Optima Musica Dei Donum

They Paved Paradise, but Look at This Beautiful Parking Lot! This is the second part of an examination (fisking, actually) of an article authored by Michael Clayton in the July 5 2016 edition of ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2016/07/they-paved-paradise-but-look-at-this.html

It's My Birthday and I'll Ply if I Want to- Part the First After forty-five years in the biz (so to speak), I believe there’s only one certain conclusion I’ve reached regarding the sacred/lit...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2016/07/after-forty-fiveyears-in-biz-so-to.html

Reviewing Hymnals, One Version There has been much discussion in various internet forums of late regarding aspects of the publication and efficacy of many hymnals, notably the St. Michael Hymnal ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2016/06/there-has-been-much-discussion-in.html

Initially I intended to frame this article from the perspective of “being in the twilight” of my career as a church musician. Typically myopic, I’d forgotten about mentors such as Professor...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-exactly-is-it-that-we-want.html

This is a list of hymns and songs culled from a spreadsheet I made years ago from OCP. This is in response to a Chant Cafe post by Kathleen Pluth regarding what we think are "songs that everyone ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-team.html

It boils down to “say what you mean, mean what you say,” doesn’t it? On O’Reilly’s show, the Factor, upon delivering the “news” of Robin William’s death, O’Reilly prefaced ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2014/08/for-bill-oreilly-and-fisher-king.html

Over at MSF I've reported that our parish quietly heard its first EF (Low) Mass via a funeral request. That was effected by a former vicar who's now the pastor of a parish in a neighboring town w...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2014/08/god-is-not-dead-chant-is-not-dead-either.html

I thought I'd share portions of an ongoing series of liturgical catechesis articles that I contribute to the  parish monthly newspaper. I asked staffers and musicians alike to ask one partic...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2014/05/dear-charlie-sacred-music-advice-column.html

Music. God's. Greatest. Gift. Someone of my disposition could never have imagined that a transformative event fifty years ago, same day, same date save for the half-century, would elicit the eari...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2014/02/another-gaudete-sunday-in-yellow.html

I know you're like the gift that keeps on giving. I know that you think and will still think that your little love notes left on the chairs to me must be having an effect, otherwise why would I b...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/merry-almost-christmas-dear-stalkerperp.html

I thought I might illuminate a few instances of my youthful memories, out of sequence as is my perogative as bloghost, in order to point out that most of us have some fairly unpleasant and extrem...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/now-that-were-sharingfprgive-fast.html

Our Schola performed Mark Hayes' WHAT SWEETER MUSIC for our annual Nativity Concert this afternoon. We also added some single pieces prior. This has been a quite taxing year and fall/winter. Happ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-sweeter-music-what-bitter-irony.html

I sequentially resume my exploration of "me" with my earliest memories. It is difficult to ascertain whether they are actual or anecdotal, but who cares? Mom told me I was born at around 4:30am a...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/oh-yeah-where-was-i-1951.html

Florid, pedantic, ephemeral essays that are really kissing cousins, metaphorically, to snake oil pitches extoling the virtues of the traditional Mass as Pius X as he intended it to be reformed af...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/these-are-few-of-my-least-favorite.html

Sorry for the "time warp" jump, but it's after the BIG MASS for Our Lady of Guadalupe, I'm exhausted and my mind wanders. Being a card-carrying child of the SIXTIES, I have very specific memories...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/im-skipping-to-christmas-tree.html

Who am I, really, some of you may be curious to know? I’ll tell you what I remember and know as far as I can keep this autobiography moving towards the moment I can type no more. I was born to ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pilgrimage-of-my-soul-and-self-and.html

Ew....what an disjunct, incongruous title. So, just the sort of impetus to resume the push/pull perils of personal blogging! A dear friend of mine from CMAA has just started her own liturgical mu...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/10/i-love-my-choir-kidney-stones-no-so-much.html

When you read your newspaper, magazine, blog or watch your FOX, CNN or MSNBC news "delivery" programs, please note that regarding the barbaric murder of British Army drummer Lee Rigby yesterday n...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/05/requiem-for-all-races-creeds-and-freedom.html

The following is a play by play description of the progress of the installation of Archbishop Sample's Installation Mass as of 2pm PST. Imagine I sound like Vin Scully mixed with the late great C...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/04/abp-sample-meet-portland-portland-abp.html

One of the lesser mentioned effects of the abdication/inauguaration equation was the "ceremonial" aspect of removing the likeness of the reigning Holy Father from institutional buildings (parish ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-ritual-portraits-down-portraits-up.html

Shark feeding frenzy. Indiscriminate, look for any opening, any spot, any open wound, bite anything that resists, including one of your own kind.....keep it going as long as possible until? This ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/03/ad-reorientem.html

Ave Joseph Ratzinger, Papa Benedict XVI, my heart is full of love and aching gratefulness for the gift of God you have been and shared with all the world. With every breath you’ve taken you hav...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/02/benediction.html

The “reform the reform” is not utterly foreign to OCP. Thus alloweth Jeffrey Tucker in his erstwhile revisionist apologetic towards his own primal murmurs about the appointment of Bishop Samp...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2013/02/ocp-not-so-hidden-hand-behind-amchurch.html

This year's preparations for music at service were challenging and, at times, daunting. I suffered two weeks of being laid out (that hasn't happened since the Swine flu around '73) which took me ...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2012/12/midnight-mass-2012-at-mother-parish.html

I got phished over the holiday. The upshot, email contacts hacked, no major blowback yet, knock on wood. But in the amazing arcane process of trying to recover stuff, change stuff, make it all be...

http://musicgiftofgod.blogspot.com/2012/12/36nice-number-but-who-are-you-folks.html