The Catholic Leader - 21 April 2019 - Issue 5548

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The Catholic Leader, April 21, 2019
News
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Awakening a spirit of old and new
Chrism Mass unites faithful from across Brisbane archdiocese
By Joe Higgins
HOLY oils appear all across scrip-
ture, from our early Jewish roots to
the coming of Christ Himself, the
“Anointed One”.
Even more abundant in scripture – and more
ancient – was music, a liturgical practice reborn
in the composers of every generation.
This year, Chrism Mass embraced both the old
and the new, bringing the gifts of oil and music
to St Stephen’s Cathedral on Thursday, April 11.
And not counting the sacramental oils blessed
on the night, the newest part of the Mass was
probably the Mass itself.
University of Queensland doctoral student and
music graduate John Rotar composed the Mass
setting as a gift to the archdiocese.
Mr Rotar said he was excited to have his
music played at such a significant event of the
Church year.
“I’ve written a Mass for the choir once before,
and another Mass of mine is getting done over
the Easter season – on Easter Sunday actually,”
Mr Rotar said.
He wrote the Mass as a responsorial Mass,
one in which the choir and the assembly interact
in a musical dialogue.
“The choir will sing and the congregation
will respond, it’s an interesting way of engag-
ing the rest of the congregation in the music as
well,” Mr Rotar said.
“I think it’s a great way to get people
involved in the music of the liturgy and get peo-
ple involved in the saying of the Mass as well.”
This practice isn’t new, with a long history
behind it, but it represents a revival of a style
increasingly heard in St Stephen’s – and the
greater Church, especially since the Second
Vatican Council.
Sistine Chapel Choir director Cardinal Do-
menico Bartolucci led the revival of this style in
the late 1960s as a way of balancing respect for
the Church’s treasury of sacred music and the
assembly’s participation in it.
Mr Rotar said the composition did not take
too long to complete, and that compositions
came easily to him once he had an idea in mind
or a particular group he was writing for.
“With this sort of music, the artistry is sub-
servient to the function it has to the liturgy, I
find,” he said.
“There’s this long tradition, not only in the
Catholic Church but in protestant and orthodox
churches, that music has formed an integral role
in the process of worship.
“I think many composers have taken that, and
taken that idea, and made music with it.
“It does hark back to a tradition which is
alive with the Cathedral Choir and one I’m im-
mersed in all the time.”
Cathedral music director Dr Andrew Cichy
said Mr Rotar was an outstanding composer of
his generation.
“He has his own distinctive compositional
voice and there is a real vitality in his work,”
Dr Cichy said.
“It’s clear to me, while inspired by the treas-
ury of sacred music, there’s no way his work
could be described as pastiche or derivative.
“That to me is the mark of a fine composer,
the capacity to engage with the past and be
inspired by it, but develop their own distinctive
voice and add to what’s gone before.”
As for Mr Rotar’s burgeoning career in mu-
sic, he sagely said, “We’ll see”.
“The career of a musician is generally a very
multifaceted one,” he said.
“It’s very hard to say ‘this is going to be
my path’, and everyone who has had success
generally doesn’t have success in the way they
planned to.”
The theme of old and new was felt through-
out the Chrism Mass’ renewal of clerical vows
too.
And the renewal came not only from an
anointment by the oils but the anointment of the
Holy Spirit too.
In his homily, Brisbane Archbishop Mark
Coleridge said we had entered a time of the
Holy Spirit in Australia.
“The third person of the Blessed Trinity is
where our spiritual, theological, and pastoral
eye now needs to focus – which is harder than
it sounds, in a western Church that has been so
Christocentric for so long that we’ve been quite
unfocused, almost atheistic at times, when it
comes to the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“The journey of the Plenary Council is the
work of the Spirit, it was in its origins, it is in its
unfolding, and it will be in its outcomes.”
Singing integration: Composer John Rotar (far left) and Dr Andrew Cichy (far right) leading the responsorial Mass. Photos: Alan Edgecomb
Holy Oils: The
Oil of Catechu-
mens, the Oil
of the Sick
and Sacred
Chrism are
brought before
the altar (right);
and (left) Arch-
bishop Mark
Coleridge re-
ceives the oils
for blessing.
Blessings: Archbishop Mark Coleridge blesses the oils.