The Sorrowful Virgin shared in the work of redemption with Jesus Christ.
Category: Music
On Singing Gregorian Chant Artfully (part 2)
It’s all very subtle but long experience in seminaries and religious communities shows that the more unified the sound, the more everyone can lose themselves in the prayer of the Church.
Montfortian Music and the Power of Hymns
The hymns he composed were, at the time of French Revolution, on the lips of the Blessed 47 Martyrs of Avrillé.
On Singing Gregorian Chant Artfully (Part 1)
This week and next, I will share practical and speculative points on singing Gregorian chant well that I have learned by leading scholas, by participating in them, and by listening to masters discuss what they do and why. My points …
The French Catholic Poet of our Times
Above: French street sign in Maisons-Alfort. One hundred and fifty years ago today, on January 7, 1873, “a unique man of letters, and unclassifiable writer” was born in Orléans, north-central France: Charles Péguy. This is how Bernard Guyon († 1975) …
A Spoonful of Honey
Four hundred years ago tomorrow, on December 28, 1622 a great teacher of the spirituality, and the patron Saint of journalists and of the Catholic press, died in Lyon, east-central France: St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the …
The Maestro of St. Pius X
Tomorrow marks one hundred and fifty years since the birth, which took place in Tortona, a town in northwestern Italy, on December 21, 1872, “of the great, unforgettable Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi, who was music director of Our Sistine Chapel. […]”, …
The Catholic Standard of Music in the Age of Revolution
Above: the tomb of César Franck in Paris. Today is the bicentenary of the birth, which took place in Liège, in eastern Belgium, on December 10, 1822, of a composer and organist who, having lived almost always in Paris, was …
The “Magna Carta” of The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music Celebrates 100 Years
One hundred years ago, on November 22, 1922, the new Pope Pius XI († 1939) issued the motu proprio Ad musicæ sacræ restitutionem, with which he set up what is now the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. Although …
The Catholic Choir and Choirmaster: Handmaid of the Liturgy and Guide of the Faithful
“How freely did I weep in thy hymns and canticles; how deeply was I moved by the voices of thy sweetly sounding Church! The voices streamed into my ears; and the truth was poured forth clearly into my heart, where …