On October 18–19, 2024, we hosted an online conference for music educators on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Jubilate Deo and Voluntati Obsequens. Twelve speakers from around the world shared their stories of successes in handing on the Catholic faith and sacred music in programs for youth. The talks are a testament to the success to be found in accepting the invitation of Paul VI to hand on at least a minimum repertoire of Gregorian chant. When the Church’s sacred music forms the core of a music curriculum, students are able to set down deep roots in their Catholic faith and to find their own voices in the symphony of praise in the cosmic liturgy.
Take a listen to what Archbishop Cordileone had to say about the role of sacred music in Catholic education!
In 1974, Pope Paul VI sent every bishop and head of a religious order in the world a small collection of Gregorian chants entitledJubilate Deo. This booklet contained a “minimum repertoire” of plainchant that he wished every Catholic in the world to know, withthe aim of fulfilling the mandate of par. 54 of Sacrosanctum Concilium: “…steps must be taken to ensure that the faithful are able tochant together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.”
50 years later, the handing on of this treasury of sacred music remains largely unrealized.
Will you join us in making it a reality?
Learn what, how, when, and why to do it in an online conference for music educators, featuring talks by 12 Catholics who will inspireyou and equip you with tools you can use to hand on our Catholic faith by teaching young people to sing the Gregorian chants of theChurch.
We have just wrapped up an amazing series of summer 2024 courses and are ready to dive into the regular academic year. We’ve got over 20 events coming up during the 2024–25 academic year, including:
Our fall workshop topics are taught by three faculty members: Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka, Dr. William Mahrt, and Prof. Christopher Berry. The topics include:
Blueprint for Building a Parish Sacred Music Program: Foundations, Structures, Personnel, and Resources
Chant Modality at the Keyboard and Chant Accompaniment
The Cantiones Sacræ, Masses, and Gradualia of William Byrd
The Catholic Institute of Sacred Music was happy to collaborate with the Benedict XVI Institute in an evening of prayer and learning about the situation of Christians persecuted for their faith in China and Hong Kong.
The evening began with Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, led by Archbishop Cordileone. Special music for the Holy Hour included the premiere of a new composition by Dr. Frank La Rocca (a CISM faculty member) on a text by James Matthew Wilson, “Stanzas for the Chinese Martyrs,” commissioned by the Benedict XVI Institute for Sacred Music and Divine Worship. Other compositions by Diana Corliss, Kevin Allen, and Paul Jernberg will also be sung by the choir, directed by CISM Director, Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka. Read more about the event and Dr. La Rocca’s piece at this article in National Catholic Register.
The Holy Hour was followed by the second and final event of the 2023–2024 St. Patrick’s Seminary Lecture Series. The lecture by William McGurn, opinion columnist for The Wall Street Journal and godfather of Jimmy Lai, is entitled “The Prison Witness of Jimmy Lai.” Jimmy Lai is the founder of the popular Hong Kong paper Apple Daily, who has now been imprisoned in solitary confinement for organizing pro-democracy protests.
The last event of our 2023–2024 Public Lecture and Concert Series was a wonderful lecture by Fr. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B., a foremost historian of books of the Roman rite, and is a preview of some content in his forthcoming book about books of the Roman rite that he is writing while on sabbatical from San Anselmo in Rome.
As he writes:
The history of the Graduale Romanum is long, complex and full of surprises. Knowing some of that history is a great help in understanding the status of liturgical music today. This conference will be limited to a history of chant books used for the Mass. (Chant books used for the Divine Office is another story for another time.) The period of time we’re dealing with extends from the Council of Trent to the post-Vatican II era. We will briefly describe six books: 1) the Medicea edition of the Graduale Romanum (1614–1615), 2) the Solesmes movement and the Liber Usualis (1896), 3) the Graduale Romanum commissioned by Pope Pius X (1908), 4) the Vatican II document on the sacred liturgy and the Graduale Simplex (1967), 5) the Graduale Romanum of 1974/1979 and the Graduale Triplex (1979) and finally, 6) the Graduale Novum (2011/2018).
Because there is so much material, an in-depth study is not possible in this conference. Rather, we will focus on the highlights, and try to trace the ever-present tensions between tradition and reform.