The Gothic Revolution

Music for a Rainy Sunday

Today's Gospel was the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which includes the Parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. The Psalm treated so beautiful below was the responsorial Psalm for today, the penitential 51st Psalm: Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness. In the greatness of Your compassion, wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash me from my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin.

How I spent my summer vacation: the video

SACRED, BEAUTIFUL, & UNIVERSAL: Colloquium XIX from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

Great High School Choir!

Church Music Association of America Colloquium 2009

I've just returned from a terrific musical and liturgical experience, the Church Music Association's annual Colloquium. The Colloquium is an immersion experience in chant and polyphony. Participants are organized ("sorted," in Harry Potter language) into working groups: chant choirs and polyphony choirs. Within a few days, each choir learns a substantial amount of music well enough to sing at Mass.

Here is a page of very well-done sound files to provide hours of listening pleasure. My favorite piece of all is the Gloria from Thursday's Mass, which was actually not sung by a Colloquium group but by a parish choir from St. John Cantius, in Chicago.

Tomorrow's polyphony at my parish

Musica Sacra

Just took a look at the sidebar links here and noticed to my amazement and embarassment that the Church Music Association of America's website Musica Sacra was not there. This oversight is now remedied. You can find the CMAA under "Chant."

As I've mentioned previously, the CMAA hosts several national events each year for Church musicians, focusing on Gregorian chant and/ or polyphony. Their faculty is excellent and the atmosphere at these events is exceedingly joyful.

I'm posting their ad for the upcoming Colloquium--an annual gathering in Chicago every June. In the audio clips, if you hear a Victoria Sanctus and wonder why one of the altos is hitting a wrong note, that would be me! But I'm learning, and that is exactly what the Colloquium is all about.