The 18th century orchestral mass repertoire comes with all sorts of questions for the liturgical musician. Is this repertoire properly called "Viennese"? Does this music really fit, in style and length, with the sacred liturgy? What does the Church have to say about this style of music? Are there any of these Masses that I can do with my choir? Dr. Erick Arenas of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music joins us to answer these questions, and to talk about the wonderful oeuvre of Johann Michael Haydn, the younger brother of the more famous Haydn.  To learn more about Dr. Arenas, click her ..read more

For Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus, Ohio, sacred music and the Eucharistic revival are inextricably linked. When he was consecrated bishop at age 49 in 2022, he was the U.S.'s youngest bishop, and his experience with sacred music as a young person involved a mix of typical U.S. parish music, but also special liturgical and musical experiences sought out by his parents, and this has shaped in him a deep understanding of the importance of sacred music. Join us as we discuss the role he sees for sacred music in reviving faith in the presence of Christ in the Most Holy Eucharist.  ..read more

What do we know about music in the earliest liturgies celebrated in Ireland? Did sacred music and the liturgy develop as a distinguishable "Celtic rite" in Ireland? What impact did the Church in Ireland, and specifically the monastic impact of Ireland, have on the European continent? We discuss these and other questions with Dr. Ann Buckley, a visiting research fellow in the Medieval History Research Centre of Trinity College Dublin.  To learn more about Dr. Buckley and her work, please visit: https://www.tcd.ie/medieval-history/expertise/ann-buckley.php To see an edition of the sequence ..read more

Having worked in Catholic classical education for decades, Mark Langley knows the place of music in Catholic education, and has built schools in which every student is enabled to learn and sing chant and polyphonic works from the Church's sacred music treasury. Join us for a discussion about where music figures into the educational structure, and some problems in the modern conception of the nature of music that prevent Catholic education from giving music its proper due. Learn more about Mr. Langley and his work here: https://olwclassical.org/faculty/ Learn more about the Catholic Institute o ..read more

Charles Cole joins us with clips from the recent release of the London Oratory Schola's album, Sacred Treasures of Venice. We discuss the crucial role played by Venetian music in the history of sacred choral music, and the particularly fertile atmosphere at St. Mark's Basilica in Venice at the end of the 16th century.  Learn more about the London Oratory Schola here: https://www.londonoratoryschola.com/ Purchase the new album here: https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68427  Learn more about the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music here: http://catholicinstituteofsacr ..read more

How does the experience of Mass on Sunday at a parish affect the lives of Catholics, and what role does music play in that experience? How does sacred music bridge the gap between people of different languages, ethnicities, and backgrounds? Why does the Church spend money on beautiful things instead of only on material goods for the poor? We tackle these questions and more in this interview with Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ, bishop of Oakland, California.  To find out more about the music program at St. Patrick's Seminary and the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music, please visit http://cat ..read more

Where did the chant editions we sing from now come from? What choices were made in the making of those editions? Are other variants of the melody possible? What are the rhythmic implications that can be gleaned from comparing the same melody in different manuscripts? Why do these questions matter to the modern Catholic singer of Gregorian chant? What's a healthy approach to integrating manuscript study and the singing of chant? We explore these questions and more with Dr. Charles Weaver, as he gives a preview of the "Advanced Seminar in Gregorian Chant: Historical Notation Survey and Manuscrip ..read more

Join us as we talk about the interaction between music notation and memory, and the impact of that interaction on the spiritual lives of singers of Gregorian chant. Our guest is Dr. Anna Maria Busse Berger, Distinguished Professor of Music, emeritus, from UCDavis, and we dive into some of the topics from the first few chapters of her book, Medieval Music and the Art of Memory. Find out more about Dr. Busse Berger here: https://arts.ucdavis.edu/faculty-profile/anna-maria-busse-berger Buy Dr. Busse Berger's book here: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520314276/medieval-music-and-the-art-of-memor ..read more

Join us as we dive into the role that bells have played throughout the history of Christianity in warding off evil and storms, signaling significant temporal and spiritual moments, and the consecration of bells in the Pontificale Romanum. Learn about the manufacturing process and the engineering behind getting bells to sound beautiful, and discover how you might support the casting and hanging of new bells in your own church tower. Our guests are Fr. Christopher Gray of St. Mary of the Assumption in Park City, Utah, and Carl Scott Zimmerman, a campanologist and author at the extremely hel ..read more

Join the editor of Adoremus Bulletin, Christopher Carstens, and Dr. Donelson-Nowicka as they chat about answers to some liturgical-musical questions: Can we use the organ or other instruments during Lent? During Advent? Where should the choir be placed in a church? Is there a list of songs that are (or are not) permitted? Can paraphrased psalms be used at Mass? Should cantors be vested? To go deeper in your study of the sacred liturgy and its music, check out our summer 2024 graduate classes or the upcoming online fall and spring 2024–2025 graduate course offerings of the Catholic Institu ..read more