Chant and other Sacred Music interspersed with Benedict's Liturgical Thought: A Concert in Honour of Summorum Pontificum

VATICAN CITY - The girls and boys of the School of Media Urbisaglia, which had been at the general audience of Pope Benedict XVI on October 31 last year and then received by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, will present its repertoire of sacred music and Gregorian chant during the usual Christmas concert since that Jubilee is offered in the Collegiate Church of Urbisaglia (Macerata).

All pupils, Italians and foreigners, will sing the parts of solo and choral anthems, antiphons and "proprium" of Christmas time as the Gregorian tradition has given.

That is the title of this concert is "Summorum Pontificum", as the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI which exalts the ancient Latin liturgy, the source, for almost two thousand years, of Christian music and architecture.

To enrich the concert, the first performance of the Mass in honor of Blessed Charles of Austria composed by the young musician Raymond Mameli of Cagliari... The Gregorian and sacred music, which will be directed by Andrea Carradori, will be interspersed with classical compositions Christmas for instrumental ensembles performed by the Sinfonietta "Beniamino Gigli".... The membes of the Sinfonietta "Beniamino Gigli" are all young students of secondary schools who are showing throughout the region with great success.

The music will be interspersed by reading of several passages written by the Pope to stress the urgent and necessary "recovery" of the great heritage of sacred music, a cultural and spiritual resource for all humanity, which is very dear to Benedict XVI:

"I… recall what Vatican II had to say about sacred music: [...] the Council states that it is a treasure of inestimable value which stands out among other expressions of [sacred] art, especially for the [reason that the] singing, combined with the [liturgical] texts, is a necessary and integral part of the solemn liturgy… "(Benedict XVI, October 13, 2007, visit to the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music).

Source: Petrus