Dr. Mark Nowakowski is a scholar and composer whose music has been performed internationally and released on the Gramophone-praised Naxos Records album, "Blood, Forgotten." His writings on Catholicism, music, aesthetics, and music technology appear in numerous publications regularly, while he also maintains an active schedule as a composer and professor of music. A proud native of Chicago, he currently lives with his wife and three children in Ohio.
Author: Mark Nowakowski
Music for Catholics: Arvo Pärt’s “Musica Selecta.”
“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.” -Arvo Pärt Every person intent on a joyous …
Against the Zeitgeist: The Role of Independent Catholic Voices
In every age of darkness, there is always present the Spirit of the Church, facing down the worldly spirit of the times. In seeking to understand the conflicts of our own times, we may turn allegorically to the mythical world …
Book Review: The Noonday Devil
There are times where an important spiritual concept is lost in the marketplace of religious ideas, subdued and modified by pop psychologists and religionists seeking simple solutions rather than lasting challenges. The concept of “acedia,” if mentioned at all, is …
Chaput, Romeri and the Battle Over Music in Philadelphia
Most Catholics in our world seem to take a flippant attitude towards liturgical music. It is all-too-frequently deemed something suitable for competent amateurs, of lesser concern and of secondary importance – until, of course, it isn’t. The news this week …
The Age of Glowing Artifice: Against Catholic Kitsch
With the release of another predictably vapid World Youth Day “hymn”, the time may be ripe to once again address the problem of “kitsch” in the Catholic Church. The age of glowing artifice has successfully blinded even some of the …
Down the Rabbit Hole: On the Virtue of Prudent Speech
Poland, 1982: A young woman early into her fifth pregnancy sits in a doctor’s office at the end of an examination. “You know, ma’am, you really need to be more responsible about your fertility. You don’t have to breed like …
Review: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
If you build something truly beautiful, the people will come of their own accord. So it was for the tenth annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, which – in the presence of Most …
In Pursuit of the Imago Dei: An Interview With Fr. Barron
Dr. Mark Nowakowski sat down with Fr. Robert Barron, Rector of Mundelein Seminary in Chicago and founder of Word on Fire Ministries, for this exclusive 1P5 interview. They discuss the image of Christ, masculine spirituality, true beauty, and the nascent artistic …
Listening Like a Catholic: The Discernment of Personal Musical Taste (Part 2)
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the topic of cultivating a more authentic taste in music. The first part is available here. In the last article, we discussed some of the criteria by which we may evaluate the …
Listening Like a Catholic: The Discernment of Personal Musical Taste (Part 1)
Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on the topic of cultivating a more authentic taste in music. The second part is available here. There is an old saying that “one can find Catholic music performed everywhere except …