We all know how disinherited we are from our own Catholic culture. The evidence? We all quarry from Catholic culture, yet none of us have ever heard any good live Catholic choral music. Sad!
I was lucky in that my pastor was the greatest American Church music legend of the twentieth century: Msgr. R. J. Schuler, Ph.D. Quoting the Holy Synod he often said with the smile of a victor: "The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of immeasurable value, greater than that of any other art."
Tonight, on the verge of tears, I was overcome with emotion as I watched in utter astonishment as twenty-two kids from Korea marched into the chapel of Rome's Pontificium Collegium Coreanum and busted out with an Ave Maria Stella that was like nothing yours truly has ever heard in all of his sad life. Utterly out of this world it brought sudden tears.
Tears as I gazed in shock. Yes, it was the beauty, but also the loss.
Bring this art back! And not the stultifying stuff in English, but the Latin!
See their site here and hear their music for yourself: http://www.Pueri.or.kr/ [this is the address they gave out, but it doesn't work].
They sang tonight from memory an Adoro Te Devote, Vocem Iucunditatis, Viri Galilaei, Regina Coeli, Adoramus Te Christe, Terra Tremuit, Emitte Spiritum Tuum, Quia Respexit and a Jubilate.
They ought to be world famous and sing for the Pope in private audience and may the Lord reward them a thousandfold in this life as in the next.
I was lucky in that my pastor was the greatest American Church music legend of the twentieth century: Msgr. R. J. Schuler, Ph.D. Quoting the Holy Synod he often said with the smile of a victor: "The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of immeasurable value, greater than that of any other art."
Tonight, on the verge of tears, I was overcome with emotion as I watched in utter astonishment as twenty-two kids from Korea marched into the chapel of Rome's Pontificium Collegium Coreanum and busted out with an Ave Maria Stella that was like nothing yours truly has ever heard in all of his sad life. Utterly out of this world it brought sudden tears.
Tears as I gazed in shock. Yes, it was the beauty, but also the loss.
Bring this art back! And not the stultifying stuff in English, but the Latin!
See their site here and hear their music for yourself: http://www.Pueri.or.kr/ [this is the address they gave out, but it doesn't work].
They sang tonight from memory an Adoro Te Devote, Vocem Iucunditatis, Viri Galilaei, Regina Coeli, Adoramus Te Christe, Terra Tremuit, Emitte Spiritum Tuum, Quia Respexit and a Jubilate.
They ought to be world famous and sing for the Pope in private audience and may the Lord reward them a thousandfold in this life as in the next.
2 comments:
Amazing.....I remember many conversations with RJS that had that very same tamber....I miss that man dearly....
It will take years for a return of what was lost.
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