Seminar Name
2005 Louisville, Kentucky
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2005
Kathleen Harmon (music director for programs of the Institute for Liturgical Ministry in Dayton, Ohio)
Seminar Participants 2005
James Brauer, Carol Doran, Kathleen Harmon, Timothy Ralston, Scott Weidler, Gloria Weyman
Visitors: Robert Buckley Farlee, Dennis Fleisher, Nancy-Turner Jones, Anthony Ruff
Seminar Report 2005
Scott Weidler presented the musical component of work to date on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s process of drafting new primary worship resources to succeed the Lutheran Book of Worship. Members read and discussed the “Music and the Christian Assembly” section of the consultation document Principles for Worship then sang through some of the new ritual music proposed for the project.
Jim Brauer presented input on the status of a new hymnal being developed for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.
Seminar members discussed two documents on ritual music generated by the Roman Catholic organization Universa Laus. In 1980 this European group produced Document I, “Music in Christian Celebration,” as a manifesto of liturgical and anthropological principles upon which they believed the musical reforms required by the liturgical renewal of the Council ought to be based. In 2002 the group produced Document II, “Music in Christian Liturgies.” Although these documents carry no official status for Roman Catholics, they nonetheless express significant contemporary insights about the nature and role of music in Roman Catholic liturgical celebration.
Finally, seminar members devoted serious discussion to the nature of the Music Seminar. Many of the academic objectives of this seminar are in fact met through presentations and discussions in numerous other seminars to which musician members of the Academy belong. Moreover, the objective of sharing information concerning new and emerging resources, projects, and programs in the area of ritual music requires a forum different from that of the seminar structure. The group has, therefore, proposed to the Academy Committee that the Music Seminar be transformed from a seminar into a brief but organized informal gathering sometime during the course of the Academy meeting at which interested members may share ritual music resource, project, and program information with one another. Scott Weidler volunteered to speak with the Academy Committee about this proposal and to coordinate the informal gathering for the 2006 meeting. As this idea develops, information will be communicated through the Academy Newsletter.