The urgency here is the need for scholarship money to attend the Sacred Music Colloquium this summer, the training venue that is teaching parish musicians chant and polyphony so that they can help upgrade music programs in parishes around the country. All proceeds (I hope there are some!) will go to this cause, so that students, seminarians, and religious sisters can attend. Our backlog of people needing funds is long and right now, we have nothing that we can provide.
In any case, that was the impetus for the speed. But, in the end, I think the book turned out well. I was startled at the length: 236 pages. Many of the essays herein originated with posts on this site and were improved by comments from readers. So I owe many people here: Shawn for his site, readers for tolerating my obsession with this topic, commentators who have variously hammered me for misstatements, etc.
The book attempts to chronicle the rise of the new sacred music movement, inspiring the work that is necessary to keep making progress, and providing direction for the future. It explains the rationale and purpose of the chant movement, and contains many thoughts you have heard before but also some that are original. I tried to keep it as non-technical as possible, and pitched to the regular Catholic musician or layperson in the pews who hopes to see change in the local parish.
It goes light on the negative criticism, though there is some of that, and tries to stay focused on the positive agenda for the future.
Please consider supporting this project, and feel free to write me with thoughts. Even if you are not interested in buying a copy, please pray for the success of this effort. Again, here is the buy link.
Here is the book itself:
Sing Like a Catholic
