For composition students with formal training, this intensive seminar in music composition  is focused on the development of facility with species counterpoint. Class exercises and daily assignments will be accompanied by the opportunity to workshop polyphonic works students have written for parish choirs in light of intensive counterpoint study. Time will also be devoted to an exploration of the aesthetic characteristics of music suitable for liturgical use, form and tonal harmony (as needed), and compositional techniques which facilitate the singing of works by parish choirs. 1 credit or audit. In-person only, 1:30 to 4 p.m. PDT plus two private lessons and one group composition workshop in the mornings. Taught by Dr. Frank La Rocca. Space limited to 5 students. A portfolio of 3 pieces must be submitted in the application process.

Ideal for organists with a solid technical foundation but who have limited training in extemporaneous playing, this seminar will enable students to develop an approach to improvisation at the organ that is built on strong harmonic progressions and good form, utilizing the various melodies of sacred music. Students will grow in their abilities to harmonize melodies, create textures and musical ideas which contribute to thematic and structural development, and pace their playing according to the timing of the liturgy. Group instruction forms the basis of the course, and one-on-one lessons will be included. 1 credit or audit. 1:30 to 4:00 p.m.  Taught by Dr. Christoph Tietze. Space limited to 5 students. A portfolio of 3 organ repertoire recordings must be submitted in the application process.

Serving as an introduction to Gregorian chant, this course will cover neumatic notation, Gregorian modes, ear training and sight reading, vocal technique appropriate for singing chant, and Latin pronunciation. Special focus will be placed on rhythmic interpretation of the chant according to the classical Solesmes (Mocquereau) method. By the end of the class, students will have confidence singing from the Graduale Romanum, solfège, and psalm tones, and some experience in conducting (chironomy). Additional topics introduced in the class include the history of Gregorian chant, rehearsal techniques for teaching chant to children and adult choirs, and an introduction to chant resources in English and Spanish. 2 credits or audit, limited to 20 students. 8:00-4:00 p.m. Taught by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka.

Students will study the names, locations, and functions of the anatomical features of the vocal mechanism and develop a vocabulary of terminology for the understanding and instruction of healthy singing. Through listening to and discussion of examples of different voices, students will develop an understanding of voice classification, the advantages and limits of such a system, and its usefulness in choral placement. Students will build a library of vocal exercises for use in private and group instruction, and develop discernment in the prescription of exercises according to vocal building needs, preparation for repertoire, and the diagnosis and correction of vocal faults. Special attention will be devoted to understanding and instructing inexperienced, aging, children’s, and changing voices. 2 credits or audit, limited to 20 students. Taught by Prof. Sandra Bengochea, 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. & 2:00-4:00 p.m.

This course will provide students with an overview of the canon of sacred organ literature, highlighting important composers for the instrument and developing an understanding of notable schools of composition. Special emphasis will be placed on repertoire which grew organically from Gregorian chant as well as the works of the most prolific composers for the instrument (Bach, Franck, Tournemire, Messiaen, etc.) which find a happy home in a Catholic liturgical setting. Starting from a discussion of the fundamental mechanical principles of organ building and sound production, significant developments in organ technology will be discussed with an eye to better understanding the repertoire built for different instruments and the registration thereof. Discussion of methods for launching a successful organ building or renovation campaign in a parish will also be discussed. 2 credits or audit, limited to 20 students. 8:00-2:30 p.m. Taught by Prof. Christopher Berry.

FULL for Summer 2025!

This 5-day intensive course will present pedagogical techniques for teaching Gregorian chant to children and is ideal for Catholic schoolteachers, directors and teachers of religious education, directors of children’s choirs, and parents. Special emphasis will be placed on the Ward Method, a comprehensive music education method designed to teach sacred music to children. Other topics addressed will include resources for teachers, other teaching approaches, and the logistics of developing a sacred music program for children. 2 credits or audit, limited to 12 students. 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Taught by Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka.

In the course of the project, led by Dom André Mocquereau, to restore the “authentic” Gregorian melodies, the biggest surprise (unwelcome at the time) was the discovery in the Vatican Library of chant books for Mass and Office with the familiar texts of the Roman liturgy but with strikingly different melodies. These were not merely variants of the Gregorian melodies but pieces couched in a completely different musical idiom. Given Dom Mocquereau’s avowed aim to restore the traditional chant melodies of the Roman Catholic Church, how was a completely different musical repertoire of undoubtedly Roman provenance to be explained? The only solution was to dismiss all of the melodies as debased distortions of the pure Gregorian chants, and so the matter rested until about 1950, when scholars began to emphasize the singular importance of this “Old Roman” repertoire for the history of sacred music. It had its own stylistic merit, which should be respected. Explaining its relationship to the universally sung chant repertoire associated with Pope Gregory Great was a challenging historical puzzle, but a scholarly consensus has yet to be reached.

This seminar will take up questions of general relationships between the two repertoires through the comparison of chants for the Mass and Office. Some of the ingenious theories to explain the origin(s) of the two repertoires will be examined and critiqued. They focus on (1) the ecclesiastical organization that prevailed in the city of Rome in Late and Antiquity and the early Middle Ages and (2) how it happened that one chant repertoire (Gregorian) spread throughout Christendom, while another (Roman) remained restricted to a small locale in Central Italy. Participants will be introduced to central Italian notation as an avenue to studying (and singing) the chant. Specimen liturgical observances will be studied to illustrate the importance of coordinating musical and non-musical sources. The seminar will conclude with a survey of Lent and Holy Week in the papal liturgy of medieval Rome. 1 credit or audit, limited to 20 students. 8:00 to 11:30 a.m. Taught by Dr. Joseph Dyer.

This course offers a detailed look at the pitch organization of Gregorian melodies, beginning with Guido of Arezzo’s eleventh-century innovations of staff notation and solfège. In the centuries after Guido, his six-note solfège system developed into a robust theoretical pitch space that was a staple of musical pedagogy until at least the eighteenth century. Students will become confident users of both hexachords and the Guidonian hand and will study their application to Gregorian chant and other diatonic music. The class will also survey the theory of modes in Gregorian chant, examining both the historical establishment of the eight-mode system in the first millennium as well the more recent “archaic mode” theory of Dom Jean Claire, considering especially how that theory dovetails with Guido’s own observations about the scale. 1 credit or audit, limited to 20 students. 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Taught by Dr. Charles Weaver.