Meanwhile, In The Land of OCP...

...a.k.a. Portlandia, comes this pleasantly surprising development:

Archbishop Sample’s pastoral letter encourages worship music that is truly sacred — and he gives objective criteria (Catholic Sentinel)

Archbishop Alexander Sample on Jan. 25 released a pastoral letter to the Archdiocese of Portland on sacred music for Mass, seeking to highlight “perennial truths”: sanctity, beauty and universality. 

“Only music which possesses all three of these qualities is worthy of Holy Mass,” Archbishop Sample writes, explaining that ancient or modern music can qualify but that Gregorian chant is the preferred music for Roman Catholic worship. [...]

“The beauty, dignity and prayerfulness of the Mass depend to a large extent on the music that accompanies the liturgical action,” the archbishop writes.  

And from the letter itself (HT: Corpus Christi Watershed):

Every parish is asked to learn English plainchant settings found in the Roman Missal and should establish a least a small repertoire of Latin Gregorian chants for Mass parts.

Wow. Just wow. It doesn't get more direct than that, and yet it appears His Exellency has done a fine job of not browbeating it into his flock. That Abp. Sample is doing this is not surprising, since he laid the groundwork for a similar occurrence in the Diocese of Marquette, MI when he was bishop there.

We're not supposed to applaud in Church, so let's give His Excellency applause here:

Exit question: Does this new emphasis on sacred music make Portland more weird or less weird?

Why We Do What We Do, Again

Kathy has a tough job as our director, to say the least:

Way too often, I wonder what will become of RPC when Kathy gets called to her eternal reward, which I certainly hope is no time soon! Quite simply put, sacred music is not the most important thing in her life. It IS her life. I have tried to convey the enormity of the job Kathy has, including here and here.

Now, the staff at Corpus Christi Watershed has put together a "Church Music Manifesto" discussing the state of today's Catholic liturgical music. Please take the time to read it, understanding that Kathy has the additional task of finding us places to sing because we are not affiliated with a diocese or parish (remember, Assumption in Truckee is part of the Diocese of Sacramento). Not only does it show the enormity of what she's dealing with, but the task ahead for anyone else who deigns for follow in her footsteps.

Here's just one paragraph, into which I intersperse my comments:

The Second Vatican Council attempted to restore and elevate the Mass Propers, but this didn’t happen; less than 1% of Catholics who attend Mass each Sunday realize the Propers exist [myself included, despite--or because of--16 years of Catholic education]. Incredibly, it has become standard practice to replace the Propers with every manner of song: I’ve even heard rap at Mass! In this situation, people have come to believe Protestant hymnody to be the best church music [as late as 2004, I was agitating for more "praise and worship" music in the Liturgy, confiteor]. In particular, some now think of Episcopal texts as the supreme form of Catholic liturgical music. While I admit they’re often better than the drivel sung in certain churches, how far we’ve sunk as Catholics if such hymns are considered our ultimate goal. Indeed, the Brébeuf Hymnal could not have come at a better time: we need it! Needless to say, the changes in the liturgy which occurred after Vatican II—and incidentally went much further than what the Council Fathers authorized—have caused great confusion, and the Consilium gave no thought to the musical implications of their alterations [I contend they knew very well what they were doing. They were quite aware of Sacrosanctum Concilium; they just ignored/nullified it]. This confusion is partially to blame for the misinformed belief that Episcopal hymns are the pinnacle of Catholic worship. The truth is that Roman Catholic hymns are far and away the greatest, most ancient, most beautiful, and most theologically rich songs for the liturgy: Full Stop.

We can expect little to no support, and perhaps even opposition, from the Church hierarchy for any of this restoration of traditional music. Besides, they make spoon-fed OCP and GIA so easy for today's DRMs (I named names, Mr. Ostrowski). Fortunately, they're too busy avoiding doing anything about the sexual abuse crisis to notice this quiet revolution in the pews. For example, in the comments to this article, one reader said she had started a schola in her parish...in the Yukon territory of Canada. I think we can keep carrying on in Nevada and California.