Many SSG members will remember when the proverbial person in the pew associated the Society with chant and little else. We had to work hard to demonstrate that, while we treasured the chant (and still do), we believed that other forms of good music had a role to play in the liturgy. These days, if online references are to be believed, the Society seems to have lost its reputation as a promoter of the chant (unjustly and ironically) and acquired a new one as a purveyor of poor quality rubbish. The following quotation from the Radio 3 message board, cited on another thread, is typical:
The thing is, there will be quite a bit of choral activity at these events in the coming days, and in one case, involving one of the greatest choirs in the world. Does anyone know what music is planned for the weekend? Will Benedict have heard a better church choir than that of Westminster Cathedral? And will he/we have to suffer the inane, banal, incompetent rubbish of the Society of St Gregory lot again, ie Paul Inwood etc?
With the Society's AGM in the offing, I wonder what members (and, indeed, non-members) think the Society could and should do to reclaim its public reputation.
musicus wrote:Many SSG members will remember when the proverbial person in the pew associated the Society with chant and little else. We had to work hard to demonstrate that, while we treasured the chant (and still do), we believed that other forms of good music had a role to play in the liturgy. These days, if online references are to be believed, the Society seems to have lost its reputation as a promoter of the chant (unjustly and ironically) and acquired a new one as a purveyor of poor quality rubbish.
I don't think you're right, musicus. All it means is that the noisy poster on the BBC forum reads that odd character on the Telegraph blogs web site. I think the Society should be perfectly at ease with criticism from that quarter, and from his eccentric followers. It would be unthinkably worse to have their approval.
I suspect that what they are hankering for is Credo 3 and Missa de Angelis belted out molto con welly. Hardly the musical high points of the Liber Usualis. Stick to your guns of appropriate music performed to the best standard.
musicus wrote:With the Society's AGM in the offing
Talking of which, and moving partially off topic, is there going to be a call to members to join a scratch choir for Mass on this day? Or will the Ealing people look after it all themselves?
Southern Comfort wrote:Talking of which, and moving partially off topic, is there going to be a call to members to join a scratch choir for Mass on this day? Or will the Ealing people look after it all themselves?
No, there will be a rehearsal for all who wish at 11 and Mass at 12. Cherry Pauls, the Ealing organist, will be organist for the occasion, under SSG direction.
For any who may not know what this is about, it's our Annual Conference Day on Saturday 13 November, which will take place at Ealing Abbey. More details in due course.
John Ainslie wrote: For any who may not know what this is about, it's our Annual Conference Day on Saturday 13 November, which will take place at Ealing Abbey. More details in due course.
The outline of the day is already available. The finer points of detail to follow, as John says, in due course.
alan29 wrote:I suspect that what they are hankering for is Credo 3 and Missa de Angelis belted out molto con welly. Hardly the musical high points of the Liber Usualis. Stick to your guns of appropriate music performed to the best standard.
Well, they will get Credo III at Cofton Park on Sunday!
(By the way, why are so many people still speculating about the musical content of the Papal Masses? All they have to do is consult their copy of Magnificat.) *
Yes, I agree with much that has been written here. The SSG should stick to its guns and not be diverted by ill informed diatribe against composers such as Paul Inwood.
However, there are some additional points worth bearing in mind:
(1) The SSG, rightly, pays a lot of attention to liturgy; but there have been times when this has come close to diverting attention away from music. Notice how there are far more messages in the liturgical side of this forum than in 'Sounds off', although you could argue that some of these, including perhaps this thread, more properly belong to the latter. Liturgy and Music of course should go hand in hand. It is therefore important to keep an even balance between the two. One measure of this is the balance of articles in Music and Liturgy, which at the moment seems to be fairly even. In particular articles on the technical aspects of music are really valuable, as they show people how to do things and give practical information (with musical examples) rather than just outlining idealised theory.
(2) Judging by many recent summer schools the SSG musical mindset does appear to be dominated by composers of the St Thomas More type. This is entirely to be expected if you recruit them as music directors; and they do a very good job too. However it can produce a mutually reinforcing cycle. You have a succesful summer school with a St Thomas More composer taking the lead, so you go back to them again and lose sight of other possibilities; people then get the idea that this is the sort of music that always occurs on this occasion and come (or stay away) accordingly. This year I thought it a good thing to see a shift away (but not an abandonment) from this, and I would not be surprised to see a different sort of change of emphasis next year.
(3) A deeper problem stems from the fact that I sense a failure to develop the St Thomas More style from where it stood in the 1990s (a notable exception being the recently published 'Psallite'). In particular I notice a retreat from their pioneering use of instruments that was such a feature of their earlier output (in parallel with Taize). It is this loss of creative ' stylistic momentum' (as opposed to the continuing output of 'new' pieces using the same formulae) that to some extent gives an opportunity to their traditionalist critics. I think it is very important then for the SSG to explore (and then perform and publish - in the teeth of formidable copyright obstacles) music from other stylistic compositional genres. In this context the SSG composers group is a useful 'laboratory'.
