A: That’s one of the reasons we hold the colloquium. Most participants don’t have prior experience in chant notation. We have classes that start at the very beginning. You will not feel intimidated at all. Quite the reverse: people here love to teach and inspire.

Q: Goodness, I don’t know how any of this music even goes. I’ve heard bits and pieces but I will know far less than everyone else.

A: This is a journey for all of us. There is way too much music for people to get to know in their lifetimes. In some way, all of our knowledge is spotty, and we all have to start somewhere. The experts at the Colloquium love nothing more than to teach.

Q: I’m looking at the musical lineup and I can’t fathom how I can sing this after just a few rehearsals. Forget it!

A: You won’t be asked to sing it all. There are 5 polyphony choirs and 5 chant choirs. We’ll divide up the work. Some people will more quickly master this material than others. But there is strength in numbers here. You will be surprised how quickly you will catch on. In any case, one reason for the Colloquium is to stretch what all of us can do.

Q: I know no Latin. I mean none, not even how to pronounce it. Surely this Colloquium isn’t for me.

A: Not so! To come and sing requires no prior experience in Latin. The classes work on pronunciation, and you will be surprised at how intuitive it is.

Q: I’ve been singing sacred music for 40 years, including chant and polyphony. There’s nothing for me to learn here.

A: You know how great the music is, so imagine being with hundreds of others who are like-minded, studying under great conductors, singing in fun rehearsals and solemn liturgies for a full week. This is the conference you always wanted to attend but could never find.

Q: At my parish, we sing what is often called praise music, and I really like it! I don’t want to be around anyone who will put down contemporary song.

A: That’s not the idea of the colloquium at all. We have a focus and that is the music specifically named in the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The goal is broaden our musical horizons to include music that is actually attached to the Catholic liturgy, and show that it is doable, beautiful, and central.

Q: I love chant. I love polyphony. I love sacred music. But I’m the only one I know. I’m all alone.

A: Actually you are not alone. There are multitudes that share your view, maybe not in your parish but you can learn enough to actually start something wonderful right where you are. It only takes a few singers to make the difference in a parish. You are being called!

Q: But I don’t know anyone else who is going.

A: That’s okay. Most people arrive not knowing anyone else. Everyone makes an effort to befriend people who come alone. You will not be eating or singing or walking by yourself. Sacred music people are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.

Q: The music sounds pretty but I’m repelled by serious, frown-faced sophisticates who don’t know how to have fun. Isn’t Gregorian chant all about being solemn all the time?

A: The liturgy is solemn but the conference itself is fabulous fun, as anyone who has ever attended can tell you. The rehearsals are a blast while being very educational. There are prayerful times and times of hilarity. Through it all, you will make friends for life.

Q: This sounds dreamy to me but there is one touchy issue: I’m not Catholic. Is that okay?

A: We’ve had participants come from many faith traditions and they feel right at home. The music and the task at hand works to create a unity among us all.

Q: Listen, I would love to come but this conference is outside my budget.

A: Because the CMAA is an all-volunteer organization, we don’t have high salaries to pay and a big infrastructure to keep up. This allows us to drive down the price to the lowest possible level. Consider that the price includes tuition, materials, housing, and the best instruction in the world. It’s a bargain.

Send us any more of your questions. Programs@musicasacra.com

A good place to start is with the many, many beautiful churches that stand as a testament to the faith of the city’s citizens since its first days. Read more about them in author Denis McNamara’s acclaimed Heavenly City: The Architectural Tradition of Catholic Chicago.

Camera and missal in hand, your first visit might be to the liturgical oasis St. John Cantius. Founded by Polish immigrants at the end of the 19th century, today it thrives as a vibrant parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago that offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Roman Rite in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms, and is also home of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, a religious community of men dedicated to the Restoration of the Sacred.

Another must see, not far from St. John Cantius, is The Sanctuary of The Divine Mercy. By the way, EWTN will be broadcasting live from the Sanctuary on May 31, 2008 to witness the unveiling of the Iconic Monstrance (a nine foot tall Marian monstrance). You’ll be sure to want to go by for yourself to have a look.

Caffeinate your tour of the Catholic city with a visit to a new attraction for young Catholics: the faith based cafe called The Ark. It is very easy to get there from Loyola on the El, Chicago’s famed above ground public transportation system.

If you’re still downtown, getting hungry, and don’t want to spend a bundle - run, don’t walk - to the fabulous diner with the trendiest name going: Feed. Nowhere else in the city will you get the kind of down home Southern fare you’ll be served up by Donna and her crew. The men of St. John Cantius swear by her cooking. Don’t forget to tell her that the Church Music Association of America sent you.

To here to read more about the book, go here. It will be available from Aquinas and Morein June 2008.

Contents: It’s the Music, Mahrt; The Salve Motive, Candelaria; Beauty as the Road to God, Stump; Changing Hearts, Ballou; Chant as Beautiful Art, Chrader; God and Meaning in Music, Pickstock; Interview with Pickstock; Chabanel Psalms, Ostrowski; Chant Experience, Tucker; Workshop Reports; Liturgy and Seafood, Poterack

The CMAA faces this problem too with its Sacred Music Colloquium, June 16-22, Loyola University, Chicago. A national mailing would be prohibitively expensive. Just like last year, we need your help.

If you would like to distribute brochures for the colloquium, can you write us and say how many you will need? We’ll get them right to you.

And, truly, forwarding the link brochure, and talking it up among friends and colleagues, is a great help too.

Thank you so much!

When your Spring 2008 copy of Sacred Music arrives, take a look at the first line of the printed address on the envelope. You will see the “volume.issue” number of the last issue which you have paid for. If your expiration code is 135.1 or less, you should receive a renewal envelope along with your Spring 2008 copy of Sacred Music. If you have an expiration codes of 135.2 or greater, you should not receive a renewal envelope with this mailing. If you have a question about your expiration code, please get in touch with Bill Stoops, our Treasurer, at wgstoops@cavtel.net

We would like to tell you of a wonderful emergency that we are facing. From all over this country, we have been flooded with registrations for two programs: the annual Sacred Music Colloquium and the Chant Intensive. Both are held at Loyola University in Chicago in June 2008.

I am an instructor at both, and I can’t wait!

We are facing unprecedented demand, and the reason is clear. Gregorian chant in our Catholic parishes is making a huge comeback. People all across this country—and around the world—are working hard to learn to sing it and make it part of our Catholic lives again.

This is a moment that many of us have waited for and work for, for decades. The Church has given us such beautiful music to go with the Mass. It is an answer to prayer that there is now intense interest in hearing this music not just on CDs but in our own parishes, as an essential part of our liturgy.

What is the emergency?

We have received many messages from young music students, young music directors, young priests, and seminarians that they cannot afford the full cost of the program. Now, as a non-profit organization on a shoe-string budget, we have made the price as low as we possibly can. Many of these people will have to decline to attend if they cannot find the money.

Why does this matter? Because this is the future of music in your parish at stake.

The people who train at these programs come back and immediately start using what they have learned. They train others in their parishes. The movement catches fire. People’s spiritual lives are renewed. Most important, the music that is uniquely appropriate for Mass (it should have “pride of place,” said the Second Vatican Council) is again heard at Mass where it belongs.

Have you heard Gregorian chant at Mass? If so, you know what it can mean. It is the sound of the faith, even old and ever new. It is sung prayer. It has a quality that meets the very definition of sacred music. Popes from all ages have taught this. Benedict XVI has reinforced this many times in his sermons and writing. But it doesn’t require an encyclical to make the point. It is there in the hearing.

Think about what chant would mean in your parish. It can make a huge difference in the way the faith is presented. Instead of tunes drawn from popular culture, chant is rooted in our history like not other music. When we sing it, we are singing the music of the saints and martyrs.

Given the state of Catholic music today, many people think there is little hope. The truth is otherwise. What is missing are people with the training necessary to take the step. They need to know how to chant the music, pronounce the Latin, handle the phrasing, and integrate it with the liturgy so that we don’t just sing at Mass; we sing the Mass itself.

Some of those waiting for scholarships are young priests and seminarians. Others are young music students who are considering vocations. They will return to parishes and schools with a burning passion for chant. They will be an essential part of a bright future.

And not just chant: the training we provide encompasses its successor music, polyphony of the Renaissance, which the Second Vatican Council also named as uniquely suitable. That means the music of Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, and all the great composers of that period.

The causes of the problems in Catholic music are many, but the answer of education has the highest prospect for success. It’s been proven for several years. Most of the new scholas starting out in today’s parishes have formed as a direct result of the programs of the CMAA.

I personally have a strong interest in seeing our scholarship budget grow. I have received messages from these young people, and I so badly want to see them attend. We are on the verge of something truly wonderful. There is opportunity for you to help.

If we don’t receive support, we will have to tell these people (and there are more of them every day) that there are no funds for them. They need to know soon so that they can make their summer plans. I would like to be the bearer of great news!

Would you please consider it? A gift of $1000 would make an enormous difference. Gifts of $250 or even $100 can make a difference. It will permit us to begin to have the means to bring some of these people to our programs and train them to play a special role in the future of Catholic music.

Your help can make the difference. Go to musicasacra.com/donate to make a contribution. Please know of our deep appreciation for your support of this important work.

Sincerely,

Scott Turkington
Stamford Schola Gregoriana
Church Music Association of America