...will be featuring its Gregorian Chant entry on its front page Thursday! Woohoo!
BTW, on another note, while Jeffrey Tucker makes that announcement, he also points out this Wikipedia entry on the St. Louis Jesuits. SAH-LAMM! All I can say is: I didn't do it! Rest assured, it was not me, and I doubt that it was either of my trusty teammates here at Christus Vincit (don't get the wrong idea; I'm not exactly endorsing the St. Louis Jesuits either). In fact, - now here's one of the beauties of Wikipedia: being able to edit, check out this comparison page, consisting of the original entry vs. the most recently edited entry.
SAH-LAMM!
Also, I have the 2007 music issue at my desk here. Sure enough, some of the new SLJ album is in the new music issue. Best cuts came from John Foley (he has two that, at least melody wise, are quite good). Worst cuts: the rest of the album (at least in terms of the stuff the music issue included).
Peace,
BMP
9 comments:
Brian, I concur that the author does slam the SLJ in the Wikipedia article; however, on principle, I believe an encyclopedia article should be composed relatively free of bias. With the subjective qualifiers used, such as "uneducated" and "real musicians," not to mention the old double dotted 8th cannard (which actually would point out the faults of hyper-detailed notation editing) this article fails the objectivity test in my estimation.
What you may want to check out (I found it fascinating and a bit strange) is that the national periodical of the American Choral Director Association, CHORAL JOURNAL, features a review of the SLJ Reunion commemorative coffee table book. Why strange? Outside of the fact that "Be Not Afraid," "Here I Am, Lord" etc. have found their way towards noted choral arrangers' pens, SLJ music is not what anyone would call "choral music" per se. Yes, the SLJ changed the landscape, made a major impact on American RC music, etc. yada....the fact that the CHORAL JOURNAL saw fit to print a book review of distinctly non choral musicians made big-time cognitive dissonance fo' me.
I cantored for John Foley about 10 years ago and he was the first to announce that he wasn't a trained musician.
I am can't remember the exact phrase he used but it was along the lines of "we were a bunch of guys with guitars".
That's actually really funny
DS, I'm sure you realized that I wasn't quarreling with the characterization as being accurate. I've accompanied the SLJ as group and individuals on a number of occasions since being the NALR bass player at Chicago NPM in 1979 (sigh....) and your account rings true.
My problem lies with the bias and tone of an article in what I thought was a mainstream encyclopedia. I also think, BTW, that their compositions pre-formal compositional studies fare better than the "studied" ones.
For example, the reunion album was a tough listen for me; nothing really compelling.
Charles, the big thing with Wikipedia is that you can edit the entries yourself. So, any buffoon can edit the page to say something like:
The Saint Louis Jesuits are five, whoops, now four, guys, some of who were once priests, who have infested Catholics with their trite banal ditties for over 35 years... yadda yadda yadda...
Something like that
Peace,
BMP
Ahhhh, so.....
Grasshoppuh now stupid but get it!
In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna:
"Nevermind."
Shuffling off nearest pier, heading west until hat floats....
Just what the world needs, an inaccurate reference guide...
My, Charles, how very Gustav Aschenbach of you..or rather, who Tazio of you (a floating hat tip to Thomas Mann AND Venice..)
Jason, there was a time when I read TM auf Deutsch, a time in a galaxy, far, far away. I know all that had some part of making me who I am today; thing is I can't remember anything about it. sigh. Wasting away in 1999 Balmoral Syrah-ville....
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