I received an email from Fr. Scott Haynes, SJC, at St. John Cantius in Chicago. Biretta Books — the proceeds of which benefit St. John Cantius and the AMDG foundation — is having a sale on sacred music until January. I know that our readers are often in search of good sources of sacred music (and books) and thought I’d pass along his message to you:
Biretta Books (www.BirettaBooks.com) is having a special sale on select music CDs featuring the choirs and orchestras at Chicago’s historic St John Cantius Parish.
These select CDs feature the various choirs of St. John Cantius, recently voted America’s most beautiful church. On these CDs you will hear sublime polyphonic music such as the Miserere of Allegri, the famous Handel’s Messiah, the majestic Coronation Mass of Mozart, and some very fine Christmas music for choir, organ and orchestra.
These CDs make great Christmas gifts. And as you try to share your love for the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy, giving these CDs of sacred music is a simple and effective way to do it.
To take advantage of this offer use this promotional code in the shopping cart: clear
Call 1.800.345.6665 or visit www.BirettaBooks.com to take advantage of this special offer. This Biretta Books offer runs from now until January 1, 2017, while supplies last.
Samples of the work can be viewed at the videos below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGC_JEIeCIw?rel=0
I sure wish there was a choir like that near me. Choirs around here mostly just sing the standard OCP/GIA fare. When they want something other than that, they sing black gospel music. On the rare occasion that they do sing something traditionally Catholic, they do it for variety or nostalgia (on equal footing with the aforementioned styles) rather than to do what is proper for the liturgy.
I find it interesting when predominately white suburban Catholic Church choirs appropriate Gospel music (don’t know what the ethnic breakdown is at your parish but it seems to be mostly white liberal parishes that like to do this sort of thing). Gospel music can be nice when done by actual Gospel musicians but when it’s done by people outside of that tradition it’s usually a case of trying too hard to be “relevant” and “diverse”.
Precisely; I experienced this constantly as a former organist. I always found the music directors of such productions to be very egotistical and likely to be the last person in the church worried about liturgical reverence, many of them quite sickening. I did see a few priests who put a stop to some of the more praise and worship leaning content, but once the priest was gone it was back to the old stuff. After coming to a personal conversion myself and then reading the encyclicals on sacred music by Pius X and XII, and even Sacrosanctum Concilium’s verbiage on sacred music, I could no longer in good conscience play any type of gospel music or even piano. The goal is to reach the sublime, not to hear something pretty or distracting.