The Alma Redemptoris Mater by Francisco Guerrero, which captivated us all in our last rehearsal, is now added to the polyphony links in the site sidebar. Here is a midi file.

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The polyphony packet for the choral sessions of the St. Cecilia Schola Sacred Music Workshop (February 24-25, 2006, Auburn, Alabama), under the direction of Scott Turkington, has been prepared. You can download the packet here. It contains the music that workshop attendees will work on.

• G.A. Palestrina: Super flumina | Sicut Cervus
• William Byrd: Ave verum
• Edward Elgar: Ave verum
• T. de la Victoria: Jesu dulcis memoria
• Felice Anerio: Christus factus est
• Orlandus Lassus: Jubilate Deo
• Hans Hassler: Dixit Maria

Download the packet | Go here to register today

Note: A folder with all music will be provided at the conference registration table.

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The Puer Natus Est Nobis is the Introit for Mass during the day at Christmas. These lines are the ones that have heralded the birth of Christ and a new dawn of hope for the world for centuries. May you hear them today in your parishes, and forever in your hearts.


The Saint Cecilia Schola Cantorum wishes you a blessed Christmas.

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The Schola is hosting its third annual Sacred Music Workshop, February 24-25, 2006, Auburn, Alabama. It's your opportunity to take part in the exciting world of gregorian chant and polyphony and its revival in our time. Whether you are just learning or seek more formal training, the workshop is designed for parish musicians who are working in the "real world" of the current liturgical moment. You can register online. Read more about it here.

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Glorious! That's how everyone in the schola feels about the Sweelinck Gaudete Omnes sung yesterday at Mass, Gaudete Sunday. The fear that it would unexpectedly "fall apart" like a house of cards did not materialize--we were actually very confident--and it fit magnificently into the overall structure of the liturgy, even with its bright synchopations and musical lights that are totally uncharacteristic of the schola.

We are so grateful for the experience, which everyone counts as a highlight of many years of singing at liturgy. We've all grown musically by taking on something that seemed impossible and working on it with total dedication and finally doing it in the liturgical setting for which is was written. Many of us had to fight back tears of joy as the last notes sounded.

We also received some wonderful news. The O Sacrum Convivium by Michael Lawrence, which the schola adores and has proven so incredibly effective this Fall, and has become the only modern composition we sing on a regular basis, has found a publisher. It is CanticaNova, which also operates the liturgical planning site we recommend above all others. The great news is that this treasure of a piece will become available for others to purchase in the future. We'll keep you abreast of the progress and link it as soon as it becomes available. Congratulations to Michael for his first of what we can only hope to be many publications!

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Valentino Miserachs Grau, president of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, has made a historic speech in defense of Sacred Music. This could turn out to be the beginning of radical change.

A few excerpts:

In fact, the almost outright ban on Latin and Gregorian chant seen over the past forty years is incomprehensible, especially in the Latin countries. It is incomprehensible, and deplorable.

Latin and Gregorian chant, which are deeply linked to the biblical, patristic, and liturgical sources, are part of that “lex orandi” which has been forged over a span of almost twenty centuries. Why should such an amputation take place, and so lightheartedly? It is like cutting off roots – now that there is so much talk of roots....

Gregorian chant sung by the assembly not only can be restored – it must be restored, together with the chanting of the “schola” and the celebrants, if a return is desired to the liturgical seriousness, sound form, and universality that should characterize any sort of liturgical music worthy of the name, as Saint Pius X taught and John Paul II repeated, without altering so much as a comma. How could a bunch of insipid tunes stamped out according to the models of the most trivial popular music ever replace the nobility and robustness of the Gregorian melodies, even the most simple ones, which are capable of lifting the hearts of the people up to heaven?

We have undervalued the Christian people’s ability to learn; we have almost forced them to forget the Gregorian melodies that they knew, instead of expanding and deepening their knowledge, including through proper instruction on the meaning of the texts. And instead, we have stuffed them full of banalities.

By cutting the umbilical cord of tradition in this manner, we have deprived the new composers of liturgical music in the living languages – assuming, without conceding, that they have sufficient technical preparation – of the indispensable “humus” for composing in harmony with the spirit of the Church.

We have undervalued – I insist – the people’s ability to learn. It is obvious that not all of the repertoire is suitable for the people: this is a distortion of the rightful participation that is asked of the assembly, as if, in the matter of liturgical chant, the people should be the only protagonist on the stage....

Do we want a revival of Gregorian chant for the assembly? It should begin with the acclamations, the Pater Noster, the ordinary chants of the Mass, especially the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. In many countries, the people were very familiar with the Credo III, and the entire ordinary of the Mass VIII “de Angelis,” and not only that! They knew the Pange Lingua, the Salve Regina, and other antiphons. Experience teaches that the people, following a simple invitation, will also sing the Missa Brevis and other easy Gregorian melodies that they know by ear, even if it’s the first time they have sung them. There is a minimal repertoire that must be learned, contained within the “Jubilate Deo” of Paul VI, or in the “Liber Cantualis.” If the people grow accustomed to singing the Gregorian repertoire suitable for them, they will be in good shape to learn new songs in the living languages – those songs, one understands, worthy of standing beside the Gregorian repertoire, which should always retain its primacy....

I would go so far as to say that without Gregorian chant, the Church is mutilated, and that there cannot be Church music without Gregorian chant.

The great masters of polyphony are even greater when they base themselves upon Gregorian chant, mining it for themes, modes, and rhythmic variations. This spirit imbuing their refined technique and this faithful adherence to the sacred text and the liturgical moment made Palestrina, Lasso, Victoria, Guerrero, Morales, and others great....

Gregorian chant must not remain in the preserve of academia, or the concert hall, or recordings; it must not be mummified like a museum exhibit, but must return as living song, sung also by the assembly, which will find that it satisfies their most profound spiritual tensions, and will feel itself to be truly the people of God.

It’s time to break through the inertia, and the shining example must come from the cathedral churches, the major churches, the monasteries, the convents, the seminaries, and the houses of religious formation. And so the humble parishes, too, will end up being “contaminated” by the supreme beauty of the chant of the Church.

And the persuasive power of Gregorian chant will reverberate, and will consolidate the people in the true sense of Catholicism.

And the spirit of Gregorian chant will inform a new breed of compositions, and will guide with the true “sensus Ecclesiae” the efforts for a proper enculturation. ...

We are waiting for authoritative directives, imparted with authority. And the coordination of all the local initiatives and practices is a service that rightfully belongs to the Church of Rome, to the Holy See. This is the opportune moment, and there is no time to waste.

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The Sweelinck Project--three months of focused work on Gaudete Omnes--comes to a close next week, following a completely thrilling rehearsal last night during which we ironed out some final rhythm issues and made some decisions concerning style. We have chosen a faster tempo but less dynamic affectations, along with a style the schola usually avoids: strong, crisp, bright, and unusually aggressive. We realized too that this piece in many ways seeks to use voices to replicate certain affects found on the organ, with particular stops and peddles. Thinking through the "role" that each part plays was very helpful in creating an exciting sound and feel.

Of course it also means that we are terribly behind for Christmas and after, and so to inspire renewed commitment and hard work, we are looking in a new direction: Spain, and , in particular, the "Pastores Dicite Quidnam Vidistis?" of Christobal de Morales (the midi is here). After that, we are looking at some Guerrero for January, February, and perhaps for Lent too! Again, this is unchartered territory for us, and we approach it with the hope that this repertoire will have the intuitive qualities of Croce and Palestrina with the mysteries and shadows of Josquin. The post-Sweelinck era awaits! Meanwhile, we have Gaudete Sunday for which to prepare.

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