'Catholic congregational music a laughing stock'

James MacMillan, the Catholic composer, has sent a message to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who just been elected Chairman of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and is being installed as Archbishop of Westminster tomorrow. It is about Church music. He says:

Liturgical "activists" have used the vacuum after the Council to push their own agenda of de-poeticisation, de-sacralisation, and a general dumbing down of the Church's sacred praise. Pope Benedict is determined to confront the problem. The faithful are fed up with sloppy practice, inappropriate, terrible music and the gradual drift away from Catholic standards in the liturgy. My hope is that Archbishop Nichols will give a clear lead in the pursuit of profundity in liturgy. This means a recognition that there were terrible mistakes made in the past few decades that have made new Catholic congregational music a laughing stock.

See The Times.

Worcester College Sarum Vespers

We've been alerted to this event.

Join the Worcester College chapel community, on Wednesday 27th May, at 9.00 pm,
for a reconstruction of sung Vespers of the medieval Office in honour of St
Augustine of Canterbury. This will be the latest in a series of such services
which feature performances of medieval liturgical music, much of which has not
been heard since the Reformation, transcribed from local sources. On this
occasion the service is from the Denchworth Antiphonal, a manuscript used at the
parish of St James, Denchworth, near Wantage, which has many connections to the
College.

Several items from the early modern Denchworth parish library, now deposited in
Worcester, will be on display, including a chained volume and a commonplace book
for the use of the incumbents 'for ever'. This is a unique opportunity to see
some volumes perhaps intended for practical use in an early modern parish.

Ambrosian Chant

A former Oxford chant singer (just before the formalisation of the current schola as a University society, in fact) has been spending time in Milan, and sends me this video which demonstrates Ambrosian chant notation. Fascinating stuff.



Perhaps the current Secretary would be able to demonstrate the chant of the Premonstratensians in a similar way? We should always bear in mind that we we do, with the Liber Usualis, is basically in the 'Roman' tradition, which is simply one of the traditions of Chant in the Latin Church, to say nothing of the Greeks, Armenians and other Rites!

St Joseph the Workman: the Schola Abelis on song

This feast was created in 1955 as an antidote to the May Day events organised by Socialists and Communists. Here is us singing the Introit,

and the Greater Alleluia and Alleluia.

Since this is Friday of First Week, in University terms, we had very limited rehearsal time so we decided to sing Mass VIII, 'Missa de Angelis', which has a bad reputation in Gregorian Chant circles for being overused, and, because of the period in which it was composed, it is said to be influenced by Baroque musical style. The same is true of Credo III, which we also sang. Still, everyone knows these pieces, so minimal preparation is required. And the proper chants of the Feast of St Joseph the Worker fall rather into the same 'late' category, only more so!

They still sound pretty good if they are sung well.

We sang St Joseph the Workman last year, when it also fell on a First Friday; last year it was displaced from 1st May by the Ascension, and was celebrated on May 2nd.

Here's the Offertory (pitched a little high!), followed by the hymn Caelitum Joseph.


and the Communion:

Chant colloquium

As part of the Graduate Students' Colloquia Series, there will be a lecture given on plainchant. Here are the details:

"Gregorian Imprints: Solesmes, Regensburg and the Battle for a French Plainchant", given by Katherine Ellis

Tuesday of 5th Week (26th May), 5.15pm

Denis Arnold Hall, Faculty of Music

Students, staff and general public are all welcome to attend. Refreshments beforehand and discussion afterwards.

Term Card, Trinity 2009

Here are our events for this term:

1st Week
Fri 1st May: St Joseph the Worker (First Friday)
SS Gregory & Augustine, 6pm


4th Week
Thurs 21st May: Ascension
Oxford Oratory, 12.15pm


Sat 23rd May: Chant Training Day with Phillip Duffy
SS Gregory & Augustine, from 9.30am
Votive Mass of Our Lady, 3.30pm


5th Week
Sat 30th May: Whitsun Eve
Mapledurham House, near Reading, 11am


6th Week
Friday 5th June: Whit Friday
SS Gregory & Augustine, 6pm


7th Week
Thurs 11th June: Corpus Christi
Oxford Oratory,12.15pm

Practices are on Wednesdays, First week to Seventh Week, at 8.15 in Oriel unless indicated.

To join us please email oxfordgregorianchant@gmail.com

First Friday of March

Last Friday was our last Mass of Hillary Term, the First Friday of March, which was the Friday of the First Week of Lent. Mass was sung by Fr John Saward in his church, SS Gregory & Augustine. Notice the 'Lenten array' which now covers the reredos and the panelling on either side: it is a large, patterned purple curtain.

Each day of Lent has its own Mass in the Traditional Missal. Outside Lent the Mass one gets on a given weekday will either be a votive Mass, a ferial Mass (ie the repetition of the previous Sunday Mass) or (most likely) the feast of a saint. During Lent there are Masses (ie a full set of propers and chant settings for them) for each day. Important feasts and votive Masses can still be said, of course, but these Lenten Masses are of great antiquity and beauty.

Fr John Saward accordingly said the Mass of the Friday after the First Sunday of Lent, which is in fact the Ember Friday of Lent. Like many days of Lent, this makes use of the Tract of Ash Wednesday. All the other propers, however, are unique to this Mass.

At the offertory we also sang the beautiful hymn to the Holy Name of Jesus, Iesu dulcis memoria, since First Friday Masses are a devotion to the Sacred Heart.

At communion, after the communion antiphon 'Erubescant, et conturbentur' we sang the Lenten prose, 'Attende Domine'.