THE INESTIMABLE TREASURE OF SACRED MUSIC

BY VERY REV. CHRISTOPHER SMITH

THE WORLD WAS ENMESHED in the turmoil of the early 1960s. The place was Holy Family Church in Orange, California. It was a Friday of Lent and the students at Holy Family School had just finished praying the Stations of the Cross. As we knelt, the priest exposed the Blessed Sacrament. The pipe organ began floating the gentle strains of “O Salutaris Hostia” throughout the church. Soon after followed the flowing cadence of Tantum Ergo, a clear invitation to focus on our Eucharistic Lord, present on the altar. We were now ready for the most solemn action as the priest raised the monstrance in a threefold blessing with the Blessed Sacrament. “Divine Praises” recited, we all stood, and the previous restraint of the pipe organ gave way to majestic chords introducing “Holy God We Praise Thy Name.” We praised God, and for a few moments all hint of worldly turmoil was gone, and I was in heaven. This is where my connection to liturgical music began.

The sacred music of the Rite of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament transported me in those days of my childhood. It lifted my spirit and summoned me to focus on the main event, the presence of Jesus. The music had done what it was meant to do. This unique function of music is the reason the Church considers music to be one of the essential elements of our liturgical celebrations.

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.”

St. Augustine famously said, “One who sings well prays twice” (“Bis orat qui bene cantat”). This beautiful description of singing draws attention to two marvelous capacities of the human person. One of those is the ability to translate ideas, thoughts, feelings, beliefs and knowledge into the medium of words. The other is to elevate that already wonderful ability to another level of creativity, putting those words to music. With every note of our song, we give praise to God through our collection of words, and we praise God again by enabling those words to have additional meaning and power through their musical expression.

Sacred music is the sturdy bridge that connects the dual purpose of our liturgical prayer which is to give glory to God and to do that as a community of faith. When we gather for Mass, we show up as individuals, each bringing our own life’s circumstances, as unique as each person in the assembly. Our gathering means we choose not to live those lives in isolation. Our presence declares that we believe Jesus made us a Church, a communion of persons professing faith in Jesus Christ. That communion is expressed through our spoken prayer and our sung prayer. We recite together, we sing together. We do not each bring our individual prayers to recite (that was tried with little success at the Tower of Babel). In unison with each other, we pray the prayer of the Church that has been designated for whatever Sunday or occasion it is. We do not bring our individual songs, we sing the same hymns together, even if it is a selection, we do not much care for. Like life, the Liturgy is an act of participation. Putting personal preferences aside and eager to create something beautiful for God, we listen, we speak, we profess, we sing, we make music.

Our music making in the Liturgy takes on a variety of expressions. These include congregational singing, choral, instrumental and solo musical renditions. As we are about to dedicate the magnificent Hazel Wright Pipe Organ in Christ Cathedral, it is worth noting that traditionally the Church has maintained a high regard for the use of the pipe organ in the Sacred Liturgy. Vatican II’s “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy “reflects, “In the Latin Church, the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up our minds to God and to higher things (Article 1).” It is also important to underscore that among the vast array of musical instruments available to us, most are also capable of rendering beautiful and worthy music for our Sacred Liturgy.

In almost all our churches, there are musical resources. However vast or limited they may be, we have a hallowed duty to use them to their fullest capacity. As John O’Donohue writes in his book, “Divine Beauty,” “It is as though music reaches that subtle threshold within us where the soul dovetails with the eternal.” Our thoughtful inclusion of music in the Sacred Liturgy can move us toward that encounter with the eternal.

For a few moments as a child on that Friday of Lent, all hint of worldly turmoil was gone, and I was transported to a world of Divine beauty. All because of the inestimable treasure of sacred music. By God’s grace, that treasure is still ours to behold. C

ABOVE:

FR. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, WHO GREW UP PLAYING THE ORGAN, PLAYS A PIECE ON THE HAZEL WRIGHT ORGAN DURING A SPECIAL MEDIA PREVIEW IN JUNE 2022 AS THE CATHEDRAL’S PRINCIPAL ORGANIST DAVID BALL LOOKS ON.

UPPER LEFT AND LEFT: FORMER CHRIST CATHEDRAL MUSIC MINISTRY DIRECTOR JOHN ROMERI CONDUCTS THE CHOIR DURING THE CATHEDRAL’S 2019 CHRISTMAS CONCERT. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DIOCESE OF ORANGE

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“We’re very proud of the work we’ve done,” added Ruffatti, who will fly out from Italy for the Sept. 30 festivities.

Noting the hard work and many years required to restore Hazel, Bishop Vann observed: “You know what St. Luke says? ‘Nothing is impossible for God.’”

A Colorful Palette

Crean, who has been good friends with Ball since their days together at The Juilliard School in New York City, notes that the number of people involved in the debut of Hazel back in 1982 and her restoration is extensive.

“Their dedication to see a project like this through is really remarkable,” said Crean, whose main job these days is host and music director for WDPR-FM, Dayton, Ohio’s only full-time classical music station. “You can’t keep an organ like this going with one person. It’s a true team effort.”

Cartwright, who as curator is the maintenance lead and the principal technician of the restored Hazel, said the instrument’s perishable organic material, including leather and rubberized cloth, should help it last another 30 to 50 years before major repairs are needed.

“When they say a pipe organ is alive,” Cartwright said, “it really is in more ways than one.”

He estimates it took “a few hundred goats and sheep and some cows” to glean the leather parts that are inside Hazel.

Diocese officials have done all they can to make improvements to the cathedral to ensure that the newly restored Hazel lasts as long as possible.

The $77-million transformation of the 88,000-square-foot Crystal Cathedral into Christ Cathedral included the cleaning and sealing of its more than 10,000 glass panes. Quatrefoils were also installed inside that shade the building, minimizing heat and glare. The quatrefoils and ground-floor stone wall around the cathedral floor also help Hazel’s acoustics, as does the newly installed air conditioning system that the old Crystal Cathedral didn’t have.

The refurbished Hazel also has improved connectivity and updated back-end digital components. It now is connected to the 52-bell Arvella Schuller Carillon inside the Crean Tower next to the cathedral. The carillon can be played from Hazel’s console.

With the flip of a key akin to a car ignition, Hazel gets turned on from the main console in the choir loft of the cathedral.

Making a special appearance to play Hazel at the June 10 blessing was Josep Solé Cole, the principal organist of St. Peter’s Basilica and organist for the liturgical celebrations of Pope Francis.

Cole thanked the bishop for inviting him to the cathedral and allowing him to give Hazel a spin.

Ball, who likens himself to a pilot in a cockpit when he plays Hazel, compares the capabilities of the new and improved Hazel to a box of crayons.

“You can do a lot with an eight-pack of crayons,” Ball said, “but you can do a lot more with 300.”

He added: “It’s always an honor to sit in front of Hazel’s console and play, where

I’m continuously in awe of the sheer power and breadth of this amazing instrument. Playing Hazel is literally sitting in the same seat as my musical heroes, people like Virgil Fox who were visionaries in the early days of Hazel to make the dream of this pipe organ a reality.” C