Well,for many years, the CMAA kept a low profile, publishing Sacred Music and holding the Colloquium. As everyone knows, those were difficult years for Catholic church music in general. Our new times, however, have given new energy and purpose to the CMAA, and we are probably just seeing the beginnings of what could turn into something truly spectacular. Already the Chant Intensive has broken records for attendance at a week-long, chant-only teaching program. And the Colloquium has increased by 50% each year for 4 years, and this year might double last year, or more. Also, technology has been a great help here, obviously.

Randolph Nichols,
I am curious to know exactly where you live in New England? I'm guessing Massachusetts since you mentioned Boston, but I may be wrong. I was just wondering since I'll be headed back to Vermont as a DM in May after I graduate from college.

Down here in the wilds of northeast Florida, attempts to organize some local NPM chapter have never gone anywhere. AGO chapters seem to do better because of the Episcopalians. NPM has the money for large-scale mailings to clergy and diocesan staff, etc. I think CMAA will continue to grow through technology and word-of-mouth marketing.

Just tell everyone you know about the organization. You don't know where your words will spread.

Word of mouth is always an excellent idea, and I will certainly try to bring aboard as many folks as I can. The CMAA has made a tremendous impact on me, and I'd be remiss in not sharing it with others!

My experiences with local chapters are vastly different from MJ's and Randolph's, however. I live in NJ, where there are 5 NPM Chapters, 3 of which are extremely active (1 of them was actually acting in place of a diocesan Office of Worship for a long time), and 8 or 9 AGO Chapters, all with active memberships. I have been both an NPM Chapter Director and an AGO Dean, and know both organizations inside and out. Again, here in NJ.

Since their inceptions, these 3 very busy NPM chapters have been influencing DOM's, Organists, and other folks who have an impact on our liturgy, and have been leading them down the errant trail. Rather well, I might add, sadly. They are extremely well organized and hold a variety of events and workshops/training sessions annually. At the early stages in my career, they were the first ones to reach out to me to offer help and guidance on how to properly "plan" a liturgy. In these session, no mention of any documents other than MCW and LMT was ever made. I didn't learn about Pius X's Tra le solecitudini, the documents from the 40's and 50's, Musicam Sacram, etc., until I started doing my own research. What a shocking eye opener that was!

My point is that counter-catechesis (or better yet, correct-catechesis) is sorely needed, and the best way for it to happen is on an interpersonal, social level, not through a computer or magazine. How much further along would we be in correctly celebrating the OF/NO if musicians were properly trained from the beginning, instead of having to be corrected on the music they thought was 'proper' to the liturgy and have been doing for the past 20, 30 or more years? I know that I certainly would have benefited from proper liturgical training at the onset. Furthermore, mutual, local support among colleagues from within the same organization leads to strong community building. I have witnessed this firsthand among the local NPM chapters. They're doing something right here in NJ; unfortunately it's neither liturgy nor sacred music.

I'm another newbie, who is very grateful for CMAA. My mailbox at work is always full of the usual nonsense advertising. It's a shame that I have to use it to fill the dumpster!
Where I live OCP is the norm, and NPM is the standard to follow. Here's hoping this DOM can come to the Colloquium and get some inspiration.
Perhaps another idea is to start working with the young. Education is key, and what is going on in the Universities (with regards to Mass) is astounding.
-Colleen

If you think about it, already the progress in one year has been amazing. In 2005, there was essentially one chant event apart from the Colloq. In 2006, there were three or so. In 2007 there were something like 10-12.

Mary Jane

If you ever interested in doing a chant workshop in FL, give me a ring. I'd be glad to help organize from the other end of the state. Just think how many folks might want to come for a weekend in workshop in say, February!

Mike

Michael O'Connor - What a great idea! You could bring your men. I could bring my women. And you're right - we could do this somewhere in the middle with good access from Orlando.

Filthy lucre.
That is why CMAA isn't further along, and why a seemingly similar organization that pushes products on which money is to be made has prospered.
But the equalizing effect of the Internet has helped CMAA immensely, it has made the networking, and the dissemination of information possible, despite remaining un-bankrolled by anyone with a financial incentive to do so.
I could be remembering wrong, but I thought it skimming through an old copy of Sacred Music I read about a colloquium being cancelled because the people who were interested, people like us but of a generation earlier, simply couldn't afford to get together. (Can anyone confirm my memory?)
So much of what we are doing now, include just camaraderie and moral support, would have cost more than we are likely to make at our Church jobs, had we to rely on snail mail, long distance phone calls, finding and distributing photocopies of documents and music.
But I imagine we will see local chapters at some point.
Just think about this workshop in Lafayette, Indiana this weekend, Gregorian chant, working with Fr Samuel Weber.
(FREE to participants.)
Think of the very reasonable workshops in Alabama. Think of the Chabanel project. Think of CPDL.
All grass roots efforts.
Yes I'm quite sure chapters will come. W're social critters.:o)
Chris, where in NJ?
Write me at GeriOMHildreth AT aol DOT com if you care to.

(Save the Liturgy, save the World!)

Michael O'Connor - you're on my calendar. We'll talk after school's out. And keep up the good work down there.

Anyone interested in networking CMAA folks in Galveston-Houston, TX, shoot me a line at music@ctrcc.com.

Even a local mailing list, informal gatherings, etc. could be done, and I would be interested to meet other local CMAA members.

I agree, Musico48. If for no other reason than the fact that we are all brothers and sisters in the same Christ Jesus, we must not isolate ourselves, but rather reach out to NPMers and other Catholic musicians for mutual prayer and discourse. Imagine how wonderful our Masses and liturgies could be as more and more Catholic DOMs discover the true nature of our sung liturgy, and move away from the self-praising music that is found in the 'popular' hymnals around the U.S.

I echo the sentiments of Felipe and Francis and invite anyone in the NJ/NYC area to make contact with me for an informal gathering. Perhaps a summer picnic? I may be reached either through www.musicatstmarys.org or directly at c_deibert@yahoo.com.

I'm pretty sure that all of us want to reach out to the masses and be unified in liturgical music, but the current situation at NPM is IMO beyond reform. They are far too connected to the publishers. I say build CMAA on a solid foundation and reach out to our fellow musicians in Christian charity and encourage them to see what it has to offer. NPM wasn't built in a day (well, maybe it was, but that means it will go away about as quickly).

Chris- I'm 3 hrs outside NYC- but still interested in a regional chapter. I've got little kiddos, so going to Chicago (and for a week!) is probably out of the picture this year. Even a picnic sounds great. 2 for the NY chapter!

Though there may not be a huge contingent of CMAA types in central WI, I would love to see a local organization of people who get together to chant and sing polyphony for fun, practice, and moral support. If anyone happens upon this who's interested in that, please contact me, darcy - at - catholicsacredmusic.com. (We're organizing a chant workshop for this fall too, which may be an excuse to gather from wider areas for a weekend - saintpetercatholic.com.)

Yes, Jeffrey, this forum is certainly a great impetus for all of us and a much needed foundation on which to promote Musica Sacra, and we are ever so grateful to you and all of the CMAA staff and members! Long Live Musica Sacra and the CMAA! (forever, in fact!)

I think this all goes back to two very important points:

1) NPM is part of the "liturgical-industrial complex." The publishers control the materials available, the NPM chapters and national control the dissemination of the information through workshops, conventions, seminars and their own publications and together they impact (in almost insidious ways) the way liturgical/musical decisions are made at not only the parish level but even at the diocesan level. Just check out the leadership at your diocesan worship or liturgy office, and find out how many of them are connected in some high-level way with NPM at the local chapter or national level. Or, find out what connections they may have to one of the Big Three publishers. Either their music (or texts for music) have been published, or their philosophies have been via the various magazines from those same publishers. (Jeffrey Tucker I believe wrote a brilliant piece that exposed this connection). I commented last fall on the rather suspicious list of folks who had been tapped by the USCCB to serve as advisors to the CDW and the subcommittee on music. With the exception of Leo Nestor, they were all folks with some kind of connection with the "usual suspect" publishers.

2) NPM is an outgrowth of Universa Laus, an organization which very early on in its history worked to gain legitimacy with the Holy See. I find it ironic that CMAA is an outgrowth of the Consociatio, the first organization formed after the Council with papal approbation devoted to the study of music in the reform, and yet NPM is the one that enjoys such legitimacy. I raised this question very early on in my participation on this forum.

I think that technology and the current winds blowing from the Holy See will put our ship to sea. But until and unless we can figure out away to develop some structure including financial organization, we'll play second fiddle to the pandering, patronizing NPM newchurch crowd.

Please forgive me if this comes off as a sweeping generalization. It is only my personal observation.

There is the top down model (NPM, OCP, etc.) and then there is the grass roots model. I have found that those who come to the CMAA are (in general) after what the Church espouses concerning sacred music. The members appear to be independent thinkers and movers concerning authentic sacred music, are always striving to the highest ideal in pursuit of that goal. The other organizations seem to thrive on the relationship of one member to another, and place the highest value upon what each other have to say, think, feel and offer (without caring about how their perspective aligns itself with the church) rather than an ideal which is found in tradition, church documents, etc.

I doubt that the CMAA will ever stray from the grass-roots, free-if-possible model during my lifetime. For now, there is no temptation toward the top-down, big-money, corporate model, simple because, well, that would be just pretending. The whole operation is highly leveraged, wildly speculative, and based completely on the human energy of its members, lots of faith and prayer, and nothing else.

Darcy wrote:

Also, if you want to put big publishing houses out of business, what better way than to offer for free/cheap replacements for what they are selling at high cost?

Unless you’re casting a stone at all vocal music publishers, this makes no sense. OCP, GIA, and WLP charge the same range of fees as other American publishers for their octavos. Even though we may balk at the low musical quality of this or that piece, those octavo fees cover non-musical-quality things like typesetting, proofreading, copyright of texts that another publisher may own, etc. etc.

More problematic for the publishers, IMO, is CPDL. I’ll probably never buy an edition of Palestrina “Sicut” because the CPDL editions are perfectly suitable and, in this case, reliable.

How about the Ft. Worth area? Any CMAA members out there?