Dr. Mahrt,

I am not aware of any recent literature on this topic, but I can tell you about what is happening at Mundelein Seminary right now.

Mundelein is the largest US seminary, I believe, and it has one of six pontifical faculties in the country. Before 1968, there were eight required chant courses for all seminarians—a curriculum that was established by Msgr. Reynold Hillenbrand some decades before. The current rector, Fr. Robert Barron has the aim of establishing Mundelein Seminary, and the University of St. Mary of the Lake, as a new center of the New Evangelization, and, as a result, has established three mandatory courses in Liturgical Chant, largely looking back to Hillenbrand's curriculum for guidance.

Fr. Douglas Martis, director of the Liturgical Institute, laid out the plan for the 3-course sequence, and I am currently developing the curriculum and am teaching the inaugural course. I currently have 37 students, most of whom are in First Theology, and the focus of the first course, Liturgical Chant I, is on the parts of the sung liturgy that pertain to the lector (and by extension, psalmist and cantor), as these men prepare for their ministry as instituted lectors. Liturgical Chant II will prepare men for the ordained deaconate, and Liturgical Chant III will prepare them for the priesthood. The curriculum reflects this threefold structure, and seeks to also build progressively throughout, once course upon the next.

I do not know of any other seminary that has gone to this length at present, and many seminarians who I talk with at other seminaries are very jealous of what Mundelein is doing with this initiative! I would be glad to be a part of a discussion on the topic, and also would be happy to share my experiences with the courses. I am sure that Fr. Barron would love for Mundelein to provide a model for other seminaries to follow.

Regards,
Adam Bartlett

Does Ron Prowse contribute to these fora?
I think a very interesting, and profitable roundtable on this subject could be organized.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Ryan,

The GR has propers assigned for all weekdays Masses, which I have indexed here, many of them having vernacular adaptations:

http://blog.yankehome.com/fep

I have been relying on Ben's site, (Thanks Ben!) particularly during Lent. One issue I have though is when I drop the PDF into the Word Doc to create the program, it is typically too small to read and I have to convert the file to a jpeg and crop etc. which is just time consuming. Those that are in the SEP copy and paste much easier into the worship program simply due to how they are formatted. How easy/difficult would it be to add extra line breaks so that when placed in a book-fold program the graphic isn't so small?

On other occasions I will find a suitable substitute (like a hymn or other psalm setting from the hymnal that is close to the proper antiphon text). We use By Flowing Waters, and I have also occasionally written a few simple antiphons myself that frequently occur on weekdays but not on Sundays (from the common of martyrs, etc.). I have also continued the tradition of simply singing the words from the Missal or Gradual and to a psalm tone. Basically I'm trying to illustrate a variety of ways and means as well as resources available (Bartlett, Weber, Kelly, Ford etc.).

Of course we sing hymns too, usually at offertory or for the recessional. But I've been fairly consistent with an antiphon for the entrance and communion. On more festive occasions I'll have the choir chant the proper antiphon from the Graduale and then we also sing a congregational hymn.

Thank you to those who have responded. It would be helpful if those who comment refrained to the question Dr. Mahrt posed: "Is there any literature on this subject, a few articles, which could give some guidelines?"

To those involved in seminary work such as Adam, could you provide a general description of the program(s) you work with similarly to his description?

Earl_Grey, what is the class required at Kenrick? Is there a choir under the direction of a music director?

Thanks to all who have offered insights.

Earl, what's the possibility of adding a music appreciation course primarily utilizing Western 'sacred text'-based materials such as those written by JSBach, Palestrina, Arcadelt, Mozart, Brahms, Durufle, MacMillan, (et al)?

The idea is to demonstrate that text is fundamental in these works (i.e., like Chant) and to acquaint the men with 'great books' material, not to mention elevating their minds and hearts to God.

IOW, something which counters the modern conceit that all history began in 1965?

That would allow them, as pastors, to have some ammunition to utilize when dealing with music issues in their parishes.

This would be an excellent idea for a forum at the Colloquium!

I probably sound like a broken record by now....

Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Seminaries don't really have music appreciation or intense training courses. The traditional music of the church is simply "omnipresent" you can't avoid it, it is EVERYWHERE. In Greece, a number of colleges offer byzantine music courses, this is one of the ways many cantors receive training, other than by being apprenticed in church from childhood...

It seems to me that priests should simply want to chant, if you don't want to chant or sing the music of the church, DO NOT BECOME a priest. If you think singing broadway musicals, heavy metal or smooth jazz ballads is what it takes, you need to be reeducated or not ordained. That's the view for Orthodox priests. If you don't know and love the basic elements of traditional church music, you are NOT ORDAINED. You don't have to have a great voice or have a the best abilities, but if you have any at all, and can at least find a precentor for your parish, that's good enough. I've heard priests who sound like goats and ones that sound like pavarotti, but what they have in common as an intention to try to sing the music of the church and make certain people other people in the church also have this intention.

At this point one or two courses to encourage every priest to read neumes is great and good, but more important to me is having the seminary actually use and create a superb example in their own liturgies.

The byzantine rite seminaries are models of liturgical idealism, if not quite perfectionism.

This it seems to me is not something that needs too much thought, you simply DO IT.

If that seems anti-intellectual, so be it, that's my experience.

Church music is a cultural faith experience as much as a science.

Clearly the latin church has somehow "broken down" in having church music as an organic experience. How humpty dumpty goes back together again , only God knows. My experience has been that many Catholics DO DESIRE and DO TRY and CAN SUCCEED in singing the official music of the church, if only they are ALLOWED to do it. My experience is that there has been hostility to it by many clergy in recent decades. What makes such hostility dissipate - I do not know. Do classes in seminaries help? Perhaps, but it may miss the point also.

Where there is a will there is a way. Is there a will? That is my question.

Surely, Professor Mahrts wisdom is a great benefit for us all, I like his idea.

I think that promoting official ordained precentors, succentors, concentors and clerks (the minor orders), for singing as their life's vocation is also a good idea, and having them assigned to every major diocese in the world, as apostles of church music to spread the gospel of the graduale romanum around.

I think one of the things keeping eastern church music alive is its identification with culture. Eastern churches have a culture with which the people identify and which they preserve. Not so in the west where there doesn't appear to be a Catholic culture anymore. In the name of the false gods of diversity and political correctness, the western church has thrown its pearls to be trampled by swine. Music is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.

I'm not sure what the program for the Josephinum in Ohio is, but I know that some of our diocesan priests that studied for any time there are much more interested in chant and do it in their Masses. I'll have to ask some of our seminarians about their requirements.

That being said, I'm curious to see what happens in about 6 years when some of these newly formed priests are put to work in our parishes. In the meantime, we are trying to make our parish a model of good musical practice. It is my hope that when these seminarians are ordained, that we will have a model for them to base their plans on, and give workshops to their musicians. In 12 years, hopefully we will have affectively changed liturgical practices for the majority of our parishes.

I think this discussion is a wonderful idea for a forum at the colloquium!

getting youth involved

And we all know how much the youth love Catholic folk favorites from the 70s and 80s!


PIC RELATED: The youth.

I dunno, CP, about every four years a new kid'll come up like clockwork and ask "Hey, how come you never sing 'Awesome God,' I LOVE THAT SONG! How the kid asks the question determines how directly I answer that.
Were I of mean spirit, I suppose I could say "Because I like singing 'Blest be the Lord!'" ;-)

Picture me putting a daisy petal in the barrel end of your bayoneted AK47 pointed at my head!