Assessment

Assignment 1 (800 words) 30% + Assignment 2 (Composition and commentary) 30% + Assignment 3 (1000 words) 40%

Module Aims

This module provides masters-level student with opportunities to hone their critical and creative skills through reviews of selected musicological publications, assessment of published liturgical music collections according to clearly-defined criteria, and compositional responses based on fieldwork-type attendance at specified liturgies.

Indicative Syllabus

• Plainchant as a model of Christian liturgical music
• Liturgical Composition: Models, Modes and Motifs
• Melody/text relationships and aesthetics
• The musico-textual forms of the Roman Rite
• Contemporary mass composition
• Towards a vernacular sung office
• Contemporary issues in liturgical musicology

Learning Outcomes

• — Operate with confidence and precision in the sphere of liturgical music analysis.
• — Apply these skills to arrive at a well-founded critical assessment of a variety of compositions.
• — Observe and document a live liturgical music event.
• — Compose a musical response to a particular local liturgical need.
• — Engage with more purely musicological liturgical music publications.
• — Articulate in a more scientific way key technical aspects of the art of liturgical music.

Bibliography

• — Gelineau, Joseph, Voices and Instruments in Christian Worship, Tr. By Clifford Howell (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1964)
• — Gillen, Gerard, ‘Towards a Definition of “Good” Liturgical Music’, in Phelan, Helen (ed.), Anáil Dé: the breath of God. Music, ritual and spirituality (Dublin: Veritas, 2001), pp.189-200
• — Joncas, Jan Michael: From Sacred Song to Ritual Music: Twentieth-Century Understandings of Roman Catholic Worship Music (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1997)
• — Leaver, Robin A., Joyce Ann Zimmerman, editors, Liturgy and Music: Lifetime Learning (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998)
• — National Centre for Liturgy, Sing the Mass (Dublin: Veritas,2011)
• — National Centre for Liturgy, Singing the Mystery of Faith: A Guide to Liturgical Music. (Dublin: Veritas, 2016)
• — O’Keeffe, John, The Mass Settings of Seán and Peadar Ó Riada: Explorations in Vernacular Chant (Cork University Press, Cork, 2017)
• — O’Keeffe, John, 'Singing the Mass: Mass Composition in Ireland since Vatican II', in Serving Liturgical Renewal: Pastoral and Theological Questions  (Dublin: Veritas, 2015).
• — Ruff, Anthony: Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations (Hillenbrand, 2007)