Church Music Association of America
Encyclopedia
The Church Music Association of America (CMAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) association of Catholic church musicians and others who have a special interest in music and liturgy, active in advancing Gregorian chant
, Renaissance polyphony
, and other forms of sacred music for liturgical use. Founded in 1964, it is affiliated with the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae (Roma), an advisory organization on sacred music founded by Pope Paul VI
.
The CMAA provides support for those interested in participating in a revival of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in Catholic liturgy. It sponsors scholarship and composition in the tradition of sacred music. It hosts the most-attended colloquium on sacred music in the English-speaking world, held annually since 1990.
The CMAA embraces the statement made by Pope Benedict XVI
on June 25, 2006: "An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony."
It publishes the quarterly journal Sacred Music and serves as a professional and social network for musicians, seminarians, and priests dedicated to the aesthetic and liturgical ideals of the Catholic Church.
on November 22, 1963, the Feast of Saint Cecilia
, patroness of music. CIMS developed out of a series of conferences on sacred music held in Europe starting in the Holy Year 1950, sponsored by the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
. The chirograph, Nobile subsidium Liturgiae, established the Consociatio as an "international institute which would be able to make known [to the Holy See] the needs of sacred music, and which would be able to assist in putting the decisions of the supreme ecclesiastical authority relating to sacred music into practice." Pope Paul VI appointed officers for the CIMS on March 7, 1964.
drew to a close in 1964, a group of American church musicians met at Boys' Town, Nebraska, to form the CMAA as the American affiliate of the Consociatio. They were members of the Society of Saint Gregory of America (founded 1913) and the American Society of Saint Cecilia (founded 1874). A photo taken at the meeting shows 63 participants. Most prominent at the meeting were Monsignor Schmitt, Reverend Richard J. Schuler, Archabbot Rembert Weakland
, Father John Selner, and Father Robert A. Skeris
. A provisional constitution was drafted and officers were chosen: Weakland was named president, Father Cletus Madsen
vice president, Father Schuler secretary, and Frank Szynskie treasurer. At this meeting a resolution put forward by Fr. Skeris was adopted in which the group pledged itself to maintain the highest artistic standards in church music and to preserve the treasury of sacred music, especially Gregorian chant.
In 1966, the Consociatio sponsored a convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
in conjunction with the Fifth International Church Music Congress. At its conclusion, delegates held the first general meeting of the CMAA.
According to an account by Richard Schuler, a split emerged very quickly, with President Weakland taking sharp exception to the "reactionary attitudes in liturgical thinking" that he said were present at the Consociatio meeting. He gave interviews to the press in which he regretted the failure of the meetings to include modern music and dancing in its liturgical agenda. His views did not prevail within the CMAA: an election of new officers was held at this meeting, and Weakland was replaced as president by Theodore Marier
.
, Saint Paul, Minnesota
, by Msgr. Johannes Overather with a congregation of one thousand, including Archbishop Leo Binz
of Saint Paul
and Bishop Alphonse Schladweiler of New Ulm
, Minnesota.
Because CMAA was founded in a merger of the Society of Saint Gregory and the Society of St. Cecilia, the CMAA recognizes 1874 as the year of its founding. To recognize the hundredth anniversary of the CMAA, the organization held a Mass at the Church of St. Agnes on December 27, 1973. A congratulatory telegram from Pope Paul VI was read at the conclusion of the Mass.
In 1974, the CMAA met in Salzburg
, Austria. Fr. Skeris held the position of president following Msgr. Schuler.
Liturgy Committee, Subcommittee on Music, in preparation for a revision of the 1983 document Music in Catholic Worship, which eventually produced the document Sing to the Lord.
, founder and director of the Tallis Scholars
, as well as Peter A. Kwasniewski, Michael Lawrence, Shawn Tribe, William Mahrt, and Robert Skeris. It publishes feature articles on music, commentaries on chant and polyphony, documents and reviews, news and editorials.
Sacred Music is the successor to The Catholic Choirmaster and Caecilia. Archabbot Rembert Weakland was its editor at the time of the merging. In 1966, Father March was chosen as editor. In 1975, Monsignor Schuler became editor, who described the journal as "the life-blood of our society. It is the activity that can most securely bind together the members spread across the nation. It is a means of education, encouragement, and communication. In it the pledges of the society can be fulfilled. ... It can be a record of the work of those who wish to fulfill the decrees of the Church carefully and conscientiously. It will be a record for history that a sincere effort was made in this country to implement the sixth chapter of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the instructions that followed it."
The CMAA has put the archives of Sacred Music since 1975 online and has announced its intention to post archives as far back as issues can be found.
To that end, it uses multiple means to disseminate both authoritative information and instruction, as well as actual music, in print, electronic and aural forms.
The CMAA makes new editions of traditional chant works available for free download from its website, sometimes with fuller notation than in the standard 1974 Graduale Romanum and 1962 Liber Usualis books, for the convenience of singers. In addition, the CMAA offers the full Graduale Romanum of 1961 and numerous other editions of liturgical music in Latin and the vernacular for free download.
Center of the Rome School of Music at Catholic University of America.
The colloquium offers practical instruction in the liturgical practice of Gregorian chant and polyphony. Faculty have included CMAA leaders Mahrt, Buchholz, and Skeris, and conductors Wilko Brouwers, Jennifer Donelson, Arlene Oost-Zinner, David Hughes, Gisbert Brandt, and Scott Turkington
. Guest lecturers, teachers and recitalists have included Langlais scholar Ann Labounsky, Ward Method instructor Amy Zuberbueler, Fr. Frank Phillips, C.R.. founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, vocal pedagogist MeeAe Cecilia Nam, Fr. Scott Haynes, S.J.C., Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S., chant scholar Edward Schaefer, and organist Jonathan Ryan.
In order to promote works of modern sacred music as well as chant and polyphony, the CMAA sponsors new music reading sessions at its colloquia, presenting new works of contemporary composers, including Kevin Allen and Richard Rice.
In the 1990s, CMAA's meetings and colloquia on sacred music were held at Christendom College
in Front Royal, Virginia
, with music professor Kurt Poterack, then editor of Sacred Music, serving as director. At the initial gatherings, Colloquium choirs traveled to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to sing at a liturgy.
Beginning in 2003, the location was Catholic University of America, and the four-day program included sung Mass daily at the neighboring National Shrine.
In 2008 the program expanded to 250 participants and to six days, relocating to Chicago's Loyola University
. Daily Masses, in English or Latin, including the traditional and modern forms of the Roman Rite, were sung at the Madonna del Strada Chapel, as well as Solemn Vespers, and Holy Hours with Exposition and Benediction.
In 2010 and 2011 the seven-day Summer Colloquium was held at Pittsburgh
's Duquesne University
. Programs included expanded lecture series, sessions for organists, and a full orchestral Mass. The CMAA has announced that the 2012 colloquium will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Audio and video recordings of the liturgical and musical offerings of Colloquium liturgies are available and widely disseminated on the internet.
Early Music Singers, director of the St. Ann Choir at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, California
, and editor of Sacred Music. Its vice president is Horst Buchholz, Director of Music at Cathedral Basilica-St. Louis, Missouri and Conductor Laureate of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. The Association's treasurer is William Stoops; the secretary is Janet Gorbitz. The chaplain of the Association is Rev. Robert Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae Roman Catholic Church in Berlin, New Jersey
. Writer Jeffrey Tucker
is Publications Director for the CMAA and is managing editor of Sacred Music. Arlene Oost-Zinner is program director.
Gregorian chant
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical music within Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services...
, Renaissance polyphony
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, and other forms of sacred music for liturgical use. Founded in 1964, it is affiliated with the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae (Roma), an advisory organization on sacred music founded by Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
.
The CMAA provides support for those interested in participating in a revival of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony in Catholic liturgy. It sponsors scholarship and composition in the tradition of sacred music. It hosts the most-attended colloquium on sacred music in the English-speaking world, held annually since 1990.
The CMAA embraces the statement made by Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
on June 25, 2006: "An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony."
It publishes the quarterly journal Sacred Music and serves as a professional and social network for musicians, seminarians, and priests dedicated to the aesthetic and liturgical ideals of the Catholic Church.
Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae
The CMAA was formed as the American affiliate of the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae (CIMS), established by Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
on November 22, 1963, the Feast of Saint Cecilia
Saint Cecilia
Saint Cecilia is the patroness of musicians and Church music because as she was dying she sang to God. It is also written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord". St. Cecilia was an only child. Her feast day is celebrated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican,...
, patroness of music. CIMS developed out of a series of conferences on sacred music held in Europe starting in the Holy Year 1950, sponsored by the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music or Pontificio Instituto de Música Sagrada is an institution of higher education of the Roman Catholic Church specifically dedicated to the study of sacred music. It is based in Rome, Italy.-History:...
. The chirograph, Nobile subsidium Liturgiae, established the Consociatio as an "international institute which would be able to make known [to the Holy See] the needs of sacred music, and which would be able to assist in putting the decisions of the supreme ecclesiastical authority relating to sacred music into practice." Pope Paul VI appointed officers for the CIMS on March 7, 1964.
Founding
As the Second Vatican CouncilSecond Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
drew to a close in 1964, a group of American church musicians met at Boys' Town, Nebraska, to form the CMAA as the American affiliate of the Consociatio. They were members of the Society of Saint Gregory of America (founded 1913) and the American Society of Saint Cecilia (founded 1874). A photo taken at the meeting shows 63 participants. Most prominent at the meeting were Monsignor Schmitt, Reverend Richard J. Schuler, Archabbot Rembert Weakland
Rembert Weakland
Rembert George Weakland was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977 to 2002. He is the author of A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop, which explores Church reform issues, his homosexuality, and the child abuse crisis....
, Father John Selner, and Father Robert A. Skeris
Robert Skeris
Dr. Robert A. Skeris has been a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee since 1961. Dr. Skeris earned a Master of Arts degree in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame and studied at the Universities of Cologne and Bonn in Germany. He received his Doctor of Theology in 1975 from the...
. A provisional constitution was drafted and officers were chosen: Weakland was named president, Father Cletus Madsen
Cletus Madsen
Cletus Madsen was a 20th century Catholic priest of the Diocese of Davenport in the US state of Iowa. He was involved the Liturgical Movement in the Catholic Church in the mid-20th century.-Early life & Education:...
vice president, Father Schuler secretary, and Frank Szynskie treasurer. At this meeting a resolution put forward by Fr. Skeris was adopted in which the group pledged itself to maintain the highest artistic standards in church music and to preserve the treasury of sacred music, especially Gregorian chant.
In 1966, the Consociatio sponsored a convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
in conjunction with the Fifth International Church Music Congress. At its conclusion, delegates held the first general meeting of the CMAA.
According to an account by Richard Schuler, a split emerged very quickly, with President Weakland taking sharp exception to the "reactionary attitudes in liturgical thinking" that he said were present at the Consociatio meeting. He gave interviews to the press in which he regretted the failure of the meetings to include modern music and dancing in its liturgical agenda. His views did not prevail within the CMAA: an election of new officers was held at this meeting, and Weakland was replaced as president by Theodore Marier
Theodore Marier
Theodore N. Marier was a composer, church musician, educator, and scholar of Gregorian Chant. He founded the Boston Archdiocesan Choir School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, and served as the second president of the Church Music Association of America.-Life and career:Marier once said he...
.
1968 - 1974
In 1968, Marier was reelected, along with Noel Goemanne as vice-president, and Fr. Skeris as secretary. In 1970, Roger Wagner became president. In 1973, Gerhard Track was named president, Fr. Skeris vice president, and Monsignor Schuler secretary. At the meeting of 1973, Solemn Mass was celebrated in the Church of St. AgnesChurch of St. Agnes (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
The Church of Saint Agnes is an onion-domed church building designed by George Ries, built 1901-1912 for the German-speaking Austro-Hungarian population of immigrants in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places....
, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, by Msgr. Johannes Overather with a congregation of one thousand, including Archbishop Leo Binz
Leo Binz
-External links:*...
of Saint Paul
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is led by the prelature of an archbishop which administers the archdiocese from the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis...
and Bishop Alphonse Schladweiler of New Ulm
Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm
The Roman Catholic Diocese of New Ulm is a Roman Catholic diocese in Minnesota. It was founded on November 18, 1957, by Pope Pius XII. On July 14, 2008, John M. LeVoir was appointed as Bishop of New Ulm.The past bishops of the diocese are:...
, Minnesota.
Because CMAA was founded in a merger of the Society of Saint Gregory and the Society of St. Cecilia, the CMAA recognizes 1874 as the year of its founding. To recognize the hundredth anniversary of the CMAA, the organization held a Mass at the Church of St. Agnes on December 27, 1973. A congratulatory telegram from Pope Paul VI was read at the conclusion of the Mass.
In 1974, the CMAA met in Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Austria. Fr. Skeris held the position of president following Msgr. Schuler.
Since 2000
CMAA president William Mahrt participated in the October 9, 2006, public comment session of the United States Conference of Catholic BishopsUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...
Liturgy Committee, Subcommittee on Music, in preparation for a revision of the 1983 document Music in Catholic Worship, which eventually produced the document Sing to the Lord.
Sacred Music journal
The CMAA's quarterly journal Sacred Music is the oldest continuously published journal of music in North America. Its contributors have included Peter PhillipsPeter Phillips (conductor)
Peter Phillips was born in Southampton on 15 Oct 1953. After winning a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford in 1972, Phillips was offered the opportunity to study Renaissance music with the influential musicologists David Wulstan and Denis Arnold...
, founder and director of the Tallis Scholars
Tallis Scholars
The Tallis Scholars are a British vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers.Formed in 1973 by their director Peter Phillips, they specialise in performing a cappella sacred vocal music written during the Renaissance by composers from all over Europe...
, as well as Peter A. Kwasniewski, Michael Lawrence, Shawn Tribe, William Mahrt, and Robert Skeris. It publishes feature articles on music, commentaries on chant and polyphony, documents and reviews, news and editorials.
Sacred Music is the successor to The Catholic Choirmaster and Caecilia. Archabbot Rembert Weakland was its editor at the time of the merging. In 1966, Father March was chosen as editor. In 1975, Monsignor Schuler became editor, who described the journal as "the life-blood of our society. It is the activity that can most securely bind together the members spread across the nation. It is a means of education, encouragement, and communication. In it the pledges of the society can be fulfilled. ... It can be a record of the work of those who wish to fulfill the decrees of the Church carefully and conscientiously. It will be a record for history that a sincere effort was made in this country to implement the sixth chapter of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the instructions that followed it."
The CMAA has put the archives of Sacred Music since 1975 online and has announced its intention to post archives as far back as issues can be found.
Internet
CMAA is dedicated to the ideal of making the liturgical heritage of the Church, musical and textual, freely and universally available.To that end, it uses multiple means to disseminate both authoritative information and instruction, as well as actual music, in print, electronic and aural forms.
The CMAA makes new editions of traditional chant works available for free download from its website, sometimes with fuller notation than in the standard 1974 Graduale Romanum and 1962 Liber Usualis books, for the convenience of singers. In addition, the CMAA offers the full Graduale Romanum of 1961 and numerous other editions of liturgical music in Latin and the vernacular for free download.
Summer Colloquium
The CMAA began sponsoring an annual Sacred Music Colloquium in 1990, in conjunction with the WardJustine Ward
Justine Ward née Bayard Cutting was a musical educator who developed a system for teaching music to children known as the Ward Method....
Center of the Rome School of Music at Catholic University of America.
The colloquium offers practical instruction in the liturgical practice of Gregorian chant and polyphony. Faculty have included CMAA leaders Mahrt, Buchholz, and Skeris, and conductors Wilko Brouwers, Jennifer Donelson, Arlene Oost-Zinner, David Hughes, Gisbert Brandt, and Scott Turkington
Scott Turkington
Scott Turkington is currently the principal organist and choirmaster for the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina...
. Guest lecturers, teachers and recitalists have included Langlais scholar Ann Labounsky, Ward Method instructor Amy Zuberbueler, Fr. Frank Phillips, C.R.. founder of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, vocal pedagogist MeeAe Cecilia Nam, Fr. Scott Haynes, S.J.C., Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S., chant scholar Edward Schaefer, and organist Jonathan Ryan.
In order to promote works of modern sacred music as well as chant and polyphony, the CMAA sponsors new music reading sessions at its colloquia, presenting new works of contemporary composers, including Kevin Allen and Richard Rice.
In the 1990s, CMAA's meetings and colloquia on sacred music were held at Christendom College
Christendom College
Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, Virginia, United States, which is located in the Shenandoah Valley.-Educational Mission:...
in Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal is a town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 13,589 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County.-Geography:Front Royal is roughly west of Washington, D.C....
, with music professor Kurt Poterack, then editor of Sacred Music, serving as director. At the initial gatherings, Colloquium choirs traveled to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to sing at a liturgy.
Beginning in 2003, the location was Catholic University of America, and the four-day program included sung Mass daily at the neighboring National Shrine.
In 2008 the program expanded to 250 participants and to six days, relocating to Chicago's Loyola University
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
. Daily Masses, in English or Latin, including the traditional and modern forms of the Roman Rite, were sung at the Madonna del Strada Chapel, as well as Solemn Vespers, and Holy Hours with Exposition and Benediction.
In 2010 and 2011 the seven-day Summer Colloquium was held at Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
's Duquesne University
Duquesne University
Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit is a private Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened its doors as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of...
. Programs included expanded lecture series, sessions for organists, and a full orchestral Mass. The CMAA has announced that the 2012 colloquium will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Audio and video recordings of the liturgical and musical offerings of Colloquium liturgies are available and widely disseminated on the internet.
Officers
As of 2010, CMAA's president is Professor William Mahrt, musicologist and director of the StanfordStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
Early Music Singers, director of the St. Ann Choir at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, and editor of Sacred Music. Its vice president is Horst Buchholz, Director of Music at Cathedral Basilica-St. Louis, Missouri and Conductor Laureate of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. The Association's treasurer is William Stoops; the secretary is Janet Gorbitz. The chaplain of the Association is Rev. Robert Pasley, rector of Mater Ecclesiae Roman Catholic Church in Berlin, New Jersey
Berlin, New Jersey
Berlin is a Borough in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,588.Berlin was incorporated as a borough on March 29, 1927, from portions of Berlin Township, based on the results of a referendum held on April 26,...
. Writer Jeffrey Tucker
Jeffrey Tucker
Jeffrey Albert Tucker is the publisher and executive editor of Laissez Faire Books. He is past editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and past editor for the institute's website, Mises.org...
is Publications Director for the CMAA and is managing editor of Sacred Music. Arlene Oost-Zinner is program director.