I'll be providing monthly updates on the Sacred Music Retreat between now and August.

In this first update, I'm very pleased to announce our two music presenters. Kevin Allen has graciously agreed to take part in the retreat - he will be running half of the rehearsals and preparing the music for the pontifical Mass on Sunday. I'm sure Mr. Allen needs little introduction in this forum but for those of you not aware he is a very talented composer and director in the Chicago area. I will post more about him separately.

When the retreat was still germinating as a idea, there was already a thought to use several of the pieces from his Motecta Trium Vocum. So clearly, it is very exciting that he will be one of our presenters! Although much of the repertoire is set, we may be also using his setting of Missa Rex Genitor - we'll determine that sometime in January / February.

The second music presenter is Nicholas Lemme, director of music for the FSSP American seminary in Nebraska. As with Kevin Allen, I look forward to posting more about Mr. Lemme's background separately.

Nicholas will be running half the rehearsals and preparing the music for the Matins / Lauds of the Dead and the pontifical Requiem on Saturday. We will be incorporating a mixture of the Victoria Requiem for four voices with the proper chant tone for the Mass.

I pray all of you may enjoy the fruits of this season as we prepare for Christmas.

Registration will open for the Sacred Music Retreat in the middle of next month. The cost is $450 / person. This covers the expenses of room / board through the retreat; transport to and from local parishes for the pontifical ceremonies; presenter costs; music that will be provided; and a number of other miscellaneous costs.

The registration form will be made available in the March update to this post as well as via our Facebook page (see above) and to a large e-mail distribution list. Registrations will be capped at 110 attendees.

Prayers for a successful Lenten preparation.

Please check out the April edition of the Latin Mass Magazine. It features an article by Roseanne Sullivan on the Sacred Music Retreat.

Registrations have reached nearly a third of available space. Some choirs have indicated they will be registering in May / June time-frame. If you are interested in attending, now is the time to get on board!

The retreat repertoire includes the following:

HYMNS

• Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying
• O Purest of Creatures
• Ye Souls of the Faithful
• O Turn to Jesus, Mother, Turn
• Help, Lord, the Souls
• Rejoice, Rejoice Believers
• O Praise ye the Lord

MOTETS

• Iesu Dulcis (Allen)
• Bone Pastor (Tallis)
• Sicut Cervus (Palestrina)
• O Iesu Christe (Jaquet de Mantua)
• Magnificat 1d (faux bourdon)
• Miseremini Mei (Anon)
• Miserere Mei (Lotti)
• Bonus Est (Palestrina) w/ ison
• Peccantem Me (Morales)
• Te Ioseph Celebrent (Ravanello)
• O Sanctissima (Allen)
• Ave Maris Stella (Victoria)
• Panis Angelicus (Allen)
• Quid Retribuam (Ravanello)
• Desidero Mi Iesu (Allen)
• Iesu Rex Admirabilis (Palestrina)

CHANT and MISC

• Mass III
• Kyrie I ad libitum
• parts of the Requiem for 4 voices (Victoria)
• Chant Requiem
• Mass VI
• Credo VII
• Salve Regina (Solemn tone) with drone

We will, of course, be singing from the Office throughout the week... Prime, Compline, Vespers, and Matins / Lauds of the Dead, depending on the day.

I received a very kind e-mail from a Norbertine in California who offered several of his compositions for the retreat. I will include these with our packet of music / resources for retreatants, but also asked for permission to extend the share to others not attending the retreat which he very generously granted. Music attached.

Fr. Szczurek, attached to St. Michael's Abbey in Silverado, CA, and current Headmaster of St. Michael's Preparatory School for boys, also has music available on YouTube and Sheet Music Plus for those who are interested in more of his works.

Here is the link to the Abbey website: https://stmichaelsabbey.com/

spilled a large coke all over my personal laptop... and sadly watched as my programs closed out one by one as the laptop died while I frantically tried mopping up the coke with a towel. Fortunately, I was able to transfer the files to a new laptop

When I (accidentally) left my laptop in a bag which had been leaning against the car and, accidentally backed my minivan over it, the rescue of the files took more skill than I have. My department head at the time openly wondered whether I might just have backed over it on purpose.

How did the large Coke cause the death of the computer? Did it damage the circuits?

Chris, thank you for making me realize that it could have been worse!!! :)

So, first the coke fried the mother-board. Replacement was $350. After replacing the mother-board, the laptop was able to boot up... but the keyboard, touch-pad, and a specific cable would have also needed to be replaced - another $250. As I was nearing end-of-life, I opted to file transfer to the new laptop instead. The repair shop didn't charge for the mother-board (since I didn't continue with the repairs to the old laptop) and only charged me for the file transfer. Fortunately, the hard-drive was not compromised by the coke.

I remember one horrible business trip where I left my luggage (which had my work laptop inside) on the sidewalk when I drove from Cincinnati to Madison, WI for training that I was providing. The good news is that I was able to buy clothes in Madison and was able to use one of the client computers to conduct my training. The better news was that someone kindly moved my luggage so that it was waiting outside my apartment door when I returned from Madison - with the work laptop still inside!

Thanks for sharing your story - had I lost all of my files, I would have been really at a loss.

The Sacred Music Retreat concluded officially early this PM with the Pontifical High Mass for our Sunday Mass, and after a luncheon for many participants, unofficially with Solemn Vespers later this PM.

Wow. Just... wow.

It is hard to imagine having had three better presenters for the task we had set ourselves, or that we could have had a more comprehensive experience over these past four days.

The presenters were wonderful - which we expected. The public pontifical ceremonies were glorious and filled with a high caliber of musical repertoire and performance - which we expected. What was perhaps surprising to a fair number of retreatants was the profound spirituality from the immersion into the Liturgy, as supported by the conferences and prayers.

In opening remarks before our keynote address from Msgr. Wadsworth, I pointed out that the retreat was NOT a conference, symposium, workshop, intensive, or colloquium. The purpose before us was a retreat in the true sense of the word - simply from a different perspective than the more traditional model. Our retreat was geared to liturgical Marthas rather than liturgical Marys... but we had all the elements of a standard retreat, apart from the lack of silence.

In a typical retreat, some end, some purpose is described, and then exercises and conferences support a desirable outcome toward that end. In the Ignatian Exercises, for example, the first conferences deal with our personal end as created beings of God. Death, judgement, and ultimately, the choice between salvation and damnation. The conferences, the meditations, the pious exercises, the prayers... all these then support discovering our way to sanctification and how we can best accomplish the purpose for which we were created, namely, salvation.

This retreat simply addressed a different end - the purpose for which we exist as part of a collective in the Liturgical Choir rather than on our own as an individual. The spiritual conferences from Msgr. Wadsworth would develop this thought, would enable us to deepen our awareness of the privilege and dignity we have as members of the liturgical choir... as well as of the incredible responsibility that it entails. For us, practice must be simply another form of prayer; for us, the Liturgy itself would be our meditation on the conferences. The techniques we would learn from Kevin and Nick would supplement the conferences by providing practical tools to achieve our purpose; the connections we would forge with other musicians not merely friendships for the sake of friendship, but ordered to the basic goal we must share as musicians (and even simply as creations of the Creator)... to increase His honor and glory.

To that end, our Liturgy during the retreat should follow the words of Nike - Just Do It.

As the retreat progressed, so many retreatants described exactly that process. The more immersion into the Liturgy; the more connection between the conferences and the practices. Most people were surprised - the schedule was not as arduous as it might have appeared at the outset. Although we were tired by the end, it was the satisfying exhaustion of leaving it all on the floor in the service of God.

Many thanks to those who offered prayers and warm wishes before and during the retreat!

Very nice!

Here are the remaining areas of recording:

Link 2: (Pontifical Matins / Lauds of the Dead) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mPv95Je5TJo1Ub2m8Azzo7-BKbmi9VDv
Link 3: (Pontifical Requiem Mass) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VtPH_m9riOmf_L_qDsZzg35OG5IiGY_h
Link 4: (Pontifical Sunday Mass) https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Tbg_loQLlzHleMuC7dru3DPy98NYNJ8N

There was no practice for Matins / Lauds (apart from the polyphonic responsory which was also recapitulated in the Requiem Mass as a motet).

The Requiem and the Sunday Mass were the focus of the rehearsals during the retreat, although as Stimson pointed out, there was a LOT of music to cover in a short span of time.

Saturday (Matins / Lauds, Requiem) was directed by Nick Lemme.
Sunday (Pentecost XII) was directed by Kevin Allen.

This is the final update on the Sacred Music Retreat - again, thanks for prayers and other support from members of the forum!

I am bumping this thread for several reasons...

First, our own NihilNominis is hosting a Sacred Music Retreat in Minnesota this summer, coincidental with the feast of the Assumption. The retreat formally opens on Friday, August 16th, running through Monday, August 19th (checkout on the 20th), but retreatants are invited to arrive early to attend the High Mass the evening of the Assumption. This will feature the Coronation Mass (Mozart), Tota Pulchra Es (Garcia) and Ave Maria (Bruckner) among other things, sung by the hosting choirs.

Nihil is a first-rate organist and musician - so I can highly recommend the retreat from the basis of the host parish / choirs.

Presenters include Dr. Christopher Berry (Milwaukee, WI) and Mr. Jeffrey Morse so another high recommendation for the caliber of presenters!

Second, just to make people aware that I am in discovery phase for hosting a Sacred Music Pilgrimage... in 2023. I will periodically bump this thread as planning for the Pilgrimage coalesces, but even preliminarily it looks to be quite a mixture of liturgy and music. Our first thoughts are geared toward the UK - visiting the various Oratories, potentially including Walsingham and even the Cathedral of York (which apparently allows Catholics to celebrate Mass at the high altar). This Pilgrimage would incorporate the history of locations visited to liturgical music in general and would be exclusively Extraordinary Form liturgies. Daily sung Mass, possibly some Divine Office.

Currently, we are looking at a trip of eleven days (including travel time).

• 9/7/2023 - travel day
• 9/8/2023 - Feast of the Nativity of the BVM
• 9/9/2023 - likely votive BVM
• 9/10/2023 - Pentecost XV
• 9/11/2023 - likely Requiem for victims and responders of the 9/11 attack
• 9/12/2023 - Holy Name of Mary
• 9/13/2023 - likely votive of Ss. Peter and Paul
• 9/14/2023 - Feast of the Holy Cross
• 9/15/2023 - Feast of the Seven Sorrows
• 9/16/2023 - Ss. Cornelius and Cyprian (possible travel day)
• 9/17/2023 - Pentecost XVI - travel day

Some very exciting possibilities have been discussed for the director(s) as well as the priest to lead the retreat, and of course, for the repertoire.

You can find out more information as details are identified for either the Sacred Music Retreat in Minnesota this August, or the Sacred Music Pilgrimage in 2023 at our Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/Aug8.Aug12.2018/

As usual, the "weekend" came very late, with other issues arising.

However, REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN! Attached below please find the information packet / registration form!