OR SEVERAL YEARS, Saint Joseph’s Seminary at Dunwoodie, the seminary of the Archdiocese of New York, has offered summer courses in sacred music at the graduate level. In recent years, there have been online and in-person options. You can read about the courses here. The campus, in Yonkers, just north of New York City, is beautiful and quiet, with daily Mass in the lovely chapel. It is a wonderful place to stay for a week and to connect with other parish musicians.
Several of the offerings relate to recurring topics of this blog. For instance, in the week of July 11 to 15, there is a pair of courses discussing Gregorian rhythm, with Dr. Edward Schaefer teaching semiology in the mornings, and Dr. Jennifer Donelson-Nowicka teaching Solesmes conducting in the afternoons. In the week of July 25 to 29, I’m giving a course on what parish musicians can learn from research into the historical performance practice of Renaissance polyphony.
Many of the courses are previewed on Dr. Donelson-Nowicka’s podcast, Square Notes, which I also warmly recommend to our listeners. In one recent episode, Dr. Schaefer gave a brief account of the rationale behind the semiological approach to chant. In another, I discussed several of the topics that will be covered in my polyphony class.
