WOULD LIKE to draw our readers’ attention to two recent talks on the liturgy by two of our authors. First, I gave a presentation recently to the Academy of Sacred Drama, a group based in New York that mounts performances of oratorios. Since the pandemic has forced them to cancel public performances, they have sponsored a series of online events. My talk was directed primarily at concert audiences from various religious backgrounds, to give them a sense of the importance of sacred music within the context of the Catholic liturgy, and how beautiful music in a liturgical setting differs from beautiful music in a concert performance. In the course of that, I touched on foundational matters for the work we do as Church musicians.
You can visit the Academy’s site here and view their other upcoming events.
Second, Fr. David Friel also recently gave a talk on the sacred liturgy. While this video is for those who already practice the Catholic faith and want to deepen their connection to the liturgy, I found many points of agreement and complementarity between these two conversations, especially concerning the role of believer’s personal offering and the meaning of silence.
