Peter Jeffery and Margot Fassler to Notre Dame

Here is some wonderful news from Notre Dame, news which suggests an intensified commitment to chant and to great sacred music. I know more of Prof. Jeffery's chant scholarship, which is world-class, but in general the news is something that everyone should celebrate:

Peter Jeffery and Margot Fassler, specialists in sacred music and liturgy, will join the music and theology faculties of the University of Notre Dame, according to John T. McGreevy, I.A. O'Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.

“Our masters in sacred music program is built on a great collaborative relation between the theology and the music departments,” said John Cavadini, chair of Notre Dame’s theology department. “These distinguished scholars, one in each of those departments, will bring our collaboration to the next level of excellence, to the benefit, ultimately, of our students.”

Fassler has been appointed the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Music History and Liturgy effective January 2010, and Jeffery has been appointed the Michael P. Grace Chair in Medieval Studies effective July 2009.