Category Archives: Articles and books

Sing Like a Catholic

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new book, Sing Like a Catholic, by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Sacred Music), with an introduction by Scott Turkington. It is an introduction to the sacred-music perspective on Catholic music in parishes, drawing from tradition and documents as well as the author’s own experience. It is a book that provides both direction and inspiration.

Today, many priests and musicians are thoroughly confused concerning a core issue: what music belongs at Catholic liturgy. There are clear answers to this question, though one might never know them if the only sources you have at your disposal are the resources from mainstream music publishers.

The answer is also found in the teaching of the Church.

To discover and sing truly Catholic music is not a burden but the opposite: a tremendous liberation from the commercial-pop industry and an thrilling immersion in the most theologically and aesthetically rich treasure of music available, a tradition that enlists artistic talent in the service of transcendent ends.

It is published in the hope of raising scholarship funds for seminarians and others to attend the Sacred Music Colloquium in June. All proceeds will be devoted to that end.

$17.50 at the CMAA Shop.

Gregorian Missal Online

All musicians in the English-speaking world are deeply grateful to the monks of the Solesmes Abbey for permission to offer a free download of the Gregorian Missal. This extraordinary book provides the sung propers attached to the 1970 Missal, for Sundays and Feast Days, along with English translations. It is the most useful book for any Catholic music working within the framework of the ordinary form of the Roman Rite. This is a tremendous gift to the entire world. The Church Music Association of America is pleased to host this file for the monastery.

For many musicians, this will be the first time they have seen the actual music of the Roman Rite and how it is embedded within the structure of the Mass and the liturgical year.

Britt’s Hymns of the Breviary and Missal

This wonderful 1922 book, edited by Fr. Matthew Britt, assembles a vast number of hymns from Christian history, in Latin with English translations, including notes on composer and authors as well as liturgical use. It is an essential book for all Catholic musicians. It is newly available in print and also online.

Dobzsay newly available

The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform, by Lazslo Dobzsay

The Rhythm of Plainsong

We pleased to announce that there is a compelling source for understanding the old-style Solesmes approach to rhythm: The Rhythm of Plainsong by Dom Gajard (1943), now available in a free download.

This marvelous book is defense of the Mocquereau approach to the rhythm of Gregorian chant, with Gajard clearly explaining, in non-technical terms, what is historical, what is deduced from musical understanding, and what is pure speculation. He makes a very persuasive case that Gregorian music is true music with a rhythmic structure all its own. One as but to learn the rules and to discover it as a path to making the music sound beautiful and prayerful. This is certainly a must reading for any practitioner of chant.

This essay is also in print.

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