Catholic Music Initiative?
  • MarkB
    Posts: 1,078
    Have any of you used their resources? Their website is terribly vague about what they offer, and it doesn't even provide information about subscription cost without signing up for an account. That's a red flag to me.

    https://www.catholicmusicinitiative.org/

    I've hardly ever seen a website so polished to look at that tells you almost nothing about the organization and what it offers. I'm skeptical that they offer anything valuable, otherwise they'd be specific.

    The only reason I came to the website is because the founders of CMI, who seem like nobodies, were the music directors for the National Eucharistic Congress. The liturgical music for the Congress was eclectic, I'd say, with strong use of Source & Summit vernacular chants, traditional English and Latin hymns, and too much Evangelical praise & worship. They also used the CMI founders' Mass setting, Mass of Peace, which has some nice melodies in it but ultimately doesn't work well, in my opinion.

    Notably, the music at the stadium congress liturgies did not include any OCP or GIA music. It was mostly what you would find in the Source & Summit hymnal with some Evangelical praise & worship thrown in. OCP and GIA have been smacked down to have their music totally disregarded at a high-visibility national Catholic conference sponsored by the USCCB.

    I can't get a handle on what CMI offers. It seems to be a touring P&W band that records and plays music ostensibly for use at Mass. So what?
    Thanked by 3MatthewRoth LauraKaz irishtenor
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,278
    Yeah, and the musical execution varied terribly such that I am critical but also ever more committed to teaching chant. Correct notes do not mean that you are chanting well. They did better with DUGUET (in parts!) than WERNER for the O Salutaris at the large adoration sessions.

    I would guess that they have some link to the broader charismatic world of which Bishop Cozzens is a key figure. He is the first NET Ministries member named to the episcopate.

    Also they did use some OCP music according to this.
    Thanked by 2Brian Michael Page LauraKaz
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,482
    I know their work very well. Avoid. Avoid.
    Thanked by 7Brian Michael Page ServiamScores CHGiffen LauraKaz Liam GrantFarragher irishtenor
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,211
    Yes, Matthew, one of the speakers sang part of a St. Louis Jesuits song in his talk and some attendees sang along. I do hope it didn't obligate the Congress organization to buy an OCP license.

    It was good to hear antiphons from Source and Summit in the Masses, and to see Adam Bartlett directing the choir in some other works: e.g., the Duruflé Ubi caritas. Also, I was pleased to hear Kathleen Pluth's contest-winning hymn Let The Earth Acclaim Christ Jesus in the long entrance procession on Sunday.
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • CantorCole
    Posts: 63
    I'd rather they used vernacular antiphons adapted from the original Gregorian repetoire, rather than bland and short, newly composed English antiphons.
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