April 15, 2019

#060: A Holy Week Companion

April 15, 2019

It’s Monday of Holy Week, and we’ve got a long road ahead of us. We all need a little more time for preparation – if not a few minutes more to rehearse, set the environment, prepare worship aids or scripts, then to prepare ourselves for the holiest days of the year.

So, for today, I’m sharing with you an episode of the Open Your Hymnal podcast. Open Your Hymnal is an independent podcast project hosted by Zack Stachowski and by me. This episode is a special celebration of Lenten music. You’ll hear a range of great seasonal music from a variety of composers arranged around the final three Gospel readings for Lent, the “Scrutiny Gospels.” These readings are shared with us by composers Meredith Augustin, Ian Callanan, and Luke Rosen. We hope that this presentation serves as both a companion and a source of nourishment.

Episode links

For more information on the “Open Your Hymnal” podcast, visit www.openyourhymnal.com.

You can purchase the song recordings you heard in this episode: “Parce Domine/Ubi Caritas” (arr. Jeremy Young), piano instrumental of “Lenten Suite” (Paul Tate), “Turn My Heart” (Marty Haugen), “Restless is the Heart” (Bernadette Farrell), “Lead Me, Lord” (Samuel Wesley), “Hosea” (Gregory Norbet), "piano instrumental of “Attende Domine” (Jerry Galipeau), “He Healed the Darkness of My Mind” (David Haas), “Open My Eyes” (Benedetto Marcello, arr. Dale Grotenhuis), “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” (Kathleen Thomerson), “Brille Tu Luz” (Stella Garcia Lopez, Rudy Lopez), quodlibet on “Were You There/Amazing Grace” (arr. Marcy Weckler Barr), piano instrumental on “Precious Lord” (Fr. Robert Koopmann, OSB), “With the Lord There is Mercy” (Val Parker), “When Jesus Wept” (William Billings), “We Shall Rise Again” (Jeremy Young), “Give Me Jesus” (arr. Meredith Augustin), and “Attende Domine” (arr. Trevor Thompson).

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April 8, 2019

#059: Hymns from Yesterday for Tomorrow (ft. Dr. Don Saliers)

April 8, 2019

At the end of each episode every week, I make a general ask for your suggestions of topics for future episodes. It’s been interesting to see what issues are on your minds, and I’ve done my best to incorporate the needs you’ve shared into the conversations we host. Often, the topics shared with me have to do in one way or another with repertoire development. So, today we’re going to open the repertoire conversation, but know that we’ll be picking up more repertoire-related topics in future episodes and NPM content. In fact, as coincidence would have it, the upcoming May issue of Pastoral Musicmagazine will focus on building repertoire.

So, let’s begin with hymnody. Hymns – both in reference to text and to tune – are so very important in the congregational life of the Church. Often, however, some communities think of hymns as artifacts rather than possibilities. Today we’ll challenge this assumption. To do so, we’ll hear from an article written by Dr. Don Saliers. Originally published in the April 1981 issue of Pastoral Music, Don helps break open what constitutes a “good” hymn and shares insight into the importance of hymn singing and the development of new hymns.

SHOW NOTES

For more information about Dr. Don Saliers, visit his biography page at the Candler School of Theology. You can read the full text of his article from the April 1981 issue of Pastoral Music magazine on the NPM website.

The recording of “Three Days” (THAXTED, arr. Jeffery Honore, text by MD Ridge) is published by OCP. The recordings of “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross” (William Howard Doane, text by Fanny Crosby) and “Jerusalem, My Destiny” (Rory Cooney) are published by GIA Publications.

Visit NPM's digital resource library, referenced at the end of the episode.

April 1, 2019

#058: Chant Clinic, Lent Edition (with Dr. Andre Heywood)

April 1, 2019

In a few weeks we will celebrate the holiest days of the year, the Triduum. No matter the musical resources you use or in which camp of the style wars your community finds itself, most of us will incorporate one or more of the chants traditionally sung during Holy Week.

Now, today’s episode isn’t a conversation about what chants you should or shouldn’t use, or a discussion about why chant is important, though both of those are important topics. Instead, we’re providing a short “chant clinic” designed especially for those communities who might not often sing chant during the rest of the liturgical year, but who will be incorporating chant during the Triduum. How do you get your choir to shape chant melodies instead of plodding through them like a heavy march? How do you effectively lead a congregation not accustomed to chanting? What about that soloist who will be singing the Exultet?

To help us out, we’re joined once again by Dr. Andre Heywood, a master conductor, clinician, and choral scholar. In one of our most-downloaded episodes, Andre joined me back in Advent for a conversation about vocal health. Now during this Lenten season, he joins us with tactics you can start using right away to improve the quality of chant in your celebrations.

SHOW NOTES

For more information about Andre Heywood, visit The Saint John’s Boys’ Choir.

The recording of “Pange Lingua” (Fr. Ricky Manalo) is published by OCP. The recordings of “Parce Domine/Ubi Caritas” (arr. Jeremy Young) and “Jerusalem, My Destiny” (Rory Cooney) are published by GIA Publications.

Visit NPM's digital resource library, referenced at the end of the episode.