
Music at St. Augustine
One cannot have authentic Western Rite Liturgy without its accompanying music. To this end, a fine choir of mixed voices, the Ambrosian Choristers is maintained for the artistic cultivation and rendition of the music so integral to the Liturgy. The organist-choirmaster, Francis Slechta, is always on the lookout for talented singers who want to hone their craft and have the opportunity to perform the great works of the liturgical literature in the context for which they were composed. He may be contacted for an audition by interested singers.
Music from Gregorian Chant, through the great sixteenth century polyphony and the classical Viennese masters down to our own age are regularly performed as part of the Liturgy.
We are also in the process of forming a schola cantorum. This is a group of men who will study and perform the Gregorian Chants required at Mass and Offices throughout the year. No Western Church can be complete without a group of chanters to learn and perfect the art of the Church’s own music—Gregorian plainsong.
While the organ is the primary musical instrument of the Western Church, orchestral accompaniments are often times used to support the voices at the Mass.
Liturgical Music Schedule Spring 2008
click here to download a pdf of the Spring Music Schedule
Sunday, May 4 Low Sunday 10:00am
Vito Carnevali—Missa "Rosa Mystica"
May 11 The Second Sunday after Easter 10:00am
C. H. Kitson—Mass in D
May 18 The Third Sunday after Easter 10:00am
Camil van Hulse—Missa “Exsultet Orbis”
May 25 The Fourth Sunday after Easter 10:00am
LOW MASS, this Sunday only
June 1 The Fifth Sunday after Easter 10:00am
Charles Wood—Mass in F
June 8 Sunday after Ascension 10:00am
Jan Nieland—Mass in honour of St. Peter in Chains
June 15 Pentecost Sunday 10:00am
Vita Carnevali—Missa Jesu, Salvator Mundi
June 22 Trinity Sunday 10:00am
Johannes Nepomuk Skraup—Messe in C Dur
June 29 Solemnity of Corpus Curisti 10:00 am
Adalbert Rihovsky—Missa "Loretta"
The Ambrosian Choristers perform a wide variety of motets and anthems in addition to the Mass settings listed above. The Gregorian Chant Propers of the Mass are also chanted at each service.
Francis E. Slechta, organist-choirmaster
