Sunday, July 01, 2007

More sights and sounds from the Sacred Music Colloquium

I'm posting an email here that I sent to St. Ann choir this week because I lack time to write anything more about the CMAA colloquium. Some choir members who have sung under the direction of Prof. WIlliam Mahrt for years were not aware of his involvement with the Church Music Association of America, until they read the email.


From: Roseanne Sullivan
Subject: Church Music Association Colloquium Photos and Sound Files
Date: June 26, 2007 10:22:11 PM PDT

As many of you know. Professor Mahrt is President of the CMAA (Church Music Association) and editor of its journal, Sacred Music. The CMAA held its yearly Sacred Music colloquium in Washington DC at the Catholic University of America last week.

I'm writing to give you links to photos I took while I was there and to sound files of the 140 voice choir made up of attendees singing the music we practiced and then sung at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and during a Tridentine Mass at old St. Mary's Church in Chinatown.

I also brought back about 40 free copies of two issues of the Sacred Music journal, which I'll bring to rehearsal tomorrow (Wed. night), first come, first served.

By what I believe is the grace of God, I was able at the last minute to take time off from work and get a place at the colloquium (even though registration has been closed for months due to unprecedented demand). The size of the event doubled from last year, and for lack of space the organizers had to turn away people for three months. Naturally, they are happily looking for a bigger space for next year.

Here is my photo gallery.

In my humble opinion, I was able to capture some great photos of Bill teaching, of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in the western hemisphere, and of the particiipants of all ages and backgrounds.

Links to my colloquium gallery, other photos and, most important, sound files are at the CMAA website. You have to scroll down the page a bit to find them. The Monteverdi Cantate Domino and the Bruckner Os Justi were so moving to sing that hearing them again brings tears to my eyes.

A lot of the works we performed are in the St. Ann choir repertoire, so take a listen to see how they sound when they are performed by 140 voices.
For example:
Kyrie from Missa o quam gloriosum and
Sanctus from the Croce Mass:

If you get a chance to check these out let me know what you think.

In the interest of musical fellowship,

Roseanne

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