Online Edition: September 2008
Vol. XIV, No. 6
News and Views
Archbishop Ranjith to Address St. Louis Liturgy Conference | The Bible and the Liturgy Conference | Music Workshop in Gregorian Chant | Who Would Not Love This Music? | National Catholic Youth Choir Update
Archbishop Ranjith to Address St. Louis Liturgy Conference
The keynote speaker at the 2008 Gateway Liturgical Conference will be Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The conference, to be held at the Cardinal Rigali Center in St. Louis November 7-8, will also feature addresses by Bishop Allen Vigneron of Oakland, California, and Bishop Paul Zipfel, of Bismarck.
Father Samuel Weber, OSB, the director of the St. Louis archdiocesan Institute for Sacred Music, and Daniel Van Slyke, associate professor of Church history at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis, will also be presenters at the conference.
For registration and further information, contact the St. Louis Office of Worship, 20 Archbishop May Drive, St. Louis, MO 63119. Phone: 314-792-7230; or e-mail: worship@archstl.org.
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The Bible and the Liturgy Conference
A two-day conference on The Bible and the Liturgy will take place September 19-20 at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Conference Center, Mundelein, Illinois. Sponsored by the Liturgical Institute, Mundelein, and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, the event will address the Biblical roots of salvation and its manifestation in the sacred liturgy of the Church.
Featured speakers include Scott Hahn, Jeff Cavins, Brant Pitre, Father Robert Barron, Lynne Boughton, David Fagerberg, John Cavadini, Father Douglas Martis, William Portier and Denis McNamara.
The first day will feature academic papers and responses, and the second day’s presentations, of more general interest, will conclude with Mass. Both days are open to the public.
For registration and other information, visit the Liturgical Institute web site: http://www.usml.edu/liturgicalinstitute/conferences/bible%20and%20liturgy/bible%20home.htm.
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Music Workshop in Gregorian Chant
Study and sing Gregorian chant with Scott Turkington, noted director of the Stamford Schola Gregoriana, on October 17-18, 2008, at St. John the Beloved Church, McLean, Virginia.
The chant workshop begins at 1:00 p.m. on Friday and continues on Saturday, concluding with Mass (extraordinary form) at 6:45 p.m., at which the workshop choir will sing, followed by a reception.
There will be extensive instruction in singing chant and reading Gregorian notation, a lecture on the spirituality of Gregorian chant by the pastor, Father Franklyn M. McAfee, a lecture on papal legislation and church documents related to liturgical music by Father Paul de Ladurantaye, Director of Liturgy for the Diocese of Arlington, and a concert by David B. Lang of organ works based on chant melodies.
For details and registration information see the CMAA web site: http://www.musicasacra.com/mclean/.
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Who Would Not Love This Music?
Music for a wedding composed or arranged by the groom, performed by young musicians and recorded by a very new music company. Sound trendy?
Maybe — but not in the usual sense. Quis Non Amántem Redamet (“who would not love in return [the One loving him]”) is the title of the CD recording of the Nuptial Mass (extraordinary form) that took place April 14, 2007, with Bishop René Gracida as principal celebrant. The groom is Jeffrey Ostrowski, a church musician working in Texas, and composer of the Chabanel Psalm project. The choir and other musicians included some of the most accomplished young Catholic musicians in the country. The newly released recording is by Lalemant Polyphonic for Corpus Christi Watershed, a charitable organization for the arts in which Ostrowski is involved.
Musical selections include chant and classic polyphony, performed by several scholas. The “composer’s edition” of the CD also includes some previously unreleased recordings also composed/arranged and/or conducted by Ostrowski. A DVD is also planned for future release.
More information about the Quis Non Amántem Redamet project is available on the Lalemant web site: http://lalemantpolyphonic.org/sacredCD, or e-mail: quis.non.amantem@gmail.com.
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National Catholic Youth Choir Update
The National Catholic Youth Choir of St. John’s Abbey recently completed its ninth season. The conductor of the choir is internationally renowned choral clinician Dr. Axel Theimer. Father Anthony Ruff, O.S.B., a monk of Saint John’s Abbey, is the founding director of the choir. This choir was begun under the motto “Spreading the Catholic Faith Through Great Music” as a response to the call of Pope John Paul II for a “new evangelization”.
The choir sings music of various Christian traditions, ranging from medieval Gregorian chant to 20th-century music. The primary focus of the choir is liturgical, and the choir seeks to implement the directive of Second Vatican Council that the “treasury of sacred music” be preserved and fostered in the modern liturgy.
Catholic youth going into the 10th-12th grades in fall 2009 may apply to participate in next year’s National Catholic Youth Choir, which takes place at Saint John’s Abbey and University June 23-July 9, 2009. Information is available at www.catholicyouthchoir.org.
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