To satiate my severe boredom over the last several weeks, I've begun compiling my dream library on Amazon in the form of a shopping list. The idea was a "let's put in everything you might ever possibly need EVER in your Sacred Music career" sort of thing. Figured I might share it with you folks, since you all seem very nice, just for kicks and giggles!
The list is pretty thorough if you ask me. So thorough it's almost absolutely ridiculous. I haven't dared count the number of books, much less their price tags! I couldn't hope to ever read (or afford) most of these books anyway, thus I emphasize this is mostly for fun.
You'll find several general categories including: - General Sacred Music - Liturgy - Vatican II / Liturgical Movement - Chant - Choral Conducting - Vocal Technique and Pedagogy - Aesthetics - Scripture and Theology - Latin - General Spirituality - and a few miscellaneous things along the way (including a couple items to foster my semi-healthy coffee "appreciation")
I'm not (yet) an organist, so you'll find that area to be lacking. But tell me in the comments: is there anything you might add? Anything I missed that is an absolute MUST HAVE? Anything on the list that's would be unforgivingly toxic for my mind to take in? Let me know what you think in!
P.S. I should make it known that I do already have a number of essentials on my bookshelf, such as a Triplex plus a number of smaller chant reads, Rutler's "Stories of Hymns," Ratzinger's collected liturgy works, von Hildebrand's "Aesthetics", Foley's "Drinking with the Saints" ;) and more. But enough about my library! I want to hear you brag about yours!
I gotta admit: I've been looking for resources to add to my library as I seek to develop skill as a liturgical historian and musicologist, and found this list helpful.
Now that I had a chance to scroll through the entire list I ended up buying several of those on kindle, ranging from CS Lewis' comments on the psalms to the visions of Ms. Emmerich, to a book about the O antiphons to another about consecration to St. Joseph. Thanks for the list!
I thought the book by Bonneterre on The Liturgical Movement sounded interesting, but it seems it descends into a Masonic Conspiracy Theory; so I won't be paying money for it.
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