Greetings from Chicago, that toddling town, city of the big shoulders. City where it takes 2 hours on the train from O'Hare to Loyola. A trip that is worth the trouble because of the beauty of Lake Michigan, for one thing. I have never, sheltered as I've been, seen a lake whose horizons disappear. The lake bottom seems to drop twenty fathoms within 20 feet of the shore.
I've gazed interminably at the Pacific, and I've got a good sense of the Atlantic. But this lake--clearly one of God's great gifts to the human race, is something else again. I'll have to go see about this tomorrow if I have a free moment.
However, it looks like free moments will be far from plentiful, here at the annual Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. From 7:15 am to 6 pm, not counting meals which are important social/ networking times, I count 2 fifteen minute breaks. And then a full evening from 7 to 9:30, so there will be precious little time for gazing at the water!
Professor William Mahrt of Stanford gave a rousing opening talk about liturgical music: its beauty, sacrality, and universality. One excellent point: music might be very beautiful, but still fail to be sacred enough for liturgy. He gave the example of a Beethoven sonata he had heard once in church. "Why are they playing this parlor music at church?" was his reaction. Music evokes a place, and piano music--even great piano music--evokes a sense of place that is different from the liturgical place, the church. Contrariwise, he said, where else could you ever hear chant, "in place," except in a church?
I would guess that the greatest thing about the Colloquium is its immersion character. We're singing what we talk about. I've signed up for one of the polyphonic Masses, Victoria's Missa simile est regnum. I'll sing alto, which is always more fun than soprano. Almost never as beautiful, but always more fun.
I've gazed interminably at the Pacific, and I've got a good sense of the Atlantic. But this lake--clearly one of God's great gifts to the human race, is something else again. I'll have to go see about this tomorrow if I have a free moment.
However, it looks like free moments will be far from plentiful, here at the annual Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. From 7:15 am to 6 pm, not counting meals which are important social/ networking times, I count 2 fifteen minute breaks. And then a full evening from 7 to 9:30, so there will be precious little time for gazing at the water!
Professor William Mahrt of Stanford gave a rousing opening talk about liturgical music: its beauty, sacrality, and universality. One excellent point: music might be very beautiful, but still fail to be sacred enough for liturgy. He gave the example of a Beethoven sonata he had heard once in church. "Why are they playing this parlor music at church?" was his reaction. Music evokes a place, and piano music--even great piano music--evokes a sense of place that is different from the liturgical place, the church. Contrariwise, he said, where else could you ever hear chant, "in place," except in a church?
I would guess that the greatest thing about the Colloquium is its immersion character. We're singing what we talk about. I've signed up for one of the polyphonic Masses, Victoria's Missa simile est regnum. I'll sing alto, which is always more fun than soprano. Almost never as beautiful, but always more fun.
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