National Pastoral Musician's conference --By Providence... [Welborn]

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The National Pastoral Musician’s conference was last week in Indianpolis. A couple of reports, from slightly different perspectives, have surfaced here and here. From the former:* Steven Warner’s opening address. Ok, much of it was good, but at one point…

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I was at the conference, though I didn’t get to any of the plenums (working) except the last (sr. terista sp?)

Did you have some point or questions? I’d be happy to discuss them, as I have mixed feeling about the conference, but I wonder what you were getting at?
 
TAS2000 said:
I was at the conference, though I didn’t get to any of the plenums (working) except the last (sr. terista sp?)

Did you have some point or questions? I’d be happy to discuss them, as I have mixed feeling about the conference, but I wonder what you were getting at?
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I think you are supposed to come up with your own questions and comments. I think this thread (and others like it from 'Catholic Opinion) might be automatically generated rather than from a particular poster.

I’m curious what you thought of the conference. My choir doesn’t meet during the summer and I haven’t had an opportunity to ask my music director or his wife what they thought of it.
 
NPM conferences truly are a veritable “market place of ideas”.

There are some things I agree with said, and some things I agree a lot less with that are said at any given conference.

As with anything not black and white, one can find a large variance of opinions and ideas at these gatherings and one must often make up his or her own mind as to the content.
 
Well, Mr. Warner might not feel that he needs a "“reform of the reform!” … but he’s going to get one anyway :cool:
 
Well, there were approximately 3500 attendees, not counting all the speakers, staff, exhibitors, etc. I think saying there is a “large variance of opinions and ideas” in any group like that is right on the money.

I went to the breakfast and was amused to hear Marty Haugen. He was relating a story where he described himself as an out of work musician, and his compainion shot back saying somethign liek “don’t sell yourself short, there are whole websites dedicated to hating you!”

I heard people who were vehemently mourning the thought of being “told what to do” by the USCCB as far as choosing and composing music. And I heard comments to the effect that “all the 20 year olds in the seminaries now want to go back to cassocks and berettas”. On the other hand I heard people praising the return to latin, and sung antiphons.
 
TAS2000 said:
Well, there were approximately 3500 attendees, not counting all the speakers, staff, exhibitors, etc. I think saying there is a “large variance of opinions and ideas” in any group like that is right on the money.

I went to the breakfast and was amused to hear Marty Haugen. He was relating a story where he described himself as an out of work musician, and his compainion shot back saying somethign liek “don’t sell yourself short, there are whole websites dedicated to hating you!”

I heard people who were vehemently mourning the thought of being “told what to do” by the USCCB as far as choosing and composing music. And I heard comments to the effect that “all the 20 year olds in the seminaries now want to go back to cassocks and berettas”. On the other hand I heard people praising the return to latin, and sung antiphons.
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They are the ones in the seminary for the wrong reasons.

Not to derail the thread …
 
I am sure that is not the reason they are in the seminary, we should look at their motives charitably, and assume they are there for Christ.

Now the attachment to cassocks, birretas, tradition is not bad. Are cassocks and tradition good? Yes, so they should be applauded and encouraged to stick to this.

Now if they are going to seminary out of ambition or a desire for attention, that is wrong, yet we shouldn’t attribute that to them unless they state that is the reason they go.

Back to the thread…
As a conference of this sort there must have been a lot of creativity in one place. Properly focused this is very good and I am sure there were some pretty good things that were presented.

In Christ
Scylla
 
Someone told me there was a national convention of liturgical musicians in Indianapolis recently. Anyone attend? Was it for Catholic liturgies? Hass, Haugen, etc. were some of the speakers supposedly. It sounded liked a mixed bag of traditional and contemporary music.
 
Elzee said:
Someone told me there was a national convention of liturgical musicians in Indianapolis recently. Anyone attend? Was it for Catholic liturgies? Hass, Haugen, etc. were some of the speakers supposedly. It sounded liked a mixed bag of traditional and contemporary music.
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There was another thread about that around here. I’ll have to look for it. I didn’t attend but my liturgy/music director and his wife did attend. I haven’t spoken to him about it personally but he did put a little something in our bulleting last Sunday which pretty much just mentioned singing as a high form of prayer.

I think you are right about the mix of traditional and contemporary.
 
Yes there is another thread about this started by catholic blogger i think. I was at the conference.

NPM is a national pastoral musicians organization founed by Fr. Virgil Funk. It is supposed to be a professional organization to further training and education in catholic church musicains, and provide some networking. They have local chapters all over, and have several regional and one national conference every year. There was something in the neighborhood of 4500 people at this one, and with that many people there is no way you could avoid having a mix of veiwpoints.

Was there something you’d like to ask?
 
TAS2000 said:
Yes there is another thread about this started by catholic blogger i think. I was at the conference.

NPM is a national pastoral musicians organization founed by Fr. Virgil Funk. It is supposed to be a professional organization to further training and education in catholic church musicains, and provide some networking. They have local chapters all over, and have several regional and one national conference every year. There was something in the neighborhood of 4500 people at this one, and with that many people there is no way you could avoid having a mix of veiwpoints.

Was there something you’d like to ask?
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I was just curious about what it was and if it had a specific direction - introduce new music, try to clarify liturgical music guidelines from Rome and the USCCB (if there are any), educate musicians on what is and isn’t allowed (can’t substitute a song for a reading, for example - we’ve been known to do this…)
 
I did not go to this years conference but have in the past. Like all such gatherings there are things you like and dislike. What we need in the liturgy is balance…balance between the old and the new. In my 30 years as a musician/liturgist I’ve come to see the value in this balance. In my parish we have exposition and the rosary in addition to Taize prayer. We use sing latin, contemporary, traditional and gospel music. We use brass, we use guitars. People are fed spiritually, they are generous in giving their time and treasures to many human concerns issues and projects. Balance is what it is all about.
 
I was just curious about what it was and if it had a specific direction - introduce new music, try to clarify liturgical music guidelines from Rome and the USCCB (if there are any), educate musicians on what is and isn’t allowed
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The short answer is yes to all of the above, and more. There are opening events each day, and many “breakout sessions” which you could think of as workshops or classes on every topic imaginable. Handbells, directing large groups, small groups, cantoring, improving voice, how to have an effective practice, liturgical guidleines, etc, etc… the best thing would be to get a copy of a registration packet and read some of the descritions.

There are also several social events and performances by some local and major players, as well as tours of the area churches, etc. There are a couple sessions where the major publishers hand out packets of their newest showcased peices/hymnals/etc and they have chiors and musicains perform them the way they were envisioned (and few parishes have the ability to duplicate) so it is pretty awsome to hear several thousand musicians singing these songs.

I particularly enjoyed a session with Dr Peter Ford and a session with one of the Bishops (can’t recall his name) from the USCCB comittee that is trying to make up the new music guidelines
www.usccb.org/liturgy/MUSIC%20FDLCnew.ppt
 
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