Sunday, June 20, 2004
How to reform Catholic liturgical music
1. More schools for liturgical music are needed just about everywhere: a continuation and expansion of what NPM has provided for the past twenty years in training cantors, pianists, guitarists, ensemble musicians, and choir directors.
2. I leave out organists temporarily on the list above, because I've found that most organists do not lack for training once they have reached the college level. But I do think more should be done on the parish level to encourage organists in their musical infancy. Parishes should give organ teachers free access to parish instruments to hold lessons, then set aside rehearsal time each week for students. (One of my organists used to give all her piano students an optional sequence on the organ, then we crammed into the choir loft for a delightful recital. More people should follow this example.)
3. Most every parish needs a grand piano and a pipe organ, or minimally, one of the above. Ideally these instruments would be near each other and tuned for duets and ensembles.
4. Dioceses should foster composers' forums to get good new works circulating in parishes before they get published.
5. The USCCB should commission liturgical music from top-shelf composers. It should buy the copyrights for some music so it can be distributed free, especially to parishes that can't afford the resources available.
6. There should be more choir tours in one's own country and to the Third World. Beyond that, good choirs in a diocese could visit parishes too small to sustain larger choirs.
7. There should be more musical exchange between composers and liturgical musicians of different countries.
8. There should be more musical exchange between composers and liturgical musicians of different styles.
9. We should look upon the publishing glut as a good thing, given that liturgical musicians are up for the task of winnowing through large amounts of chaff to find that more good music is indeed being composed today than ever before.
10. Hire bounty hunters to strip unneeded carpet from churches.
I probably haven't even covered all my soapboxes, but feel free to add your own.
