Society of Saint Gregory

Yes, I confirm there is a meeting at Portsmouth Cathedral on Oct 24th. Usual arrangements - arrive at 10.30 for 11.00 am. Break at midday for lunch. Leave at about 4.00. Bring about 10 copies of any music you wish to show. If you wish to come please let me know as I need some idea of numbers and I c...

'Celtic' has become like 'folk'. Its meaning - and usage - has changed from its origins and widened enormously in scope, partly because it is perceived as a useful sales pitch. The Walker Mass illustrates this nicely. A more interesting question is to ask what is the opposite of 'Celtic'. Could one,...

Dear Southern Comfort, Many thanks for your comments. Just a few responses. (1) I do mention the importance of Low Mass in the experience of many (if not most) Catholics later on. It is true though that I do not explore the implications of this very much. That is a huge subject in itself about which...

Just a little note to clear up the confusion: My book is called 'Roman Catholic Church Music in England 1791-1914: A Handmaid of the Liturgy? (Ashgate, 2009) They are offering it at a discount price for this month at least. 'Full in the panting heart of Rome': Roman Catholic Church Music in England ...

Picking up on Nick Baty's comments and returning to the question of whether the introduction of a new liturgy will trigger a 1970s style explosion of new religious music within the English Catholic church. First, plainchant. Yes, at least since 1903 the Vatican has always asserted the primacy of pla...

As I see it, the key question is whether the new liturgies will provoke an upsurge of new compositions, as happened in the 1970s and 1980s after the introduction of the present liturgy. Much of this repertoire has come in for criticism; but - warts and all - I felt this was a period of musical vigou...

Am I right in surmising that this hymnal will be very big? (i.e. over 300 items) I only ask this because I see from your list that you propose to include Mass, Psalm and other settings. A couple of years ago the parish where I was working set about replacing their hymnals. We immediately found that ...

I am surprised that a weekly sheet of the type I am thinking of takes only 10-15 minutes to produce. Note that I am not thinking of a little interpolation of the Responsorial Psalm and Gospel Acclamation response in a weekly parish newsletter. If I remember rightly even the common core texts consist...

Yes, I was often sorely tempted to get out the matches. Misselettes are wretched things; but I would probably have been lynched by the parish priest afterwards. In any case you still have the problem of what to do with people who rely on their missals. More seriously, the only realistic way forward ...

My own recent experience in my last parish might be instructive. In effect we had a four hymn sandwich, a full Mass Ordinary, a responsorial psalm (or communion antiphon) and a gospel acclamation, to say nothing of the requirement to have two organ voluntaries (one at communion, the other at the end...

Personally I think that the actual type of instrument one uses in a church service is neutral. What matters is the way it is used and the connotations that arise from that. Basically then, I am in favour of using any instrument that is available. Not to do so results in a failure to make full use of...

Dear all, First, many thanks for your kind comments. Second, I apologise for the short notice some people had for the Watermead meeting. In part it was due to the after effects of the theft of my old e.mail account. I got out my general e.mails and posts to my contacts about 3 weeks before but I am ...

Dear all, Yes, I am concerned at the difficulty of making new music more widely available. I have several (perhaps inconsistent) reactions to this. First, yes, copyright is a major bugbear. The problem lies not simply in the copyright for the music, it resides in copyright for the texts (including t...

Returning to the basic question: transferring hymns designed for one type of instrument to another. First, the issue has innumerable variants. Here are some of the more basic ones: (1) Piano to Pipe Organ (2) Pipe Organ to Piano (3) Digital/electronic organ/piano to either of the above (4) Conversio...

I note that some respondents - following existing precedent - are already suggesting that musicians might prefer to use new compositions instead of these. My impression, from what I have heard so far (especially the new versions of the GIRM), is that the authorities would like to forbid this and com...