Liturgical Celebrations Research Articles

De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling en geestelijke zorgverlening: Een kritische evaluatie The New Bible Translation (NBV) and Spiritual Care: A Critical Evaluation

The synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands recently released the NBV for ‘testing’ in the parishes for a period of 5 years. Although religious practices can be identified in health care institutions due to the work official spiritual caregivers do, health care was not specifically mentioned as a testing ground for the reception of the NBV. Research indicated that spiritual caregivers working in the fields of general hospitals and nursing homes highly valued the NBV for its hermeneutical and communicative competencies (readability and ecumenical impact); make use of it in liturgical celebrations and their preparation for it, regard it as an adequate ‘tool’ in their work, but generally speaking do not use it for obtaining personal inspiration. The respondents do not regard the NBV as a replacement of existing translations and deal with it in a pragmatic way. Where it can serve a good purpose, it is used. Otherwise it is neglected.

‘In Sad Want of Priests and Money’: Bishop Amherst at Northampton, 1858–1879

On 3 October 1875 the Diocese of Northampton, by direction of Francis Kerril Amherst, its bishop for the past seventeen years, marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Universalis Ecclesiae. The clergy of the diocese, in addition to special liturgical celebrations on that day, were exhorted ‘to give some instruction … on the graces and blessings bestowed upon this country by the restoration of the Hierarchy’. Bishop Amherst presided at Northampton Cathedral, and shortly after at the third diocesan synod.

La participation des catéchumènes à la liturgie

M. Clavier, About catechumens ' taking part in liturgy, p. 373-396. - Liturgy is part and parcel of the catechumenate. On the one hand, it marks out its main stages. On the other, it initiates those who are to be baptized in sacramental celebrations, especially the Eucharist. In accordance with the progressiveness characteristic of that period of initiation, the catechumens are likely to participate in liturgical celebrations of the Word of God ; they will do so through listening to and welcoming the Word of God and the urge to shape their lives according to it. As we are taught by Tradition, respecting a distinction between the faithful and the catechumens better enables to preserve the richness of baptism and to claim again the necessity for an initiation to Christian liturgy.

Marenzio's sacred music: the Roman context

M ARENZIO is virtually unique among composers based in late 16th-century Rome in not having had any known church position or employment which involved the regular composition of sacred music. Only when he occupied the post of maestro di cappella to King Sigismund III of Poland, from 1595 to 1598, was the composition and direction of sacred music required of him.' For the bulk of his career Marenzio was employed by or otherwise associated with a succession of cardinals (Madruzzo, d'Este, Montalto, Aldobrandini) and noble families (Medici, Orsini). In the case of Cardinals Cristoforo Madruzzo and Luigi d'Este, Marenzio did have the title of maestro di cappella, but there is little evidence that his duties included the regular provision of sacred music (but see below for further on Madruzzo). This employment profile is reflected in the relative sizes of his surviving secular and sacred outputs (roughly in the proportion 5:1). At the same time, his 70 or so extant sacred Latin pieces represent a considerable body of work in diverse styles and deserve closer scrutiny. This study will attempt to place at least some of them in a Roman context, using available information on Marenzio's involvement on a free-lance basis in liturgical and paraliturgical celebrations, and seeking to map such occasions on to his surviving music. This involvement centred particularly on two of the most prominent of the city's confraternities. Recent work has highlighted the importance of confraternities as a locus of patronage in Rome, positioned between official institutions (such as the major basilicas) and private households, and overlapping with both.2 Free-lance work for confraternities provided one of the main means by which the city's musicians supplemented their earnings; Marenzio's Roman contemporaries such as Palestrina, Ruggiero Giovannelli, Asprilio Pacelli engaged in it assiduously.3 While the lack of access to a regular choir for much of his Roman sojourn might have hampered Marenzio in undertaking such work, this would have been counterbalanced by his network of contacts with the nobility and influential cardinals, from whose ranks the office-bearers in the city's leading confraternities were drawn. The earliest evidence for such employment comes from the archives of the German national church of S. Maria dell'Anima (illus.2). In June of the Holy Year of 1575 a payment of 4 scudi and 6o baiocchi was made 'al mag[ist]ro cappellae Ill[ustrissi]mi Card[ina]lis Trid[entin]i' for music at the procession of Corpus Christi, held on the Sunday within the octave of that feast.4 Unfortunately the maestro of the then Cardinal of Trent (Cristoforo Madruzzo) is not named, but it has been generally assumed that Marenzio was in this post by at least 1574. Similar payments for the same procession were made to the 'cantoribus Ill[ustrissi]mi Cardinalis Tridentini' in 1571, 1572 and 1573. The payment for 1574 simply says 'cantoribus', while those for 1576 and 1577 do not survive. In 1578, and frequently thereafter, Jean Matelart, maestro di cappella at S. Lorenzo in Damaso, was paid. Cardinal Madruzzo had succeeded Cardinal Truchsess von Waldburg as Protector of the German Nation in Rome in 1573, and he held this office until his death in 1578. It was thus politically appropriate that his singers should be called on to provide music for the German Church's

MISSION AFTER THE HARARE ASSEMBLY

What can be envisaged? Introduction Time is passing quickly and, for those who had the privilege of attending the WCC assembly at Harare in Zimbabwe, the vivid memory of the experience is fading will soon become part of history. Yet it seems only yesterday that we were all taking photos collecting souvenirs, trying to immortalize different parts of this great gathering of the ecumenical family. With these few months of distance we can say without fear of contradiction that this second assembly on African soil was a success. We can say a heartfelt 'bravo' to those who gave themselves body soul to organizing this great event. Endorsing what was said by many participants - this was reflected in the joy on their faces - special congratulations are due to the people who organized the worship services liturgical celebrations. Here in particular we have every reason to speak of a success we could see beyond all doubt the presence of the Spirit of God inspiring women men from all parts of the world gathered in Christ's name around the Word. (I should have liked to be able to add and communion in the eucharist!) The Harare assembly is behind us and, rather quickly now, we have to set about assessing the new challenges the perspectives for the future. Where is the ecumenical movement going after Harare? What mission is or can be envisaged for the church after this last assembly of the second millennium of the Christian era? These are questions which will dominate debate research in the years to come. I shall limit myself here to sharing some of my impressions after attending the Harare assembly as a delegate from a local church, also some thoughts concerning the questions inevitably raised in my mind about mission in the context of theological teaching. The reality of present divisions First of all, at an assembly like this one is always struck afresh by the endless diversity reflected in colors forms of expression or dress specially brought out for the occasion in order to affirm an identity, be it cultural, confessional or collective (linked to a specific group or category of people). On closer inspection one realizes that behind these colors, modes of dress or expression are the communions or denominations which make up the ecumenical family. Then, looking closer still, it becomes clear that these bodies which constitute the World Council are in turn marked by deep differences which separate rich from poor, old-timers from newcomers, the secularized from the legalistic fundamentalists, etc. One is left with the impression that, as the ecumenical movement enters the 21 st century, it is fragmented as never before, like the societies in which it is set despite the illusions created by globalization. More serious still, we have to ask whether the evolution of the ecumenical movement up to the present time cannot in a sense be held responsible for the fragmentation of the churches the constant proliferation of denominations; for the World Council as we know it has always been a juxtaposition of denominations, like the communions belonging to it, which group together churches of the same doctrinal or historical origin. The more member churches, the stronger prouder they feel. From the outset, therefore, the vision is dangerous ambiguous in regard to the unity that can be envisaged in time space. Indeed, it would have been finer certainly more faithful to the gospel if the opposite were the case. Wouldn't the ecumenical family be stronger more coherent if at the end of a given period it could say that it had fewer members as a result of linkages the sharing pooling of resources energies? For when all is said done, the Council's new members are often churches that have split away from their traditional members over some disagreement. So, far from being an enrichment, this is in fact an impoverishment that leads nowhere. …

Catholic Church Music in Ireland, 1878-1903: The Cecilian Reform Movement by Kieran Anthony Daly

book reviews489 CathoUcs living in England, whether for private prayer or in assisting at Mass or Benediction." She notes that "those extra-liturgical forms which came to be practised with increasing regularity were devotions which had also been favourites in the recusant tradition" (p. 138). Heimann insists that CathoUcs in England "remained as English as the Scots remained Scottish," but adds that "in their holy aspiration to accept one another as CathoUcs first, despite class, ethnic , and political differences, they had also become more cathoUc in the other sense," and finaUy that "this CathoUc world within England was not an outpost of Rome but remained both an English and a Catholic community" (p. 173). The book is a fine one.The very complexity ofits subject matter should incite other scholars to further research and dialogue. RJ. Schiefen University ofSt. Thomas, Houston Catholic Church Music in Ireland, 1878-1903: The Cecilian Reform Movement . By Kieran Anthony Daly. (DubUn: Four Courts Press. Distributed by International Specialized Book Services, Inc., Portland, Oregon. 1995. Pp. vU, 189. $30.00.) WhUe this concise book is primarily a study of the Irish Cecilian movement over the twenty-five-year period that preceded the promulgation ofPius X's famous sacred music motuproprio of 1903, it also provides a European and a tantaUzingly briefAmerican perspective on an interesting cultural phenomenon in the history of late nineteenth-century CathoUcism. Founded on the liturgical imperative of ridding the sacred rites of a musical style which its proponents considered had enfeebled the liturgy by its incorporation of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century secular elements, the CecUians vigorously sought a return to what they considered to be the ideal church music, namely, Gregorian chant, classical polyphony, and their modern Imitators. Yet contemporary compositions had to comply strictly with the modal/diatonic harmonic language requirements of CecUian ideology if they were to be accepted as kosher. NaturaUy true creative talent could not and would not submit to such curbs on artistic freedom, and so part of the tragedy of this movement is that nonentities were elevated as paragons of compositional virtue whUe real compositional giants such as Bruckner (who as a devout Catholic leant over backwards in his efforts to comply with Cecilian requirements) were treated with some disdain. Indeed, as an indication of the zeal of the Cecilian mind, Daly recounts how in 1877, the archbishop of Dublin, whUe presiding at a festive Mass in a city church, on hearing the Kyrie of Beethoven's Mass in C . . . sent up word to the choir to have the performance ofBeethoven's Mass discontinued, and some other listed work which was free from conditions and independent ofinstruments substituted. 490BOOK REVIEWS This account (as is much of the source material In this book) is taken from the Lyra Ecclesiastica, the journal of the CecUian movement Ui Ireland, which flourished for fifteen years between 1878 and 1893 This periodical published Usts of approved music called the white list (which clearly impUed the existence of a black list), and kept strong tabs on the music programs (and their manner of execution) of liturgical celebrations throughout the country. Central to Daly's work are studies of the three clerical leaders of the international movement's Irish section: the German, Heinrich Bewerunge, a priest of the Diocese ofPaderborn, who came to Ireland in 1888 as Maynooth's first professor of sacred music, a position he was to hold until his death m 1923:WUUam Walsh, the musicianly president of Maynooth who became archbishop of Dublin Ln 1885 and reigned until 1921,lending the considerable weight ofhis office to the implementation ofCeciUan ideals in the Uturgy; and then there wasWalsh's auxLUary Nicholas DonneUy cold, aloof, but imbued with a deep love and knowledge of CeciUan music which was developed and sustained through his annual visits to thefons et origo of the movement, Regensburg, and to other continental centers of CeciUan endeavor, and through his friendship and association with such CecUian stalwarts as F. X. Haberl, Franz Witt, and Michael Haller. As this was primarily a southern German movement in origin and organization , it is not surprising that the CeciUan society took root Ln the United States Ui the Midwest where...

Oral and written transmission in Ethiopian Christian chant

Of all the musical traditions in the world among which fruitful comparisons with medieval European chant might be made, the chant tradition of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church promises to be especially informative. In Ethiopia one can actually witness many of the same processes of oral and written transmission as were or may have been active in medieval Europe. Music and literacy are taught in a single curriculum in ecclesiastical schools. Future singers begin to acquire the repertory by memorising chants that serve both as models for whole melodies and as the sources of the melodic phrases linked to individual notational signs. At a later stage of training each one copies out a complete notated manuscript on parchment using medieval scribal techniques. But these manuscripts are used primarily for study purposes; during liturgical celebrations the chants are performed from memory without books, as seems originally to have been the case also with Gregorian and Byzantine chant. Finally, singers learn to improvise sung liturgical poetry according to a structured system of rules. If one desired to imitate the example of Parry and Lord, who investigated the modern South Slavic epic for possible clues to Homeric poetry, it would be difficult to find a modern culture more similar to the one that spawned Gregorian chant.

Medieval Liturgy as Theatre: the Props

It may be debated how far the liturgy of the medieval Church (in particular the Mass) can be considered as ‘drama’, but its theatrical impact and organization are undeniable. Staged within a distinct space, the principal act of the Church’s worship had its own text and directions, which through contemplation and allegory summarized Christ’s terrestrial experiences and various aspects of the Christian faith. The Mass and other liturgical celebrations were events to be visualized, both externally and internally. It has been said of medieval plays that their fundamentally visual nature… so apparent to [a] medieval audience, often escapes the attention of modern scholars. The lines drawn between disciplines hinder easy access to methods that would enable readers to pass from a text to a visual reconstruction of it. Nonetheless the readers of dramatic texts need to visualize stage properties, costumes, and sets, and, when appropriate, to see beyond their literal meaning to their symbolic import. Further, readers must see gesture, placement, and interrelationship of actors, and understand how these visual elements contribute to the content.

The Language of Liturgical Celebrations

The Language of Liturgical Celebrations