Posted on 10/31/2005 8:28:42 AM PST by Pyro7480
Echoes of Catholic Militancy
A recent book titled, No More Christian Nice Guy, outlines a prevalent error in society. The book’s author, Paul Coughlin, explains that Christianity has been divorced of masculinity to such an extent that many Christian men feel stifled and even suffocated when trying to practice the Faith.
However, this emasculated Christianity is opposed by the teachings of Christ and two thousand years of Catholic tradition. Indeed, Christ gave a supreme example of manliness when he railed against the Pharisees and again when He drove the money changers from the Temple.
Following His example, pious Catholic men throughout the centuries have brought tremendous acts of daring and bravery to battlefields and steadfastly faced innumerable situations of danger and conflict. Nothing could be more Catholic than this. That is why the Church teaches that Catholics living on earth are members of the “Church Militant.”
Echoing this spirit of manliness and combativeness, the American TFP Choir is featuring a recording of traditional Catholic choir music, sung in a masculine and forceful style. These songs were digitally recorded at the closing Mass of the 2005 National Conference of the American TFP. Feel free to listen to these ten tracks for free, or download the whole collection by clicking here
Listening to these pieces can help revive the notions of Catholic virility and give oxygen to those struggling to be truly Catholic men.
Holy God We Praise Thy Name...2:21
Ave Maria Serena...4:08
Veni Sancte Spiritus...2:47
Agnus Dei...1:21
Sanctus...1:30
O Vos Omnes...2:55
Virgo Dei Genetrix...1:23
Ave Verum...2:13
Salve Regina...3:30
O Rome Eternal...3:24
Catholic ping!
thanks.
Thanks Pyro. Someone had mentioned the Tallis Scholars and some other group on another thread regarding traditional Anglicanism. I picked one up at the library and they are wonderful. Quite frankly, although I listen to Medeival and Renaissance music from time to time, it is not necessarily always done well. Quality is important. Consider this thread bookmarked.
Love it! I can think of a few guys I might want to send it to.
The other was John Rutter's Cambridge Singers - their Treasures of English Church Music is a very good survey/sample of the best English church music. The Tallis Scholars have a harder-edged, more aggressive sound, while Rutter's group is all ethereal and floaty (but still dead on wrt pitch and tempo). Just depends on which style you like (I like 'em both).
You're right that there's a lot of bad M&R music floating around . . . probably a combination of amateur recording/miking, cranky "original instruments", and bad choice of material . . .
When you get a chance, AAM, tell me what you think of the mp3s.
Thanks.
I look forward to downloading these later.
Thanks for the very good audio clips.
I'm glad you liked them. :-)
My favorites for Renaissance and Medieval music: Tallis Scholars, Westminster Cathedral Choir and almost anything produced by Sequentia records.
This is great. Thanks for the ping.
The chant is very good, particularly the Veni Sancte Spiritus. Very very picky comment - some of the more complex tones present some difficulties - particularly wide upward leaps (they present problems to me too). They sound a little bit strained.
"Holy God We Praise Thy Name" I don't care for at all. The tempo is set WAY too slow, so that there isn't any connection between the notes and the guys tend to hammer each note as a separate entity - the phrasing just isn't there, it's like an absolutely square march with no flexibility (which is surprising, because the choir shows tremendous flexibility and movement in the phrasing of the chant.)
I wonder if the choir was situated a long way away from the organ pipes, so that there was a time lag - it has that feeling of anxiety (been there, done that, it's scary and aggravating to be unable to hear the organ properly.) I think that may be a large part of the problem, because "Rome Eternal" with the brass is right on the money, good tempo, and good phrasing. So I think it was an anomaly with that one hymn - perhaps it was early in the program and they were nervous?
I have found that for other classical music I greatly enjoy The Academy of St.Martin-In-The-Field conducted by Neville Mariner and The Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell.
Ave Maria Serena... ah... sublime. Thank-you Pyro
I think you may be right on the money on that. It's listed as track 1, which is interesting, since I have never heard of using that hymn as an entrance hymn. Thanks for your comments!
I agree with you on that. A few of my classical music CD's have music performed by that Academy. My personal favorite is the 3 CD set that includes all 6 Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach.
Bump for later listen.
Thanks Pyro. I just uploaded the chants to my new Ipod.
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