A voice from a bygone age... I find this kind of recording so evocative. Just conjures up the sense of such a simplicity of faith, back when that was possible. I’ve always enjoyed the old recordings of the Men and Boys Choir from St Mary in Massillon, OH from the same era.

Cardinal O’Connell, “Juravit Dominos”

Thank you for sharing. You couldn’t find this in a millennium by searching.

42: - 44:

Queen Bohemiam Rhapsody

Apart from the fact that I find his melodies rather pedestrian (I went through his other stuff on ISMLP) that accompaniment figure popped out to me immediately, and on that basis alone, I would either have to rearrange it or simply not sing it at Mass, as too many people will recognize that lick immediately.

You can trash this beautiful hymn all you want, it won't diminish that this choir did a beautiful job singing this arrangement in honor of Our Lady and judging from the response of the congregation at this event says they most heartily agree. Don't underestimate the providence that can come from hearing beautiful hymns by accomplished composers like Rosewig and his contemporaries. When I sang this hymn at mass it was greatly appreciated.

Schonbergian appears to be a troll, unless he has direct (infused??) knowledge of how many souls were saved then as opposed to souls saved post-SLJ's.

Schonbergian appears to be a troll, unless he has direct (infused??) knowledge of how many souls were saved then as opposed to souls saved post-SLJ's.

I don't see what the salvation of souls has to do with good or bad music, as if the only reason we elevate i.e. chant is because it directly saves souls. That hardly makes me a "troll".

What is the "Dark Age of American Catholicism?"

The period from about 1880 to 1950 where banal music was promulgated by the self-appointed czars of Catholic music and enforced by partisan blacklists. How anyone could look at the age that produced Fr. Rossini's music and his antics as some sort of high point for American Catholicism is a mystery to me.

I almost commented on this thread last night, but in light of that other thread that complained this forum is too critical, I refrained. However, since someone else already started…

I mean no disrespect to the early posters in this thread, to whom O’Connell and Rosewig represent an era in which respect and devotion were practiced in Catholic churches, when faith was respected, and when artistic values included beauty and artistry. All which are goods.

However, as music goes, the pieces in the links above are pretty lousy music. They seem calculated to offer a pius soundscape with no particularly interesting musical features.
The harmony is heavily indebted to bel canto opera, but without the melodic gift of the great bel canto composers. Chromaticism is used not for rhetorical effect, but as a way to get to the next chord. The text is repeated over and over without any clear rhetorical or formal reason in the music.

When this music was written, it was the cutting edge of church music and comparable to music being written in France by Niedermeyer, Benoist, etc. so in it’s time and context, I don’t want to be too critical of it. And in the videos it is well performed.
But, in an age that is post- Saint-Saens and Vaughan Williams, after the major contributions to sacred music of Benedictine chant scholars, French organists, and English choirmasters, I really don’t understand why Catholics would want to promote Rosewig and O’Connell.
When people do promote it, it suggests to me that perhaps there is a lack of familiarity with the truly great sacred music of the last 150 years? Or that nostalgia for pre-conciliar sanity (which I share!) clouds the musical judgment.

The period from about 1880 to 1950 where banal music was promulgated by the self-appointed czars of Catholic music and enforced by partisan blacklists. How anyone could look at the age that produced Fr. Rossini's music and his antics as some sort of high point for American Catholicism is a mystery to me.

"High point for American Catholicism" /= "High point for American Catholic music."
"Publisher-driven repertoire" didn't begin in 1964.
Interestingly, those 2 dates bookend the careers of Bruno Oscar Klein and Eugeniusz Walkiewicz, so real music was being produced (and a few others of lesser but passable quality). The problem is that better music requires people capable of performing it, and those have always been in short supply here. And our understanding of the period is very publisher-mediated; consider Europe's riches of manuscript sacred music compared to that of the US.

As for Rosewig, I can be both unenthused by his music, and understanding of why others are enthused. There's a kind of appealing directness to it. That's such a Catholic thing: the Sistine chapel vs. billboards of neo-Aztec imagery of the Sacred Heart. The Church has never been at its best when attempting to legislate good taste.