Church Music Transgressed
Day, Thomas
I I I The revolt of the II I I Illl H Ill guitar masses I I II IIll Ill l CBURCB NUSIC TRANSGRESSED: REFLECTIONS ON REFORM Francis P. Schmitt Seabury Press, $7.95 Thomas Day I N THE LATE...
...This describes the step-by-step building and decoration of the nobleman's tomb, simpler than Tut's but not that dissimilar, and also tells exactly how each stage of mummification was done...
...Wonderful things," he replied in awe, an awe the reader shares...
...Glubok and designed by Gerald Nook is an abridgment and adaptation of Carter's own three-volume memoirs...
...But for sheer destructiveness, nothing can compare with those neighborhood ,choir directors, those staunch guardians of musical "white lists" and "black lists...
...Ramose was chief counselor to Tut's father...
...Near the end of their trip they reported to a friend that they were appalled by most of the liturgical music they heard, whether it was folk or what was passed off as traditional...
...It is only in this manner, I believe, that the church can restore the married priestly ministry in a true spirit of positive Christian renewal...
...the guitar twangers will detect the odor of unregenerate Tridentinism...
...For ages 9 to 14...
...Distributed by Atheneum...
...in addition, friends have sent him stories about their own experiences...
...Yes...
...Francil~ Schmitt, retired director of the Boys Town Choir and former editor of Caecilia, gives some idea of what it is like to watch the gleeful destruction of something old and beautiful that had long been an important part of your life...
...This practice is neither substantiated nor implied, in theory or practice, by Jesus or any New Testament writing...
...During those years the boys gave outstanding performances of everything from Gregorian Chant to twentieth-century compositions...
...There are numerous photos...
...In the Dowd Memorial Chapel and in concerts they sang with a genuine and almost infectious enthusiasm...
...Harper...
...Brief, pertinent information about the politics and religion of the era are also given...
...It was an especially sad, bitter experience for those who had spent a life's work trying to maintain some standards of musical excellence...
...City of Birds and Beasts: Behind the Scenes at the Bronx Zoo by Jack Denton Scott with photographs by Ozzie Sweet (Putnam...
...1. The renewal of the church's theology of chastity: We must no longer speak of celibacy (as canonically defined in terms of orders) as the perfection of Christian chastity, Genital abstinence never guarantees nor is a substitute for Christian chastity', nor does genital activit3, ever exclude the possibility of living the perfectly chaste life...
...All the official committees on church music will dismiss him as an aesthete...
...In its own casual, informal way, Church Music Transgressed is a very valuable study of contemporary Catholicism and what has happened to its liturgy in recent years...
...The author has visited dozens of churches, in the I H III I II I II I I I I II REVIEWERS MICHAEL TRUE iS professor of English at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass., and the author of a study of Thomas Paine for Scribner's American Writers Series...
...Perennially popular family outings include not only trips to museums but to the zoo...
...Paper...
...Discovering Tut-ankamen's Tomb edited bY the renowned Shirley ELIZABETH MINOT(IRAVES,aprevious contributor, is a part-time children's librarian and a freelance writer and children's book editor...
...I I I The revolt of the II I I Illl H Ill guitar masses I I II IIll Ill l CBURCB NUSIC TRANSGRESSED: REFLECTIONS ON REFORM Francis P. Schmitt Seabury Press, $7.95 Thomas Day I N THE LATE 1960S a distinguished German musicologist and a no less prominent member of a Pontifical institute of music made a Grand Tour of the United States...
...Macmillan...
...The book bears neither an Imprimatur nor a Nihil Obstat...
...Longer and more mature than Swinburne, this gives a first-hand account of the excavation and shows what patient, meticulous and challenging work was involved...
...Examples of such ne~ssary reforms ~e...
...The absence of an Introduction by some highly-placed person in the church is conspicuous...
...Commonweal: 726 United Statu an~[ Europe...
...And only a centrist will be so thoroughly misunderstood...
...Centrists, as we know, tend to be notoriously practical people who insist on learning from past mistakes and successes...
...of Jesus with the precedent spiritual poverty, chastity and obedience of Christ, nor apply these physical qualities as restrictions to participation in one particular function (priesthood) of Christ's ministerial body (the church...
...STEVE MUMMY St...
...Schmitt points out that since the eighteenth century papal encyclicals s,eemed to place so much emphasis on chant and Renaissance polyphony that a kind of anemic archaism was held up as the ideal of church music...
...Simply, concisely and excellently written, it gets across the mystery and thrill of the hunt as indefatigable Howard Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, finally unearthed King Tut's tomb and made their way from one treasure-filled chamber to another...
...The Liturgical Revival finally did hit the United States, but in th.e form of a cultural hurricane which flattened so many good and bad things in its path...
...12.95...
...Here are the 'dedicated keepers, vets and scientists as they face daily routine and crisis in a dramatic, easy reading narrative for ages nine to fourI I From Discovering Tut-ankh-Amen' s Tomb, ed...
...The author describes himself as a centrist in religious matters--someone who is uncomfortable with the die-hard traditionalists and the let's-start-from-scratch radicals...
...Carnarvon asked Carter as he peered through a hole in the first door...
...The book is illustrated by many large, full-page photos, mainly those taken by the top-notch photographer with Carter...
...2. The renewal of the church's (and particularly the bishops') idea of the impossibility of married priests: We must not only realize the existence of a lengthier tradition within the Latin rite of an option in this matter, but also of a continuing tradition within the Catholic Eastern rites...
...I II I Correspondence I I I I I (Continued from page 706) this does not occur, we stand a good chance of creating a mere .prejudicial tolerance of optional celibacy stemming from a limitation of its practice in African nations...
...Msgr...
...4. The development of a positive theology and practical application of married ministry in the Latin rite: We must not deny nor underestimate the function and witness of married priests in the Latin rite...
...John's Seminary College CHILDREN'S BOOKS Tut, Tut I I ELIZABETH MINOT GRAVES B sO~K~ that children and grownups can' and enjoy together make special gifts, indirectly the gift of closeness, understanding, and fun...
...In parochial schools "traditional" Catholic church music usually meant Mother Dearest and a limp peformance of the pseudo-Gregorian Mass VIII...
...Only somecme with a distaste for extremes could see the virtues of encouraging congregational singing and Gregorian chant (which the majority of American Catholics have never really heard...
...Msgr...
...In Church Music Transgressed Msgr...
...the right will resent his notion that the good old days were sometimes notable for their dreadful music...
...Liturgical music, therefore, suffered all manner of transgressions long before the Second Vatican Council, especially in the United States, and Msgr...
...Books like those of Father Hastings, Father Goergen, and others are welcome tools in this renewal...
...Then something quite unexpected happened...
...Schmitt, could have written a sensible defense of Latin and the vernacular (which, he suggests, needs to be translated into English...
...Its restoration is to be seen as a positive growth of the church towards holiness and not as a burden or tolerated practice created by a lack of priests...
...6.95...
...This stunning, large book has superior, brilliantly-lit color photographs and many black and white ones as well...
...9.95...
...Here and there the author drops a delightfully sarcastic remark which lands squarely on the big toe of some rather important person...
...THOMAS DAY is Chairman of the Music Department at Salve Regina College in Newport, Rhode Island...
...This year, the Egypt year, when the Treasures of Tutankhamen are being exhibited in the United States, both children eight-up and parents will delight in the officially "junior" title Behind the Sealed Doors: The Discovery of the Tomb and Treasures of Tutankhamen by Irene and Laurence Swinburne, published by Sniffen Court Books in cooperation with the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
...Can you see anything...
...Helpful to a fuller understanding of Tut's tomb is The Mummy of Ramose by Shirley Glubok and Alfred Tamarin...
...Schmitt offers many insight s concerning this miserable story...
...Despite its somber title and painful topic, Church Music Transgressed is an occasionally funny and quite irreverent collection of essays.Humor and fine insights enliven every page...
...Neither can we interchange the physical non-married state, maleness, etc...
...Schmitt's somewhat impressionable recounting of all this information is at times fascinating and at times hopelessly depressing, in spite of his charming sense of humorl After a few pages of his dismal descriptions, you get the picture: Except for a few bright spots, the state of church music is, to use his word, "incredible...
...Perhaps the seeds of this madness were planted long ago...
...The reader should be forewarned immediately about the tone of this book...
...Not too many years ago there were many who thought that, once the Liturgical Revival really hit the United States, there would be thousands of such choirs throughout the land--all assisting the congregation in song, to be sure, but also preserving that splendid treasury of church music which had lately fallen on hard times...
...The man responsible for this flickering candle of excellence in the vast musical darkness was Msgr, Pi'ancis P. Schmitt, director of the Boys Town Choir from 1941 to 1975...
...Those precious few "high church" establishments that considered themselves the vanguard of liturgical reform (e.g., the Boys Town Choir) were sometimes demoted or simply put out of business by tone-deaf Johnnies-come-lately...
...Only a centrist, like Msgr...
...Perfect consecrated 10 November 1978:727 chastity can be achieved in the context of celibate or Christian married life (both as free individual choices for and to "wholeness...
...by Shirley Glubok (Macmillan) Commonweal: 728...
...8.95...
...3. The renewal of the church's theology of priesthood and priestly identity: We must no longer speak of the priestly ministry as restricted to those who "vow" celibacy...
...They did admit, however, that they were deeply impressed by the music they heard in, of all places, Boys Town, Nebraska...
...will make such visits doubly exciting...
...Somehow he remains cautiously, if reluctantly, optimistic, but in the near future he certainly will not have cause to write a sequel to his book: Church Music Regained...
...To them we are indebted for the quaint notion that the worst kind of incompetent racket is acceptable, as long as the music is not by Bach (a Protestant) or Mozart (too operatic) or Schubert (too distracting...
Vol. 105 • November 1978 • No. 22
