Sacred Music Spring 2018 | Volume 145, Number 1
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yp Dedit fragílibus córporis férculum, Dedit et trístibus sánguinis póculum. (Thomas Aquinas) Sacred Music Spring 2018 | Volume 145, Number 1 Editorial Education | William Mahrt . 3 Articles Sacred Music at Boys Town | Ann Labounsky . 7 Georgia Stevens, R.S.C.J., Indefatibable Educator, and the Pius X School of Liturgical Music | Francis Brancaleone . 14 Recollections and Reflections on the Palestrina Institute of Ecclesiastical Music: A Pioneer in Catholic Liturgical Music Education in Detroit (1943–1970) | Francis Brancaleone . 31 Repertory The Tract Commovisti and “Motion Sunday” | William Mahrt . 55 Review Now I Walk in Beauty: 100 Songs and Melodies for School and Choir collected and edited by Wilko Brouwers | Jeffrey Morse . 62 CMAA Announcements . 64 Formed as a continuation of Cæcilia, published by the Society of St. Cæcilia since 1874, and The Catholic Choir- master, published by the Society of St. Gregory of America since 1915. Published quarterly by the Church Music Association of America since its inception in 1964. Office of Publication: 12421 New Point Drive, Richmond, VA 23233. Email: [email protected]; Website: www. musicasacra.com Editor William Mahrt Managing editor Jennifer Donelson Editor at large Kurt Poterack Ty pesetter Judy Thommesen Membership & Circulation: CMAA, P.O. Box 4344, Roswell, NM 88202 Church Music Association of America Officers and board of directors President William Mahrt Vice- president Horst Buchholz Secretary Mary Jane Ballou Treasurer Adam Wright Chaplain Father Robert Pasley Director of Publications Jeffrey Tucker Directors Jennifer Donelson, David Hughes, Susan Treacy, Edward Schaefer, Jonathan Ryan Directors emeriti Rev. Father Ralph S. March, S.O.Cist.†, Kurt Poterack, Paul F. Salamunovich†, Calvert Shenk†, Very Rev. Monsignor Richard J. Schuler†, Rev. Father Robert Skeris, Scott Turkington General manager Janet Gorbitz Membership in the Church Music Association of America includes a subscription to the quarterly journal Sa- cred Music. Membership is $60.00 annually (U.S.), $60 (Canada), and $65 (other countries). Parish membership is $300 (U.S. and Canada), $325 (other) for six copies of each issue. Single copies are $15.00. Send requests and changes of address to Sacred Music, P.O. Box 4344, Roswell, NM 88202. Make checks payable to the Church Music Association of America. Online membership: www.musicasacra.com. Sacred Music archives for the years 1974 to the present are available online at www.musicasacra.com/archives. LC Control Number: sf 86092056 Sacred Music is indexed in the Catholic Periodical and Literature Index, Music Index, Music Article Guide, and Arts and Humanities Index. © Copyright 2017 by the Church Music Association of America. This work is licensed under a Creative Com- mons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. ISSN: 0036-2255 Sacred Music is published quarterly for $60.00 per year by the Church Music Association of America. P.O. Box 4344, Roswell, NM 88202. Periodicals postage paid at Richmond, VA and at additional mailing offi cies. USPS number 474-960. Postmaster: Send address changes to SACRED MUSIC, P.O. Box 4344, Roswell, NM 88201-9613. Editoral Education When it comes to educating ourselves in sacred music, to what should we devote our attention? by William Mahrt s church musicians, we must be choice of pieces is proposed for us there. The engaged in the project of educa- order is completely fixed for the extraordi- A tion. This issue ofSacred Music nary form, but the ordinary form gives a gives articles dealing with his- little leeway, allowing the choice of other torically significant institutions of educa- propers from the same season for pastoral tion in sacred music, but the program of reasons. Pastoral reasons are not developed, education must continue, and we ourselves but among them would be the difficulty of must be active individually as educators. learning new pieces each week—a piece can There are four main objects of our activ- be repeated from another Sunday to allow ity as educators. The first person we have to the choir to sing pieces they have learned educate is number one—ourselves. We need with difficulty. The development of a com- to develop our knowledge in three areas, plete repertory of Gregorian propers with repertory, interpretation, and documents. an inexperienced choir might take several There is a vast treasury of sacred music, years, and it could be that in one year, one both chant, polyphony, and concerted would learn all the communion antiphons, music upon which we can draw, and our the next year, the introits, and so forth. education includes developing sources for Alternatively, a choir could learn the prop- finding suitable repertory for our choirs to ers for one day, and then repeat them on sing. If we are singing Gregorian chant in another Sunday. Latin, then the sources are evident: follow- If we are singing Gregorian chant in ing the chants of the liturgical year simply English, the matter of selection is consider- means mastering the chants prescribed for ably more complex. At this point, there are the upcoming liturgical celebration. This numerous publications giving chant-like set- requires little research in terms of repertory: tings of the proper texts for the liturgy. It is the Graduale Romanum, Gregorian Missal, not necessary that all the propers be sung Liber Usualis are principal sources, and the from the same publication. In fact, Fr. Weber’s William Mahrt is the president of the CMAA and the editor of Sacred Music. Sacred Music | Spring 2018 Volume 145, Number 1 3 publication1 gives several progressively sim- exact style of your adaptation. On the other pler options for each day, including a discreet hand, English adaptations made by other reduction of the known Gregorian melody, a chant experts may not fulfill the demands simpler version, and the simplest version, set of your style as well. to psalm tones. One can elect propers from Our personal education concerning the each category, even mixing them in the course treasury of sacred polyphony can be quite of a single Mass. His most complete adapta- different. Education in the vast repertory of tion very well recalls the Gregorian melody, classical polyphony by just the four greatest but in my opinion, any reduction of the style composers, Palestrina, Lassus, Byrd, and of these pieces amounts to a reduction of the Victoria, could occupy one for a lifetime, solemnity which the Gregorian chants proj- and it would be time well spent. Still, there ect, which is one reason for using chant. are resources to identify works suitable for But many English versions are on offer, particular institutions and occasions. First published and on the internet. Our edu- among these is the Choral Public Domain cation means we master these collections. Library (CPDL). This has the advan- Perhaps a survey of all the publications, tage of presenting nearly thirty thousand examining one piece or one Sunday through online versions of choral music in pdfs and the whole group. This should include sing- other formats, which can be downloaded ing the pieces aloud several times, looking and freely copied.2 Some of them are pre- for how well the melody adapted to English sented in the format of such music typogra- sets the rhythm of the text, how easily it can phy programs as Finale or Sibelius, so that be sung, and, its overall melodic shape, that the user can edit the edition. I regularly use is how beautiful it is. It should also include CPDL for finding suitable repertory for the adaptation to English of full Gregorian my choir, but I also make other searches. propers, even comparing all with the Latin Our library has a fairly complete collection Gregorian chants. of publications of collected works of com- There is another option, and this is posers and of monumental anthologies of the option that traditional Anglo-Catho- particular repertories. I look through one lic choirs often exercised: make your own of these collections, estimating thematic adaptation of the Latin chant. This means appropriateness, voice ranges, difficulty, that your style of singing the chant has a etc. Sometimes I find a suitable piece and role in the actual drafting of the adaptation. search it on CPDL. Other times, I find a Depending how you treat the accent of the piece that looks particularly attractive, but text, rhythmic alterations, phrase structure, is not represented on CPDL and is also not and so forth in your performance, you may well known in the repertory. Occasionally, make the adaptation quite differently; in I have presented one such piece in the cat- any case, you will be able to make a con- egory “Repertory” in these pages. Quick vincing performance, which realizes the access to recordings of these works can be 1Fr. Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B., Th e Proper of the 2www.cpdl.org. Th e web site, as of March 10, 2018, Mass for Sundays and Solemnities (San Francisco: lists “at least 28,494 choral and vocal works by at Ignatius Press, 2014). least 2988 composers.” 4 Volume 145, Number 1 Sacred Music | Spring 2018 had on YouTube, which houses an extensive true for the rich variety of feast days through- collection of excellent recordings of sacred out the year, but also for the fundamentals of music (along with an amazing display of what the liturgy is and its role in prayer, both appalling material). private and collective. Occasional reference Another aspect of our own education is to the great spiritual writers of the past can in the study of liturgy. Classic works by such suggest some outside reading, that some will authors as Josef Jungmann, Louis Bouyer, actually do. Over the years, their dedication Romano Guardini, Pope Benedict and many to singing at Mass is strengthened substan- more can deepen our sense for the purpose tially by their sense for the liturgy.