Posts Tagged ‘Sacred Music’
The Author of the Salve Regina: the Stories of Two Great Lovers of Mary
The Salve Regina, after the Hail Mary, is undoubtedly the best-known and best-loved Marian prayer within the Catholic tradition. It is recited at the conclusion of each mystery of the Rosary; and, for those in monastic and consecrated life, it is traditionally sung as a final antiphon at night after compline, throughout most seasons of…
Read MoreA Famous Christmas Carol Written by St. Alphonsus Liguori
All Catholics should know of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s (1696-1787) famous Christmas hymn he penned as a young priest entitled, Tu Scendi dale Stelle. The song can be heard here, performed by Luciano Pavarotti in Vienna, Austria. St. Alphonsus was an Italian bishop from the Kingdom of Naples who was a prolific writer and thinker with…
Read MoreWhy Gregorian Chant is Supreme (Part II)
As a new generation of Catholics is rediscovering the patrimony of Gregorian chant and realizing that it belongs to them in a specific way as part of their inheritance, they are flocking to the Latin Mass, with music as a major catalyst. Many are turning to Vatican Council II for guidance, which not only authorizes…
Read MoreWhy Gregorian Chant is Supreme (Part I of II)
“How I wept in hearing Thy hymns and canticles, touched to the quick by the voices of Thy well-beloved Church! The voices flowed into my ears and Thy truth distilled into my heart, whence the affections of my devotion overflowed, and tears ran down, and happy was I therein.” -St. Augustine (Confessions, IX) Sacred liturgy…
Read MoreOn Discerning the Treasury of Sacred Music
“Cantare amantis est (singing belongs to one who loves).” —St. Augustine It is a matter of fact that in the vast majority of Catholic parishes the liturgical music is abysmal. This is a decades-old dilemma that is still menacing the Church across the globe, the aftermath of the 1960s modernist purge that announced itself as…
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