Pursuing Excellence in Music to Glorify God
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    Hi, everyone, I thought I'll just share my short reflection on the children's music program, which I'll be sending to parents of my homeschooling community before I start the schola class in the fall.


    At the Colloquium this year, we had a privilege of hearing Madeleine Choir school children. Their singing quality was superb! After the concert, they received a long standing ovation. And all the adult musicians there felt quite 'small' (humble) in front of those children who work so hard to provide such a beautiful music for the glory of God. For the next two days we also had master classes with the music teacher and a few children from the choir school. All the children at the school (K-8) have a music class everyday and a choir rehearsal everyday after school for the children from 4th grade and above. They sing everyday for the daily Mass, in addition to Solemn High Mass on Sundays and Feast days. They have concerts, tours and etc., including singing at Vatican. We couldn't have imagined that in Mormon city, Salt Lake City has the best kept Catholic children's choir and choir school. But it makes sense that the small number of Catholics there try to keep up with the high standard of music from the Mormon choir and the excellent musical culture. The children are truly serious with the music. I didn't see any teens showing 'attitudes' towards music that are common in other areas. Do they really live in a different environment? How do you get such a tremendous support from parents? For them, music is the 'thing' they do, I was told, and everything else comes after music. I dream a day when all the cathedrals in each diocese have their own choir schools and educate children to provide the best music to glorify God. In this way children also learn to work hard in their daily life and to offer the best to God.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us5i2RIdVNE

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjoEPgl5KOA&feature=endscreen

    “The musical tradition of the universal Church is
    a treasure of inestimable value,
    greater even than that of any other art.
    The main reason for this pre-eminence is that,
    as sacred song united to the words,
    it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.”
    112, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium
    solemnly promulgated by his holiness Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963

    “As a manifestation of the human spirit,” said John Paul II in 1989, “music performs a function which is noble, unique, and irreplaceable. When it is truly beautiful and inspired, it speaks to us more than all the other arts of goodness, virtue, peace, of matters holy and divine. Not for nothing has it always been, and will it always be, an essential part of the liturgy.”
    Thanked by 2noel jones, aago CHGiffen
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Since returning home from the colloquium I’ve thought a lot about the Madeleine Choir School phenomenon and wonder in particular why it happened in Salt Lake City and not somewhere else. Could it be that the predominant Mormon culture, and the importance it gives to music as a public relations tool, asserts an influence? Did that make the Catholic minority want to erect a superior music enterprise of its own?

    Does living in an isolated conservative environment, with a kind of inbred opposition to popular trends and tastes, make the endeavor of classical music education easier? (My son has played Salt Lake City a couple of times with his rock band and he tells me they are indeed a different kind of audience.) And being the primary Catholic presence in a rather small city, does the Salt Lake City cathedral confront the same hurdles as in larger Eastern cities where competition for available talent reduces the odds of assembling a top-notch professional adult ensemble to sing with the children. [We have that problem at the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School. Why should a good counter-tenor or tenor, often a grad student and cash-starved, want to sing at St. Paul’s when they can get more money at the Episcopal Church of the Advent or Trinity Church?]

    Or is it a matter of just plain luck? The Cathedral of the Madeleine was able to purchase the former Episcopal day school property for a song (no pun intended) and just happened to have someone as astute as Msgr. Mannion as rector.

    Perhaps a transplanted Salt Lake City native like Arlene could weigh in.
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