Starting from the impact of a post-war style of academic training on his compositional voice through his search for a greater capacity for expression in the use of tonality, Dr. Frank La Rocca narrates the journey he took from the influences of the severe style cultivated in universities to the freedom he experienced in the strictures of writing a cappella choral music. Accompanying this path was his reversion to the Catholic faith, and the possibilities opened up by writing sacred choral music, leading to what many listeners will recognize in the style of Dr. La Rocca's most recent Masses. 

Find out more about Dr. La Rocca's work here: https://www.franklarocca.com/

Learn more about Dr. La Rocca's masses here: https://benedictinstitute.org/

Buy the recent #1 release of Dr. La Rocca's Mass of the Americas here: https://listn.fm/laroccamass/?mc_cid=0cb9d5c000&mc_eid=7669693fa1

Learn more about the composition seminar Dr. La Rocca will teach this summer, or the other classes of the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music here: https://catholicinstituteofsacredmusic.org/

His Excellency, Steven J. Lopes, Bishop of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter and Chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Divine Worship, offers reflections on the work of God in the sacred liturgy, the relationship of artistic beauty to the truths of the Catholic faith and a life of charity, as well as a bit about the formation of the Ordinariate's liturgical books. 

Learn more about the Ordinariate and Bishop Lopes here: https://ordinariate.net/bishop-lopes.

Learn more about the Catholic Institute of Sacred Music here: https://catholicinstituteofsacredmusic.org/.

Our Christmas gift to you is one of the most special interviews we've yet had the opportunity to present on this podcast. Naji Hakim joins us to discuss the impact of the sounds of his youth on his musical imagination, his training as a young musician, his study with Jean Langlais, succeeding to Olivier Messiaen's post at La Trinité, and his own work as an improviser and composer. 

Learn more about Mr. Hakim here: https://www.najihakim.com/

And be sure to tune in to his excellent YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/uyiai

Keep in touch with Dr. Donelson-Nowicka here: https://jenniferdonelson.com https://www.stpsu.edu/

When listing the most stressful jobs one can think, church musician doesn't immediately come to mind. Even so, there are a huge number of stressors that lead to frequent burnout and high turnover rates, impacting parish communities, and even the spiritual lives of musicians. Join Dr. Kensley Behel, an expert in musicians' health, as we discuss the roots of these problems and what musicians and pastors can do to avoid burnout. 

Learn more about Dr. Behel here: https://www.kensleybehel.com/

Keep in touch with Dr. Donelson-Nowicka here: https://jenniferdonelson.com https://www.stpsu.edu/

Have you ever wondered where and how Western musical notation originated and developed? How did it affect the learning and teaching of music? What are the limitations and contributions of notation to how the music sounds? Join Dr. Thomas Forrest Kelly, the Morton B. Knafel Research Professor of Music at Harvard University and author of Capturing Music: The Story of Notation, for a fascinating interview.

Buy Dr. Kelly's book here: https://wwnorton.com/books/Capturing-Music/ 

Learn more about Dr. Kelly here: https://medieval.fas.harvard.edu/people/thomas-forrest-kelly

Keep in touch with Dr. Donelson-Nowicka here: https://jenniferdonelson.com https://www.stpsu.edu/

Looking for inspiration about how to improve lackluster liturgies in your Catholic school? Fr. Christopher Smith presents myriad ideas which instill the faith in families and children, give a strong structure to the school schedule and curriculum, and bring people into your Catholic community.

Fr. Christopher Smith is pastor of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Taylors, South Carolina.

Check out what’s happening at Prince of Peace here: https://princeofpeacetaylors.org/ https://www.liturgicalartsjournal.com/2022/08/liturgical-arts-flourishing-at-prince.html https://www.facebook.com/princeofpeacetaylors

Keep in touch with Dr. Donelson-Nowicka here: https://jenniferdonelson.com https://www.stpsu.edu/

How did the Franciscan missionaries of California engage the people they were evangelizing through music? How did their training in music enable their missionary work? What were the forms of music the missionaries used? What were the artistic cultures of the California missions like? Join us as we discuss these questions with Dr. Craig H. Russell, author of From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions (Oxford Univ. Press).

Check out Dr. Russell's book here: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195343274.001.0001/acprof-9780195343274?rskey=yAse1t&result=1

Listen to Chanticleer sing mission music in their collaborative album with Dr. Russell, Mission Road: https://music.apple.com/us/album/mission-road-our-journey-back/288152035 

A leading expert in the work and approach to singing chant of Dom Eugène Cardine, Dr. Edward Schaefer (Collegium Sanctorum Angelorum) joins us to discuss the basics of semiology, the older styles of neumes, and how reading from these neumes can inform our singing of Gregorian chant.

To learn more about Dr. Schaefer, please visit: https://www.edwardschaefer.net

Check out Dr. Schaefer's online introduction to semiology here: https://gregoriansemiology.com

Discover the Collegium Sanctorum Angelorum here: https://www.the-collegium.org

Sign up for the CMAA's Sacred Music Colloquium, to be held at the Collegium in Hagerstown, MD here: http://musicasacra.com/colloquium

Learn more about Dr. Schaefer's summer class at St. Joseph's Seminary here: http://dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes 

What are the limits of music in conveying meaning? Can one "do theology" musically? Join Dr. Robert Sholl (Royal Academy of Music) as we discuss Olivier Messiaen's search for a musical language which could convey the truths of the Catholic faith.

Learn more about Dr. Sholl here: https://www.ram.ac.uk/people/robert-sholl

Check out Dr. Sholl's work on Messiaen here: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/music/twentieth-century-and-contemporary-music/messiaen-studies?format=HB&isbn=9780521839815

or here: https://www.routledge.com/Messiaen-the-Theologian/Shenton/p/book/9781138248014

To find out more about or register for summer classes at St. Joseph's Seminary, please visit: https://www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes

Focusing firstly on the Psalms of Sunday vespers, Dr. Mahrt takes us through a tour of the Psalms and their antiphon pairings and how this helps us to understand the typological fulfillment of the Psalms in Christ, as well as the feasts of the liturgical year. We discuss the four senses of scripture and how singing the Divine Office opens up the meaning of the scriptures.

To learn how to sing Gregorian chant, check out the Principles of Chant course this summer at St. Joseph's Seminary: https://www.dunwoodie.edu/dunwoodie-music-classes