership role.

After eighteen years of service to the Church Music Association of America, Dr. Horst Buchholz has decided to retire from his position as Vice President. The entire board of directors is so grateful for his generous gift of his time, valuable guidance and experience during these many years.

The board has elected to take on the job of Vice President Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka and she has also been assigned the position of Director of Publications by Fr. Pasley, as one of his first actions as our new president. In these new roles, she will continue to assist the president in the management of the organization and will also continue her work in creating and promoting new publications for the benefit of church musicians.

Dr. Donelson-Nowicka has been a “member at large” of the Board of Directors since 2014. Since 2012, she has served as managing editor of the Sacred Music journal, working closely with editor William Mahrt to faithfully publish the journal in the years since. She has also worked on all our recent publications and new projects (such as The Parish Book of Motets and the Parish Book of Chant recording project, as well as our upcoming new publication, a collection of three-part motets). She has long been a member of the faculty at our events and has been a member of the event planning committee for several years. Known for her ability to accomplish more in less time than seems humanly possible, the board is very appreciative for her willingness to accept these new roles.

We ask for your prayers and support of our new officers as they take on the leadership of the organization in this new year.

For more information, see the main CMAA website at https://churchmusicassociation.org/2025/01/20/leadership-changes/ .

St. Cecilia Fundraising Drive - Please Consider Donating to Support the CMAA

Jenny Donelson — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 16:46:38 +0000

Users of this forum know that it has become one of the biggest knowledge bases on the internet. Got an obscure questions? Be sure to look it up here and find an interesting discussion about the answer. Thanks for being a part of it!

Even beyond this great Forum, the CMAA does so much to support the work of musicians and parishes for free, but we do need your help to do it.

Please consider making a donation on this St. Cecilia's Day to support our work. Funds raised go toward putting on events, scholarships for students to events, new music commissions, our excellent journal, keeping membership costs low, operating costs, staffing for keeping things running smoothly, and especially the massive online resources that we all benefit from regularly.

If you can, please consider a one-time or monthly donation to support this good work.

Donate here.

New General Manager of the CMAA

Jenny Donelson — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:54:52 +0000

The Church Music Association of America has a new General Manager! Would you join us in a spiritual bouquet for our staff?

After 11 years of tireless work on behalf of the CMAA, Janet Gorbitz has retired from the post she developed to enable the CMAA to do so many amazing things. She has been a constant presence as a friendly face and organizer extraordinaire at our events, and a helpful correspondent to all who write in to us with questions and requests for assistance.

Our new General Manager is Alysia Ladner who is excited to serve the CMAA and its mission, even as she learns to fill the big shoes left by Janet. She’s a great addition to the CMAA between her love for the Church and Her music, her affable and generous demeanor, and her excellent organizational skills.

Janet is ensuring a smooth transition by sticking by Alysia’s side as she gets up and running, especially heading into a great 2025 with new programs, excellent online offerings for members, and an awesome Colloquium.

If you’d like to join us in a spiritual bouquet for these 2 wonderful ladies, please note your contribution below.

And don’t be surprised when you receive emails now from Alysia!

Latest Sacred Music issues now on-line too

chonak — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 18:48:07 +0000

The new CMAA portal site has information on registering for upcoming events, and offers a few members-only services, including the very latest issues of Sacred Music and videos from our on-line events. When you log in there as a member, you'll see a link for "Member Resources" to bring you to those pages.

Of course we'll continue to maintain the archive with older back issues of Sacred Music as well.

Sacred Music archives updated

chonak — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 23:31:20 +0000

The on-line archive of Sacred Music, CMAA's quarterly journal, has been updated with another year of issues.
https://musicasacra.com/journal/archives/

Anyone Familiar With the Campus or Buildings Where Colloquium Will Be Held?

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 19:34:27 +0000

I'm really looking forward to the Colloquium, and I realized that if it were being held at Duquesne this year I could not attend, because of a knee problem; the campus is just too hilly, and too many stairs. And then I thought, whoops! what if Wayne State is like that as well?
Anyone know about the terrain or elevators, etc?
Also, any word about non-dorm housing availabilty/proximity?
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Thank you for your generous support!

janetgorbitz — Tue, 03 May 2022 15:34:01 +0000

Thank you all for your kind support of the CMAA during our recent fundraiser. We are pleased to say that we were successful in reaching and even exceeding our goal for the promised matching funds. Your generosity is so greatly appreciated.

This does help us keep all the resources freely available on our website, as well as this forum for all who benefit from it. The funds raised will help us to not only continue our work, but to work on new projects, updates that are needed, and upcoming programs.

With sincere thanks,

Janet Gorbitz
CMAA General Manager

CMAA Summer Programs - REGISTER NOW!

janetgorbitz — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:51:32 +0000

Online registration is in place for both CMAA in-person summer programs. Please make plans to join us!

SUMMER COURSES | June 14-18, 2022 | St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Hagerstown, MD

NEW!!! Vocal Training Intensive, Dr. MeeAe Cecilia Nam, Instructor
Laus in Ecclesia – Level One (Clear Creek Abbey), Kathy Reinheimer, Instructor
NEW!!! Laus in Ecclesia – Level Two (Clear Creek Abbey), Br. Mark Bachmann, Instructor

SACRED MUSIC COLLOQUIUM | June 20-25, 2022 | St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Hagerstown, MD

The liturgies at St. Mary’s Catholic Church will be:

June 21, 2022, 4:30 pm, Mass, Memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Novus ordo (NO), Spanish / Latin
June 22, 2022, 4:30 pm, Mass, Memorial of Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More, NO, English
June 23, 2022, 4:30 pm, Mass, Nativity of St. John the Baptist, NO, Latin
June 23, 2022, 7:00 pm, Vespers, 1st Vespers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Usus antiquior (UA), Latin
June 24, 2022, 4:30 pm, Mass, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (UA), Latin
June 25, 2022, 10:30 am, Mass, Requiem Mass for Deceased CMAA Members, UA, Latin

For details about the courses and the schedule, visit our webpage here: SUMMER COURSES.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW - SUMMER COURSES

For all the details about the Colloquium, including faculty, choirs, repertory, schedule, detail about breakout topics, visit our webpage here: SACRED MUSIC COLLOQUIUM.

REGISTER ONLINE NOW - COLLOQUIUM

The Parish Book of English Hymns

Jeffrey Tucker — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:39:18 +0000

This idea came up on another thread but I thought I would highlight it here. What if there were a hymnal of only English hymns, mostly in four parts, with few if any English renderings of chant. No Latin obviously since those are covered in PBC. It could be the Parish Book of English Hymns, with 250 four-square hymns. The people's book would have four parts, same as organ. It could be a hardback that sells for $10 or so. It is published entirely in Creative Commons and is built on public domain resources. It could include some new hymns provided by people on this forum, conditioned on publishing into Creative Commons. It would be a free download too. You could print, copy, publish, or send it via email or do whatever you want with it forever. It would be the first of its kind.

would that be something desirable? what are the pluses and minuses of this?

Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium 2021

janetgorbitz — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 23:12:57 +0000

Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium 2021 | June 21 - 25, 2021

Only a short while remains until we begin our second Virtual Sacred Music Colloquium. I hope many of you will consider joining us as we meet via Zoom this summer.

We have an excellent lineup of faculty and moderators this year and various topics to suit many interests. We do plan to make the videos available immediately following the sessions for a few days' time for registered participants. We will also again edit the videos and make them available to participants to view later on as well. We hope this will be a help to those in other time zones and with scheduling conflicts.

In addition, since we have two tracks this year, if you really wanted to watch both of the sessions that are occurring at the same time, you won't have to wait for the editing and upload to catch the one you don't attend, but will be able to view the recording soon after the session ends.

For all the details: SACRED MUSIC COLLOQUIUM

To register online now: ONLINE REGISTRATION

Please contact me at programs@musicasacra.com if you have questions.

Versus Psalmorum et Canticorum now available in hardcover

chonak — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 19:33:47 +0000

One of the handy books CMAA offers for use in the EF liturgy is Versus Psalmorum et Canticorum, which provides Vulgate psalm verses for use at the Introit or at Communion, pointed for the appropriate psalm tones.

We’ve offered it for some years in softcover and are now introducing a hardcover version, as requested by a reader.

Along with the new binding option, there’s a new cover for both the soft- and hardcover versions, which you can see here next to the old edition.

Ordering information is at the CMAA Shop.

New from CMAA: a Spanish reprint of Dom Gregorio Suñol's chant instruction book

chonak — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 01:13:57 +0000

The newest book from CMAA is also one that we have carried for years. Dom Gregorio Suñol, a monk of the abbey at Montserrat and the president of the Pontifical Academy of Sacred Music in Rome, wrote his Método completo de canto gregoriano in 1905. It was expanded in numerous editions and translated into several languages; and we've offered the 1930 English edition for some time. Now we're happy to offer a reprint of the 1943 Spanish eighth edition. It is a thorough and methodical presentation based on the Solesmes method, which he praised in the book's first edition in these words:

My teaching, I can say, is not mine. The school of Solesmes has served the Church so magnificently, restoring her chant to her, authentic, beautiful, serious, and suited to her holiness; it burst forth one day by inspiration of the Holy Spirit from the hearts of her most enlightened sons.

It's available this week (until Dec 4, 2020) at a 15% discount, with the help of a coupon code (THANKS15) at Lulu.
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/gregorio-suñol/método-completo-de-canto-gregoriano/paperback/product-7wg2kr.html

Real Websites and Fake Websites

chonak — Thu, 20 Aug 2020 23:22:25 +0000

What an odd thing to write about!

I just added a little box to the main CMAA web site with this message:

We found out a few days ago that somebody has copied a bunch of journal PDF files from our site, and has set up their own web site with CMAA's logos, trying to pass it off as ours. They also took articles from another academic music journal, not related to CMAA, and posted them on the same site.

They've contacted at least two companies that index journals and tried to tell them to read Sacred Music from the scam site. I'm not going to post a link here, because it would promote them, and I don't want to encourage people to connect to their scam site, which might be virus-infested or otherwise hazardous to users.

I wonder what they think they are going to gain by this. Maybe they are planning to put ads on their site and make money! Maybe it is a nefarious plot to spread computer malware to Catholic church musicians! Maybe the scammers are wasting their time! After all, we don't get web traffic at Google-class levels.

No "Tor" network usage, please

chonak — Sat, 18 Jul 2020 22:52:06 +0000

I'm blocking connections to our websites that use the Tor anonymous-traffic network. While Tor is a legitimate service, some people unfortunately use it to commit acts of harassment and hide their location. I'm sorry for any inconvenience to legitimate users.

Today I found out that somebody had used it to create a user account on our shop website in someone else's name. We don't want to have our site used in that way.

Journal archives updated: Sacred Music and The Caecilia

chonak — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 05:55:30 +0000

Thanks to Daniel Muller for adding to our collection of The Caecilia on-line: https://musicasacra.com/journal/caecilia/
He obtained and scanned (very nicely) issues from 1938 and early 1939, and I put them up on the CMAA web site Monday.

Also, back issues of Sacred Music are available, up to Summer 2019.

Attending the Virtual Colloquium

Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:21:19 +0000

If you're attending the Virtual Colloquium beginning this evening, and were surprised as I was not to have a cheery Day One email, you may need to check your SPAM folder.
(BTW, sooooooo grateful for this, and grateful to whomever came up with the idea of a virtual colloquium.)
Save the Liturgy, Save the World!

Charles Culbreth: Anniversary

matthewj — Sat, 28 Sep 2019 16:19:18 +0000

Kindly keep Charles Culbreth in your prayers as today is the anniversary of his death.