The St. Cecilia Schola of St. Michaels in Auburn, Alabama, has been honored with an invitation to sing at the primary Sunday morning Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, Alabama, July 11, 2004, 10:30am. The Schola will sing a Mass setting by William Byrd, in addition to motets by T. de la Victoria and G. Palestrina. The Schola is grateful for the invitation and the financial support provided by the Archdiocese of Mobile.

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The Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord

Alleluia (Purcell)
Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise
Kyrie (Byrd)
O Quam Gloriosum (Victoria)
Vidi Aquam
Jubilate Deo (Mozart)
Regina Caeli (Lotti)
Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

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From Redemptionis Sacramentum (March 25, 2004)

It is the right of the community of Christ’s faithful that especially in the Sunday celebration there should customarily be true and suitable sacred music...

Except in the case of celebrations of the Mass that are scheduled by the ecclesiastical authorities to take place in the language of the people, Priests are always and everywhere permitted to celebrate Mass in Latin.

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5th Sunday of Easter (May 9)

Alleluia: O Quam Pulchra Est
Be Joyful, Mary
Gloria (new English)
Ave Maria (Monteverdi)
Regina Caeli (Chant)
Vidi Aquam
Let All Mortal Flesh...
Jubilate Deo (Mozart)
Hail, Holy Queen

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The Oregon Catholic Press, which is known today for its progressivism and commercialism in liturgical music, publishes not only Glory & Praise, but another dozen or so hymnals that year by year continue to make ever more inroads into US parishes. Its missals are the most widely used in the US. Its primary liturgy periodical, Today's Liturgy, is the main reference source for choosing hymns week to week.

The OCP is now offering recordings of chant alongside its other audio products. This along is a wonderful development, even a breakthrough. It is offering the book Western Plainchant by David Hiley, an excellent scholarly resource, as well as Chant Made Simple by Robert M. Fowells, published in 2000 as a clear and practical introduction.

But here is the change that is most notable. OCP is, for the first time, it is now offering and promoting materials from the chant tradition:

• The Liber Cantualis: a core selection of the best known chanted Mass parts and hymns.
  
• Liber Hymnarius: 400 Latin hymns for the Liturgy of the Hours.
  
• Gregorian Missal: Latin texts for the Mass for all Sundays and Solemnities.
  
• Graduale Romanum: the Mass propers for the entire year, plus the entire Kyriale with all chants.
  
• Graduale Triplex: The Graduale plus neumes from Laon and St. Gall family manuscripts.

Every one of these books is published and approved by the monks of the Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes in France, the monastery which has safeguarded and worked to perfect the chant for a thousand years and which still works today to keep liturgy and music integrated historically and theologically.

The OCP now joins the GIA, which goes out of its way these days to advertise its "early" music and claim that it has "more Gregorian chant resources than anyone, including the highly respected Solesmes." And, indeed, the GIA offers all the main chant resources of Solesmes. The Adoremus Hymnal of Ignatius offers a solid selection of chant for parishes, as does the Collegeville Hymnal of the Liturgical Press. CanticaNova has fully integrated chant into its selections for modern parish life. Even the old Liber Usualis continues to be available in new printings from St. Bonaventure publications.

With the concession of the OCP to offer Solesmes publications, however, the potential reach of this music into our parishes taken a huge leap forward. Even its advertising copy is significant for its quotations from Vatican II. Why is OCP doing this? In response to our query, OCP editor Michael Prendergast cites three considerations: "recent Roman documents," renewed interest, and the desire to satisfy customers.

More and more parishes are seeking out this material, and the OCP is highly sensitive to this shift. OCP has never been shy about its policy of publishing based on popularity. If we consider that music is integral to liturgy itself, the error of such a method becomes obvious. That the OCP may be yielding to market pressure to offer chant resources is ironic and sweetly so. Catholics, after all, are the first to celebrate redemption.

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