A Next Step Toward Solemnity

The growing interest in saying the Extraordinary Form of the Mass in post Summorum days has yielded a growing number of pastors wanting to take the next logical step toward solemnity: learning to sing the High Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

A large group of these noble trailblazers have gathered today at St. John the Evangelist Church in Stamford, Connecticut to learn to sing the Ancient High Mass at the Church Music of Association of America's spring program, Sung Extraordinary Form: A Seminar for Priests and Seminarians. The conference runs through Thursday, April 30th, and will culminate in an Extraordinary Form High Mass on the Feast of St. Catherine of Siena, Rev. Scott Haynes, S.J.C., celebrant. The mass will be on Thursday, April 30th at 12:10pm at St. John's. The public is invited to attend.

Faculty includes Monsignor Stephen DiGiovanni of St. John the Evangelist, Scott Turkington, internationally known chant master and choir master at St. John the Evangelist, and the Reverend Scott Haynes, S.J.C, Associate Pastor at St. John Cantius in the Archdiocese of Chicago, Illinois.

The conference began just an hour ago, and three days of study are starting at the very beginning. There is a wide variety of experience among attendees. Those who have sung the High Mass for years, and those who have little experience singing the Mass at all. Scott Turkington is heading up this first session with a basic tutorial on Gregorian notation. The text accompany the session is the Square Notes Workbook, an immensely useful yet simple text readily available from Angelus Press

The sessions are resuming, with Father Haynes launching into an explanation and compelling history of the many different forms of the Mass. I will try to listen in now and continue with my report throughout the duration of the conference.