It’s from 2019 so…

I noticed he re-released it yesterday. The Pope also published a list of Vatican II documents that the laity should be familiar with, which didn’t include Musica Sacra, but it did include other documents that weren’t particularly relevant to the laity (ie: on the priesthood, sacred liturgy). Perhaps this was his way of subtly letting the laity (including OCP) know what Vatican II said about sacred music now that the Pope is bringing up Vatican II again.

And it came out before the first edition of the postconciliar Roman Missal was published in 1970.

@ SponsaChristi,

I have often read, heard, and even thought or talked about Sacrosanctum concilium and Musicam sacram as though they were both produced by the Council. My comment was meant to distinguish between the two. I apologize if I mis-read your comment.

I am a music director in Portland.

I was baptized in March 2024 and started the job that December, so I'm new to this.

Portland has several parishes with excellent music. There is a very strong community of traditionally-minded Catholics, whether they choose NO or TLM Masses. There are several options for TLMs in the city which all have beautifully chanted Gregorian Propers and polyphony regularly. The NO Masses with more traditional music are easy to find and filled with young families.

Since I'm so new, I can't speak to what it was like before the Archbishop's letter was released. There are certainly still parishes that seem to completely ignore it. One of my friends works at a middle school where they use a drum set at the school Mass. But I don't know many people from those parishes. I sing around town at 4 different parishes and all of them have excellent and beautiful music.

I will tell you what has been going on at our parish in regards to this letter:

Our pastor is good friends with Archbishop Sample. He's been at this parish for about 7 years and when he got here the music was very modern with the choir in the sanctuary and all that, but step by step he's made changes so that by the time I got there, every Sunday we were chanting the Mass Ordinaries in Latin, singing the Entrance and Communion propers before their respective hymns, and chanting in Latin the proper Marian Antiphon for the season after Mass.

When I took over from the previous music director the pastor and I decided to take out Entrance and Recessional hymns except for during Christmas and Easter and some other Solemnities. The congregation loves the music for the most part, they love the more traditional sounding hymns (we use the St. Michael Hymnal) and they don't mind when we sing in Latin. Many of them tell me they love when we sing Gregorian chant and Polyphony (which is unfortunately rare because we have a very small choir who cannot rehearse often).

This year I am introducing the Offertory chant before the hymn. I'd love to switch up the Mass Ordinaries depending on the season but our congregation is split on that - when we did Missa de Angelis for Christmas, several people complained to me and several others thanked me.

SPANISH MASS:
When I started this job, I was to take on both the Spanish Mass and the English Mass. The previous music director only did the English Mass, and music at the Spanish Mass was run by volunteers. It was not in accordance with the Archbishop's letter, and despite being given the letter and asked to change the music, it was not changed. When I started the pastor asked me to bring the music in the Spanish Mass fully into accord with the Archbishop's letter, e.g. to do the same thing at the Spanish Mass that we were doing with the English Mass - the biggest change being chanting the Mass Ordinary in Latin. We did it, and our pastor is very happy about it. The congregation, well, some of them absolutely love it. And others...we don't see them anymore.

Hope this is interesting to someone. I'm happy to answer any other questions.

I honestly don't know, I wondered the same thing when I first read the letter as I began this work. I always thought it would be fun to be the person going around helping parishes make their music better.

Yes, I'm glad it was re-released and I am looking forward to attending the colloquium.

Baby Boomers in the city of Portland revolted in places where a shift change of pastors brought about immediate changes to musical style. Some stopped attending church altogeter. Some drive around to find Mary Haugen, etc. It appears that there are only three parishes in Portland that have musicians who are members of the American Guild of Organists. There are many members of NPM, and one can decide for oneself what that might mean in practice.

Thanks everyone, especially Portland locals, for your replies. I actually didn't realize when I posted that this is a re-release of a 2019 document. I even asked chonak to remove it, but he said he thought it was relevant and useful.

I have an academic (theoretical/impractical) question about one particular instruction from the letter. Near the bottom of page 18, in the physical presence subsection, it says: "Except for cantors, and psalmists at the appropriate time, musicians and choirs should never be located in the sanctuary of a church."

Traditionally, insofar as a schola is executing a liturgical function, they are ideally supposed to be "in choir" or vested and singing from a central and relatively prominent place just in front of the sanctuary. Since that's not technically in the sanctuary, this sentence from the letter appears technically aligned with that, but the reference to psalmists and cantors being allowed to sing from the sanctuary (the ambo) seems to suggest that he's just thinking of everything inside the communion rail as the sanctuary, meaning in effect that a schola should never be located inside the chancel.

Leaving aside that most North American churches are not designed for this, having lofts rather than choir stalls and also relatively 'flattened' sanctuaries/chancels, does it remain theoretically true in the NO that the schola ought to be in choir?

It doesn't fully answer my question, but I suppose there is no clearcut answer anyway.

Abp. Sample makes a good note, somewhat buried however, that each hour at sung mass should equal 2 hours of choir preparation. I wish he had made a bigger deal of it, since from what I've seen neglect of/resistance to practicing is an issue with NO choirs. I've never seen this issue at a comparable scale with TLM choirs, it's an interesting cultural split.

We could make better use of our time for technique and warm-up and frankly starting on time

We struggle there. A lot.

Just start on time regardless of how many people are there.

What if I'm the only person there? Or it's just me and two others who can sight-sing (and really don't need the intensive practice some other singers require)? It's a full 30-45 min before everyone straggles in and we can be productive.

Starting later doesn't help the late people be on time. They will be late no matter how long you delay the start time.

It's a full 30-45 min before everyone straggles in and we can be productive.

That’s ridiculous and unacceptable. It would never be tolerated in any other choir that isn’t a volunteer church choir. It’s disrespectful to those who do get there on time. Is there a legitimate reason they’re late that can be worked around (ie change when rehearsals are), or something else? Maybe it’s time for a hard conversation about commitment, teamwork, respect, fulfilling the duties of one’s state in life, the vice of sloth and virtue of diligence.

Is locking the door on chronic latecomers an option? It’s not exactly unbiblical.

That’s ridiculous and unacceptable. It would never be tolerated in any other choir that isn’t a volunteer church choir. It’s disrespectful to those who do get there on time. Is there a legitimate reason they’re late that can be worked around (ie change when rehearsals are), or something else? Maybe it’s time for a hard conversation about commitment, teamwork, respect, fulfilling the duties of one’s state in life, the vice of sloth and virtue of diligence.

Is locking the door on chronic latecomers an option? It’s not exactly unbiblical.

I agree, and it's been the topic of conversation many times. I also want to preface this by saying I'm not the director, but the accompanist. But I end up running a lot of the rehearsals and doing the majority of teaching for reasons (and yes, I'm feeling disgruntled about it to the point that I've considered just walking away).

Some of it is cultural, where many of them belong to cultural groups that tend to have a much more lax sense of time generally. But I am assuming they get to their jobs and school relatively on time, so they are capable of doing it. We have tried changing rehearsal times, and it just shifts them later. The building is locked, but there are other users in the building, so they are let in anyway.

The conversation about "fulfilling the duties of one's state in life" is a tough one, because that is part of the problem for at least a couple of them who have pivotal roles. And I get that there are seasons in life where you just can't. I have stepped away for years at a time because of my kids etc. But unless they're giving their best, I kinda don't want them there anyway. The problem is that they need to recognize that for themselves and make the choice voluntarily. My gentle suggestion that maybe this isn't a good season for them and they should feel like they can take the time they need wasn't well-received in the past.

Non-attendance is a problem, and then they show up at Mass (often late) and try to sing without really knowing their part. I've clamped down on that, refusing to hand out music to people who did not attend rehearsal (and actually hiding the music so other people can't be "helpful" and distribute it). They can sing from the hymnal all they want if they don't attend rehearsal, but it's unfair to the rest who have worked on the motets if they can't be bothered to show up and learn their parts (or even practice them on their own, because I do sometimes send out practice links on the group chat).

In short, it's highly dysfunctional and extremely frustrating. We are capable of so much, but the current dynamics make it almost impossible to get thing done. The only thing that has kept me from walking away is that, without an accompanist (and there is no obvious replacement for me at this time) that Mass would suffer, and I truly believe everyone should benefit from having a Mass with music on a Sunday.

There's also this general disinterest in things like church documents and instructions regarding music. There is no desire to adopt best practices and explore what it means to "sing the Mass". I have tried taking leadership on that, only to be disappointed with the lack of interest. I have decided recently to stop taking any kind of leadership role and just "show up" for the time being while I pray and figure out what to do next.

/rant