Saving the sacred past: And surviving twentieth-century German history
Ivry, Benjamin
(Continued from page 4) Lived wisdom Luke Timothy Johnson's persuasive article on John Paul II's theology of the body is perhaps the finest article of its kind I have read in forty years. In...
...I must admit, sadly, that in my thirty-six years as a priest, most married persons—and those to be married—with whom I have spoken feel that the church doesn't really address the complex problems couples face today...
...ANDREW GALLIGAN Tracy, Calif...
...began producing phonograph records...
...Similarly, the version of Bach's often-recorded cello suites by Boris Pergamenschikow is one of the finest in recent years, in part because of the splendid sound quality of the recording and the way it captures the cellist's artistry...
...Is anybody listening to them...
...By 1941, Haenssler was hit by a ban on all publishing, leaving only his bookshop untouched...
...MOST REV...
...Vail, Colo...
...Friedrich Haenssler himself pointed out how, despite persecutions and the diaspora, the Jewish people did not forget their home and traditions but strengthened them "like a young plant...
...The firm's interest in religious music is admirably ecumenical and includes a fascinating recital of Jewish chamber music by the sublime viola player, Tabea Zimmermann...
...It's exciting to read something like Johnson's refreshing insights...
...Later known as the Gaechinger Kantorei, Killing's group became one of the most recorded sacred music ensembles in the world...
...The documents issuing from Rome and diocesan offices come across as totally abstract and divorced from real life...
...This approach received some criticism in 1995 when Haenssler's Requiem of Reconciliation, meant to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, involved fourteen composers in an unsuccessful attempt to combine highly disparate styles...
...In addition, Haenssler has had the smarts to employ some of the best sound engineers available for love or money, notably the legendary producer Teije van Geest, who had previously achieved miraculous results in a series of Bach cantatas on Warner-Teldec, conducted by Harnoncourt and Leonhardt...
...In the recording he produced of Bach's violin concertos, he managed to have Rilling and his forces display unsuspected qualities of speed and grace...
...Haenssler has also sponsored ambitious attempts to regenerate large-scale sacred music by commissioning anthologies by contemporary composers...
...These events had a permanent impact on the publishing house...
...Not content to record only the classics in the genre, Haenssler, established in 1919, has offered a fascinating presentation of what sacred music can signify in our own era...
...GEORGE R. FITZGERALD, C.S.P...
...No red hat Luke Timothy Johnson's incisive critique of John Paul II's pronouncements on love, sex, and pleasure should be studied and openly discussed in every Catholi college and Newman Club in the nation—together with Paul Baumann's humorous reflections on George Weigel's biography of our pope ("Crossing the Threshold," December 3, 1999...
...In the difficult aftermath of World War I, a Sunday composer named Friedrich Haenssler (1892-1972) founded a publishing firm, in part for his own output, which included the popular song, "Carried on Eagles' Wings...
...The Haenssler (<www.haenssler.de>) trajectory suggests that by looking imaginatively to the future, while keeping a sense of history, a religious publisher may surprise the world...
...How long can we afford to lose this critically important segment of the Catholic church in favor of a moral theology of sexuality that appears so rigid and static...
...On different planets Luke Timothy Johnson's critique of Pope John Paul II's reflections on sexuality was the most theologically cogent and pastorally persuasive commentary I've read in years about Catholic sexual teaching...
...Rilling launched a vast project to record all of Bach's works, which became the seventy-CD set the company presented with justifiable pride last year during the Bach anniversary...
...Haenssler was given the option to renounce Christian music—as well as Mendelssohn—but chose the path of resistance...
...Today, Rilling hires the finest crop of younger singers, including soprano Christiane Oelze, baritone Matthias Goerne, and bass Thomas Quasthoff...
...The entire issue of human sexuality and the gospel tradition is, it seems to me, not so much a matter of church versus individual conscience...
...Both of these Commonweal articles are priceless and full of wisdom from men who have actually "been there and done that...
...Each time we gather at the Lord's table, I see in his eyes, lo these many years later, the struggling wisdom that is so evident in Johnson's words...
...24 Benjamin Ivry SAVING THE SACRED PAST And welcoming the future The Haenssler Classic recording company, based in the southern German city of Holzgerlingen, is an anomaly: a small independent firm specializing in sacred music that has produced quality recordings and made a profit...
...Oh well...
...In my congregation there is a man who left his position as an active priest in the wake of Paul VI's Humanae vitae...
...Thus, Haenssler continues to publish books of Jewish theology, such as Ludwig Schneider's recent Keys to the Torah...
...He cannily packed his printing plates and backlist of works by Jewish and other banned composers into an abandoned chicken coop, preserving them from destruction...
...Suddenly, the beloved composer Mendelssohn, a standby of church performance, was persona non grata to the Nazis because of his Jewish roots...
...incorporate it...
...Of course, both will be decried by those who believe Catholics should all walk in lock step with any current papal teaching, especially in matters of sexual ethics...
...Maybe that's why there is such massive apostacy among young people of marrying age, as well as so many who are married...
...To be sure, Luke Timothy Johnson will not be joining Avery Dulles at the next consistory...
...This was in no small part due to a development in the 1970s when, in addition to publishing books of biblical exegesis and sheet music, Haenssler (then run by the founder's son, Friedrich Jr...
...The latter recording is scheduled for release this spring...
...The writer is Metropolitan Archbishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church of America...
...These wide-ranging and multifarious activities on behalf of modern sacred music began in a humble southern German sheet-music publishing house...
...Still, Rilling attracted a series of distinguished soloists, from the late American soprano Arleen Auger to baritone Dietrich FischerDieskau...
...But, alas, people like him who try to introduce fresh ways of looking at such questions, while preserving the deep values of our faith, often find the welcome mat snatched out from under 23 them...
...A more recent effort, Passion 2000, in honor of Bach, narrowed the participating composers to four major names, Wolfgang Rihm, Sofia Gubaidulina, Osvaldo Golijov, and Tan Dun, each setting one of the Gospels...
...17...
...REV...
...E. BRIAN CARSTEN Angola, Ind...
...It recently released splendid versions of rare oratorios like the Swiss composer Frank Martin's Golgotha, Franz Liszt's Christus, and Franz Schubert's Lazarus...
...Carrying these lessons through the slow recovery that followed World War IL in 1951 Haenssler received a large order for sacred sheet music from a young choir leader in the Swabian Alps, Helmut Rilling...
...Have they ever had any firsthand, practical experience with marriage...
...Rather, it is about the church learning from the lived wisdom of her members and having the courage to (here is that word...
...One wonders in what spatial reality their authors live...
...But this in turn was closed by official order in 1944...
...By obsessing on Bach, the company was taking a considerable risk because, apart from generally excellent singers, Rilling's recordings are in distinct contrast to more historically accurate renditions by specialists such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt, Frans Bruggen, and others who offer a fleeter, lighter Bach than Rilling does...
...Industriously producing liturgical music for Swabian churches, Haenssler made a go of his company until the rise of Nazism in 1933...
...Most of them have long ago put aside church teaching on birth control...
...Even today, it maintains a keen awareness of how the persecuted must retain a sense of identity...
...As producer, van Geest is an interventionist...
Vol. 128 • February 2001 • No. 4
