A workshop held at Columbus St. Andrew Church on Oct. 25-26 introduced sacred music and its role in the Mass before concluding with the annual Gold Mass for musicians celebrated by Bishop Earl Fernandes.
Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, the diocesan director of music, said in his remarks that a need for sacred music in accord with Church teaching had been identified in the diocese.
Fitzgerald, who is also the director of music and organist at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral, said the desire is to sing the Mass and not merely singing songs during the Mass.
Adam Bartlett, the founder and creator of Source & Summit worship resources, offered sessions at the workshop, including “The Church’s Vision for Music and Liturgy in the Context of the Whole of the Church’s Life and Mission” and “Singing the Mass, a Practicum.”
Source & Summit provides sacred music resources to parishes through its print and digital products.
Bartlett, who also serves as a sacred music consultant for the Fellowship of Catholic University Students and has served as a parish and cathedral music director, said between 80 and 90 diocesan priests attended the first day of the workshop on Oct. 25.
The second day of the workshop was open to anyone interested in learning more about sacred music, including school administrators, parish and school choir directors, music teachers, cantors and choir members.
“The diocese has provided opportunities for Church musicians to gather together in worship, in fellowship and in learning to further expand our skills, repertoire and knowledge of beautiful and worthy music for reverent and prayerful Masses,” said Sharon Silleck, the director of Sacred Music at Lancaster Basilica of St. Mary of the Assumption, who attended the workshop.
“Each Mass is intended to bring the hearts and minds of believers toward the ‘feast that is to come,’ to have one’s mind and heart focused on heaven and our eternal home with the Triune God.”
Bartlett, speaking about the Church’s vision for music and liturgy, explained that, while the Mass is intended to be a sacrament of unity, often there is a battle in the context of the liturgy due to different forms of music.
A battle in music used during the liturgy presents challenges that are unnecessary and counterproductive, Bartlett said. He noted that music in the Mass is intended to unify the various liturgical actions, not to fight against itself.
Bartlett referenced the Church’s instruction on sacred music from the Second Vatican Council’s Musicam Sacram, or the instruction on music in the liturgy.
The Church concluded that prayer is expressed in a more attractive and beautiful way when sung, as beauty draws individuals to the Church. The document also states that a unity of hearts is more profoundly achieved by a union of voices, and it prefigures the heavenly liturgy.
“Music has a tremendous power to evangelize,” Bartlett said, and it is also a very powerful tool for prayer and catechesis.
Gregorian chant is the supreme model for sacred music in the liturgy, he said. Bartlett described Gregorian chant as music that sets the words of the liturgy to music.
The Source & Summit liturgical resources offer chant settings grown out of the Gregorian chant tradition. In Bartlett’s presentation, he guided attendees in practicing English chant settings for the Mass, which can be easy for a congregation to sing. He explored using Gregorian chant as a guide, setting the words to be sung.
Fitzgerald added that chant settings draw worshippers out of the temporal, or earthly, experience and into something that is holy, eternal and of a transcendental nature. He said it reflects the eternal nature of the liturgy, which is heaven on earth.
Unlike common trends in liturgical music, which often includes four hymns to be sung, employing chant idioms allows for singing the already-existing words of the Mass, such as the Creed, Entrance, Offertory and Communion Antiphons.
Hymns, which are brought in from the outside, are drawn from non-liturgical sources and added into the Mass.
“Hymns are generally four-square, easily learned, steady rhythmic pieces, which are designed to allow many voices to come together in proclaiming a prayer as one voice,” Silleck said. “Often, the texts of hymns are an important avenue of catechesis for the singers. Songs stay in the mind and heart and need to be chosen wisely and carefully.”
In liturgical music, Bartlett said the human voice should be leading.
Accompaniment is an “underlay,” he said, to what is happening vocally. He said the organ is the primary instrument for accompanying voices during the Mass, as it mimics the human voice.
Jordan Werring, the director of Sacred Music at Grove City Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, has used several forms of music in the liturgy. She said the parish noticed a difference with sacred music.
“We’ve experienced a wide form of music for liturgy, from the music of the St. Louis Jesuits to praise and worship to a contemporary liturgical style to traditional hymnody to chant, both vernacular (English) and Latin, and even some Gregorian ordinaries,” she said.
“However, in beginning to utilize more of the vernacular antiphons and traditional hymnody, we have observed a stillness of reverence within the congregation. There’s this sense of increased listening to the texts that are being sung.
“Parishioners are drawing connections between the texts of the antiphons and the Scriptural readings of the Mass, which is exactly what the Church desires. Overall, we’re experiencing a deeper invitation to contemplation and reverence.”
Sacred music in the Mass has begun to spread to other parts of the parish. Werring said it is being taught in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program for young children and in school liturgies.
“We’ve also been working with our permanent deacons who have desired to sing more of the Mass, such as leading the Kyrie, the proclamation of the Gospel or the dismissal,” she said. “We are also blessed with priests who desire to sing the Mass, which is such a delight.”
For more information on Source & Summit, visit www.sourceandsummit.com.
