Reflections on Music Ministry

Our church choirs are welcoming new singers! This is the second in a two-part series on sacred music and music ministry. Information about our choirs can be found by clicking "Read more" below the interviews.

Click here to read Part 1.

Reflection by Mr. Kevin Allen, composer-in-residence at St. Gregory’s Hall and choir director at St. Gregory the Great

Reflection by Mr. Dan Lagacy, director of music and liturgy coordinator at Mary, Mother of God

Can you talk about the role of music in liturgical life?

From the very inception, from the very beginning of the church's liturgy, it's music. Everything is sung except for the sermon, and for the longest time, sermons were optional, so really when you think about church worship, our Catholic worship, it is sung worship. From the readings, which were traditionally sung, to of course the ordinary of the Mass – the Mass parts that everyone says every Sunday at every Mass – and also the propers of the Mass, so those readings that go in between the Kyrie, the Gloria and the Sanctus. That's where we started.

The preaching, what happens on the altar, and the music – all of those things are connected.
 

What are the roles of the cantor, choir, and congregation in sacred music in the Mass?

Everyone who assists at Holy Mass has a particular role. Some roles are shared by all participants, but most are specific. The Congregation has vital active duties, chief among assuming the various postures of standing, kneeling, sitting and singing the responses with the choir, and sometimes joining the choir in singing the Ordinary of the Mass.

The Choir has the duty of singing the Proper of the Mass as well as the ordinary and the responses.

Obviously as an artist, there's a sense of doing your best, but I know that I'm doing my best because it's worship of the Church, and it's worship of God. So I've benefited from trying to grow as an artist, because in that growth of an artist, that means I'm growing in my prayer life. If I become a better artist, I hope that I'm becoming a better worshiper, a better lover of God.

Can you talk about the role of music in liturgical life?

I think St. Paul sums this up beautifully in two verses he offers in his letter to the Ephesians 5:19-20… “Sing and make music in your hearts, always thanking God the Father for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Even before the time of Jesus – who himself sang psalms to God the Father – music, singing in particular, has been esteemed as a spiritual gift. It is a natural way of expressing ourselves, not only in this world, but in the one to come where God is eternally adored and glorified. So the Church naturally values this form of art, as a means of uniting heaven and earth as we pray at every celebration of Holy Mass at the Sanctus.

What are the roles of the cantor, choir, and congregation in sacred music in the Mass?

The Roman Missal, while being specific about the roles of each of these, envisions and prioritizes them.  The People of God are to engage in the dialogue parts between the priest and those who are gathered. The cantor, psalmist, and choir also have specific and exclusive duties, depending upon whose present: some shared and supportive and some exclusive.  But these roles are in service of the liturgical action taking place and to those in prayer, sung or otherwise.  For instance, from the GIRM…

“40. Great importance should therefore be attached to the use of singing in the celebration of the Mass, with due consideration for the culture of peoples and abilities of each liturgical assembly… in the choosing of the parts actually to be sung, preference is to be given to those that are of greater importance and especially to those which are to be sung by the Priest or the Deacon or a reader, with the people replying, or by the Priest and people together.”

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Our choirs are welcoming new singers!

Saint Ita:
Singing Season: September – Solemnity of the Sacred Heart June 2024.
Contact Dan Lagacy at [email protected] or at the parish office (773-561-5343 ex. 13) for a singing  interview.

Coro Hispano: Contacte a Martín Corro al [email protected] Temporada del coro en marcha.
 
St. Gregory the Great: 
Singing season: Begins October 1
Auditions after 9:30 AM Sunday Mass at St. Gregory: August 27, September 3, September 10.
Contact Mark Franzen at [email protected] or 773-561-3546.
 
St. Thomas of Canterbury: 
English: All singers welcome! Rehearsals before 11:30 AM Mass. Contact Joan Mikol at [email protected] for more information.

Vietnamese: Contact Hoa Pham at [email protected] for singing interview and schedule.