Explore canticasacra.org, an accompaniment to our parish’s music
A note from music director
Ken Myers
Music is one of the fundamental mysteries of Creation and of human experience. Music is central to the life of the Church because music by its nature conveys something of the being of God, of the shape of His relationship to Creation, and of the presence in human life of the image of God.
Theologian David Bentley Hart describes the relationship between God and music this way: “As God is Trinity, in whom all difference is possessed as perfect peace and unity, the divine life might be described as infinite music, and creation too might be described as a music whose intervals, transitions, and phrases are embraced within God’s eternal, triune polyphony.”
In a less theological key, literary critic George Steiner has insisted that our humanity cannot be rightly comprehended apart from the reality of music. “Our capacities to compose and to respond to musical form and sense directly implicate the mystery of the human condition. To ask ‘what is music?’ may well be one way of asking ‘what is man?’”
In the life of the Church and in the lives of individual believers, music is much more than a source of emotional stimulation or an expression of social solidarity. In music’s structure and power, the highest realities can be conveyed in a unique combination of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual experience. It is no wonder that when angels are represented in the Scriptures, they are often musically engaged.
The music ministry at All Saints strives to be faithful to a more profound understanding of what music is and does than is usually entertained in contemporary life. In the interest of encouraging a greater understanding of music’s possibilities — within our liturgy and in our daily lives — I have launched a website called Cantica Sacra. This site is tailored to our parish’s life, and explores the theological, historical, and aesthetic background to the music sung each week by congregation and choir.
I hope that the musical resources at Cantica Sacra will nurture our musical life in worship and beyond, so that our musical lives will be both a fit offering to God and a gratefully received gift from Him.