Author Archives: SacredMusic

On Thursday, September 24, 2009, Jeffrey Tucker, managing editor of Sacred Music, will be at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., 6-7:30pm. He will give a talk and sign copies of Sing Like a Catholic.

His general theme concerns the desperate need for a unifying and universal music voice in liturgy for all Catholics to call their own.

Judging from the outstanding response to the Chant Pilgrimage that starts the following day, the Washington, D.C., area seems to be a hotbed of progress in the area of liturgical music.

A good number of people have responded favorably to our request for donations to help seminarians attend the CMAA Fall Pilgrimage coming up in September at the National Shrine. People have added ten or twenty dollars, and in some case, even more to their own payments in order to make it possible for seminarians to attend this milestone event. If you are or know a seminarian who would like attend but might need a little help covering tuition, please write to us at programs@musicasacra.com.

Given the many obligations facing musicians in the midst of preparing for Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and the end of the parish choral season generally, the submission deadline for the New Music Reading Session has been extended by one week, to June 17th. If you are a composer with works to submit — a motet or two, a Mass movement or two, or some combination thereof, as long as it totals 15 pages or fewer — please send them to newmusic@musicasacra.com in PDF format. When doing so, please be sure to include your contact information (e-mail address, website, etc.) for inclusion in the table of contents — important information for prospective performers and commissioners of your works!

Composers with Finale or Sibelius who may be confused as to how best to produce a PDF of their works should consider installing CutePDF, a free program that acts as a printer driver. The software and download instructions are available here. If you have a handwritten score, you can bring it to a local copy center (Kinko’s, Staples, OfficeMax, etc.) and have them scan it for you. As previously noted, the PDF requirement and $20 submission fee — payable through PayPal or by check to our programs office (address in the footer of this page), and which covers the cost of printing the volume — saves you from having to make 200 copies of each of your submitted compositions.