We’ve been getting many questions along the following lines.

“I love sacred music, and I want to make a contribution. I can read music. But I don’t currently sing in a choir, I don’t know Latin, and I have no experience in singing chant at liturgy. Can I come to the Colloquium or would I feel out of place?”

The answer to this is easy: yes, please come. This is the profile of the typical Colloquium attendee. So while the music may look difficult – and it is indeed challenging – the entire purposes of the program is to teach and raise up a new generation of singers for the Catholic faith. We are just at the beginning stages of the movement, and it is going to take everyone with musical ability to make a contribution.

Past years have even included non-singing participants, people who come to watch, listen, communicate, learn, and be inspired. You are welcome too!

Please register today!

The CMAA is pleased to present Marie Pierik’s 1939 book The Spirit of Gregorian Chant in free download or in print.

Pierik was a scholar and chant enthusiast. Like many Catholic musicians of that generation, she was inspired by the work of Solesmes to dedicate her life to helping the world to sing as the Church intends.

She was never shy about her utter devotion to her cause. Her prose is delightfully free of pretense: it burns with the desire to communicate and explain, systematically but also warmly, why Gregorian chant is the music of the faith. This book in particular provides an overview of history, doctrine, and practice to provide a manual as powerful in her time as in ours.