The Oratory Birmingham - Blessed John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    I recently met an Englishman who told me, very happily, that he is able to attend daily Mass at the Brompton Oratory on his way to work every day. I've heard that there is an initiative afoot at the Oratory now, at the Birmingham Oratory, to bring truly sacred music to many more UK parishes.

    The Blessed John Henry Newman Institute for Liturgical Music is a new venture by the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory in association with the Maryvale Institute under the joint patronage of Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and James MacMillan, the celebrated Catholic Composer.

    The purpose of the Institute is to provide a general formation in liturgical music, so that the Sunday liturgy in parishes may benefit from a doctrinal, liturgical and musical formation. The Institute is to be launched on Saturday, September 17th at the Oratory, Birmingham, to mark the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman, and to inaugurate a term of study mornings and evenings particularly designed to promote the music associated with the new translation of the Mass which will come into effect at Advent.

    More here:
    http://www.oratorymusic.org.uk/index.asp
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    From the Inaugural Address:

    "This may well frighten some people. Music, they may say, is for the experts, for the choir or the music group, but not for the priest, deacon, lector, or even the entire congregation. Some may object that it is simply too difficult or too unfamiliar, but if you look closely at the Missal without prejudice, it is possible to see that the music written there is not designed to be sung by experts, but by anybody. It is designed to be an ordinary and familiar expression of the faith of the Church in action. It may seem unfamiliar at first, because we have long since grown to be unfamiliar with the idea of singing the Mass, as opposed to singing during the Mass. What the Church invites us to do in receiving the new translation is to learn to recognise it as something “beyond the prosaic” . Music, even very simple chants, help to achieve that end."
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