St. Patrick's Church Choir

Recently, the Mount Sterling Advocate did a feature piece on the St. Patrick's Church Choir, which has been under my direction for the past two years. In it, I shared much of the history of the choir. For obvious reasons, the entirety of what I shared could not be put in the story, but I wanted to share it here anyway. Enjoy.

St. Patrick’s Church Choir, a Historical Perspective

Once, Catholic churches across the United States boasted full choirs singing Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, and great masterworks. Today, only a few besides cathedrals and the largest parishes can make such a claim. St. Patrick’s Church is lucky in that its choral program is growing, even if performances are somewhat seldom.

The choir at St. Patrick’s was founded around the turn of the last century by Fr. Libert de Waegenaere. Fr.  De Waegenaere was born in Alost, Belgium, and educated at the University of Louvein. Upon coming to America, he was ordained a priest in 1895. He took charge of St. Patrick’s in 1900 and remained there until 1905. He organized what was then a renowned church choir and was himself blessed with outstanding musical talent. Many of the pieces that the choir performed in those days were actually composed by Fr. De Weagenaere. A local newspaper of the time, the Mount Sterling Sentinel Democrat, during his assignment at St. Patrick’s noted, “Father De Waegenaere is a deep student, a scholar and a hard worker among his people, and under his direction, the church is still growing.” Father De Waegenaere remained for a period of six years and it was a source of universal regret when he was transferred to West Covington, Kentucky. He resigned from St. Paul Pastorate in Lexington in 1933 and returned to Alost where he devoted himself for several years to historical investigation of the life of Gregor Mendel, the Austrian scientist and “Father of Modern Genetics.” He died in 1952 at the age of 82.

Fr. De Waegenaere’s musical tradition at St. Patrick’s was upheld for more than half a century, however, as happened with so many other parishes of the time, St. Patrick’s lost her choir in the middle of the 20^th century, around the time of the Second Vatican Council. This was not unusual of the time. The Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council’s document on the Liturgy signed in the mid 60s which allowed the Mass to be said in the regional vernacular, also made changes to liturgical music. Unfortunately for choirs across the country, some of the wording has often been misinterpreted. In chapter VI of Sacrosanctum Concilium, we are asked that all music of the Mass be actively participatory for the congregation. Unfortunately, this active participation is often misinterpreted as the Latin term participation actuoso, rather than participation activo. Actual participation. Churches took this to mean that the choir was to be abolished and replaced completely by the singing of the congregation when it was only to mean that the congregation was to be actively engaged. One can participate when one listens to the choir, just as one participates in the homily by listening quietly. Nevertheless, the choral tradition at St. Patrick’s, like so many others of the time, fell into obscurity.

However, in recent years, St. Patrick’s has made strides in reviving its choir, even amidst trying times and controversy. Former director of the choir, Mrs. Susan Howard, kept this choir going even when our parish lost two priests, almost ten years ago, who engaged in vow breaking behavior. The people of St. Patrick’s were hurting and the church community felt betrayed, but we endured nevertheless. Then, when we in the middle of negotiations two years ago to hire a part time choir director to help build the program after Mrs. Howard retired, trying times struck again and brought our negotiations to a halt for six months after our then priest fell to controversy and was sent home by the Diocese of Lexington to India.

In such trying situations, lesser choirs would have folded. However, the people of St. Patrick’s stayed strong and the members of her choir kept their musical dream alive. This season, as I finish my second year as St. Patrick’s choir director, I look back on what we’ve done with extreme pride and look forward to the new things that even now we have planned for the future with great enthusiasm. I was born into the St. Patrick’s community and I feel nothing but adoration towards it and the greater community of Mt. Sterling. It always has been and always will be my home and, especially during this Christmas season, I feel eternally blessed to be able to take an active role within it. 

Fr. Libert de Waegenaere, a Brief Biography

Father De Waegenaere was born in Alost, Belgium, and educated at the University of Louvein in Belgium. Upon coming to America, he was ordained a priest in 1895. His first charge was St. Mary’s Cathedral, Covington, Kentucky, where he remained until 1898. He took charge of St. Patrick’s in Mt. Sterling in 1900 and remained there for five years from 1900-1905. He organized a renowned church choir and was blessed with outstanding musical talent.

Father De Waegenaere resigned from St. Paul Parish, Lexington, in 1933. He went to Kneipp Sanatorium in Rome City, Indiana, in November 1933, and sailed for Belgium on December 13, 1933. While in Europe, Father De Waegenaere devoted himself for several years to historical investigation of the life of Gregor Mendel, the Austrian scientist, and visited Austria for this purpose. Father De Waegenaere died in Alost, Belgium on September 8, 1952, at the age of 82. His funeral Mass was celebrated at St. Joseph Church, Alost, Belgium, on September 10, 1952.

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Father Libert De Waegenaere took charge of Mt. Sterling in 1900. He was a native of Alost, Belgium. A young man of zeal and energy quickly won the affections of the people.

Being a talented musician, he soon organized a most efficient church choir, whose reputation spread far and wide…A local newspaper [The Sentinel Democrat], during his assignment here noted, “Father De Waegenaere is a deep student, a scholar and a hard worker among his people, and under his direction, the church is still growing.” Father De Waegenaere remained for a period of six years and it was a source of universal regret when he was transferred to West Covington, Kentucky. He resigned from St. Paul Pastorate, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1933, returning to Alost, Belgium, where he died on September 8, 1952.

(Both excerpts taken from History of St. Patrick Parish, 1982)

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The choir will perform its Christmas concert on December 24 @ 9:30 PM. Please see https://sites.google.com/site/nickbreiner/home/christmaseve2012 for program. Thanks for reading!

Musical Masterpiece - My Personal Definition

What is a masterpiece? Originating from the 16^th century Dutch word meesterstuk (or meisterstück in German), its definition stands today as “a person’s greatest piece of work, as in art.” However, historically a masterpiece was a piece made by a person aspiring to the rank of master in a guild or other craft organization as proof of competence, thereby allowing them to open private business instead of continuing work as a journeyman under the tutelage of another master. Therefore, some might classify any work beyond the intangible level of “journeyman” to be a masterpiece by definition. However, by our standards today, masterpiece implies a much deeper meaning than that and a number of components are expected to be present in any such musical masterpiece.

David Dubal, an internationally known pianist, teacher, writer, and broadcaster as well as a well known authority on piano literature, describes that a masterpiece is a work which evokes that which he calls aesthetic ecstasy or aesthetic rapture. In his lecture at the Aspen Ideas Festival in 2006 he goes on to describe aesthetic rapture as the most important of rewards that a person can receive from art; a significant emotional response that is a thrill on multiple levels which may include, but is not limited to, the emotional, the intellectual, and the erotic.

According to Dubal, a masterpiece brings forth form and beauty from chaos. Life is, by its very nature, a perpetual pandemonium, and a masterpiece being as nearly flawless as is humanly possible organizes that chaos into perceivable and aesthetically enjoyable form. Masterpieces, in this way, are both of the organic stuff of life as well as being tempered by a spark of the divine. Many composers through history have come to realize this connection:

“Almost all great composers understood that Bach was the height. Casals would open every morning with his prayer; the prayer of playing six preludes and fugues of Bach. Stravinsky did the same. Brahms never even had breakfast until he played “The Well-Tempered Clavier”. And yet it wasn’t even published until 1801, 50 years after its creation.”

- David Dubal

Dubal’s assertion of purity of form as the cornerstone of the definition of masterpiece is not a new idea. This strain of thinking goes all the way back to Plato in his Republic. Using his master Socrates as a vehicle for initiating thought, Plato introduces the Theory of Forms, which becomes an integral part of Platonism and ultimately the grand assumption upon which his entire philosophy is based (much to Nietzsche’s exasperation). But all arguments aside as to whether “the corrupter” deserved his hemlock, the Theory of Forms remains a much discussed topic in philosophy today and, as Dubal would postulate, is applicable to analysis and value judgment of music. Thus, for a work to be considered a masterpiece, then it must hearken to the purest form of art (Plato might see this as akin to his Form of the Good). In its near flawlessness, a masterpiece evokes aesthetic rapture through pure form and thus brings some order to an otherwise chaotic existence.

The argument on the definition of masterpiece is long standing and one not likely to be settled anytime soon. Some definitions are more simple, others exhaustingly elaborate and restrictive. Let us take Bach’s Das Wohltemperierte Klavier for example. Today there are few who would not claim The Well-Tempered Clavier among the greatest masterpieces of the Baroque period. I count myself among those who praise this particular work as a masterpiece, but if it were not for Felix Mendelssohn, J.S. Bach’s entire catalogue and reputation may have continued to languish in obscurity and faded entirely to be ultimately lost among the debris of history. Yet, today, it resides amongst the most played collections of piano music of all time. Perhaps this is what truly defines a masterpiece. J.S. Bach died in 1750, but either by the admiration of a later composer or by the virtue inherent in his composition, Bach’s work survives today, 262 years after his death. Perhaps that is not only the model by which we measure a masterpiece, but of the master. Ultimately, it is one’s legacy that must either live on in this world or die in obscurity. This is life’s greatest test.