Planning Music for Catholic Liturgy After Vatican II
Following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), Catholic liturgical music underwent significant changes. In many places, the Church moved away from an almost exclusive reliance on Gregorian chant and traditional sacred music to embrace a wider variety of musical styles. As often happens when new possibilities emerge, some communities moved toward an opposite extreme of relying primarily on contemporary and popular musical idioms, leaving behind the Church’s ancient musical traditions. Over the decades, however, […]
La Providencia: A Chance Encounter That Changed Everything
In 1985, as a young student at the Conservatorio Gilardo Gilardi in La Plata, Argentina, I was enrolled in a class called Acústica—Acoustics. The professor, whose passion for sound was contagious, once brought in a vinyl record to demonstrate the capabilities of a particular brand of high-fidelity microphones. The record featured a performance by Thomas Murray, a name then unknown to me, playing the Mendelssohn Organ Sonatas on a magnificent Hook organ. It was a […]
Mourning the Loss of Archbishop Henry Mansell
It is with great sadness that I write these lines in honor of Henry Mansell, a shepherd with whom I had the privilege to work throughout his entire tenure as Archbishop of Hartford.I served as Music Director of the Archdiocese and of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph at the time of his installation, and during those years I witnessed firsthand what I can only describe as one of the most visionary episcopacies I have ever […]
The Cavaillé-Coll Organ of the Basilica of Luján
By Ezequiel MenendezIf someone were to discover a painting by Van Gogh, a manuscript by Mozart, or a violin by Stradivarius in their home, they would surely take every possible precaution to preserve such a treasure. That is precisely the feeling we organists experience when we have the privilege of studying, researching, and dedicating our lives to this noble art—especially when we sit at the console of a historic instrument such as the magnificent pipe […]