The Music Department of UW-Superior performs “O Magnum Mysterium” during the second of two annual Season of Song concerts at the Diocese of Superior’s Cathedral. The 27th annual concert was offered on Sunday, Dec. 8 and Tuesday, Dec. 10. (Catholic Herald photo by Jenny Snarski)

Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff

Churches across the United States were encouraged by the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference to ring out their bells in unison to celebrate the reopening of Paris’ Notre-Dame Cathedral on Saturday, Dec. 7, eve of the feast-date of the Immaculate Conception.

Like the public and international support for the iconic French cathedral, the Advent and Christmas seasons invite all believers to acknowledge the role of Jesus Christ as a central figure of human civilization and Christian culture.
On Sunday, Dec. 8, second Sunday of Advent, the University of Wisconsin-Superior performed the first of two “Season of Song” concerts at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Superior. In its 27th year, this annual concert showcases the same spirit of fellowship between religious and secular institutions on a local level.

Universal Catholic context

It is historical fact that the Catholic Church has been patron of the arts. During the Counter-Reformation of the 17th and 18th centuries, religious music in particular received increased funding from the Church. Although Gregorian chant had been developing since the ninth and 10th centuries, it was the Baroque period that gave us composers like Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Hadyn, Liszt, Mozart, Schubert and Vivaldi, many of whom were Catholic and much of their work written for Church liturgical use.

This legacy was affirmed by the Second Vatican Council, called “a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art” in the council’s first released document, “Sacrosanctum Concilium” on the Sacred Liturgy. The Council Fathers stated that “sacred song” has been praised by Scripture, Fathers of the Church and popes explaining “more precisely the ministerial function by sacred music in the service of the Lord.” The document decrees preservation and cultivation of the “treasury of sacred music” with “great care” and specifically notes the development of choirs, especially in cathedrals.

Special attention is given to the pipe organ, grand instruments housed primarily in churches, “to be held in high esteem…for it is the traditional musical instrument, the sound of which can add a wonderful splendor to the church’s ceremonies and powerfully lifts up men’s minds to God and higher things.”

Pope Francis, who was called music a “universal language” and an enterprise as important as prayer, said in a 2022 speech given to the Diakonia of Beauty, that beauty can create communion over centuries as art is not limited to a certain time period. “The artist is not even limited in space,” he stated, “because beauty can touch in each person that which is universal – especially the thirst for God – overcoming the frontiers of language and culture.”

Local context

Mere hours after the first Mass was celebrated in the renovated Notre Dame, students and faculty of UW-Superior offered the first of two “Season of Song” concerts at Superior’s Cathedral of Christ the King.

Called a “cherished Twin Ports tradition” now in its 27th year, the concert’s 25 instrumentalists, 35 vocalists and nine music department faculty members performed after more than 100 hours of preparation and rehearsal. The theme was “Love’s Pure Light, a concert of hope and light” centered on love in music, song and spoken word. In the concert program, chorus director Michael Fuchs stated, “The ideal of love is prevalent within our world, but the practice is often lacking.” He hoped that this year’s concert program would offer “a glimpse into the universality of love” by including pieces in various languages, from around the world and multiple centuries.

As the concert’s popularity has grown, attendance has averaged 1,000 people between a student-attended dress rehearsal and two public performances. To begin the Tuesday performance, Dr. Fuchs thanked Fr. Andrew Ricci and the entire Cathedral staff for “the chance to make music in this amazing space.”

Under dimmed lights, an instrumental variation of “Greensleeves” opened the concert. “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” was then sung by the choir as they encircled the baptismal font with faces lit only by hand-held electric flames.

The Cathedral itself provided poignant staging for the concert as the mosaic images of Christ behind the main altar and the Blessed Mother with the child Jesus were spotlighted during various selections. The program proceeded as a musical meditation of sorts, addressing both Advent themes of anticipatory waiting and the magnificence of Christmas joy.
Pieces alternated between instrumental, voices only and combined orchestra and choir with the Cathedral’s organ also featuring as a soloist.

The culmination of the concert was the second of two sing-along selections. As a grand finale, the full cathedral erupted with audience voices joining in for the third verse, “Then let us all with one accord/Sing praises to our heavenly Lord.” The applause quickly turned into a standing ovation.

Sanctus Music Series

One of the faculty who performed for the concert was Dr. Brett Jones, Professor of Percussion. In recent years, Dr. Jones has led another concert initiative in the Twin Ports called the “Sanctus Music Series” with the desire to “evangelize through music” and bridge the Catholic arts and evangelization. Their motto is “sacred music in a holy space.”

Performed at the Superior Cathedral on Oct. 19, 2024, “Poetry and Prayer” was offered as part of the series featuring Dr. Jones on vibraphone and marimba and Stas Venglevski on accordion. All the music of this concert was written by contemporary composers, including both featured instrumentalists and a former student of Dr. Jones, Cory Coffman.
The concert both began and ended highlighting the cathedral’s organ and paired, as Dr. Jones shared, “sacred works with text (either poetry, prose or prayer) for the audience to contemplate as the music is being presented.” Only the first piece was sung with the remaining eight providing quotes and poetry to accompany each performance for personal reflection.

“Castillo Interior” was written by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks based on the writings of the Carmelite mystic St. Theresa of Avila. Dr. Jones introduced the piece explaining the 11-minute piece’s musical trajectory as describing the soul’s struggle and tension with sin that could be heard in furious outbursts and then resolving melodies.

Michael Hoppé’s 1997 work “The Poet,” written for cello, was adapted for this concert in three selections, two performed with Zoe Scherer as soloist on the alto saxophone.

In one piece, written and performed as a solo by Venglevski, a native of Moldova in the former Soviet Union, the song title’s “Summer Sunshine” danced off the accordion keys. Part of a larger work, “Poems of Life and Love,” the notes flickered like sunbeams through tree leaves with swirling final notes bowing like a curtsy.

Although the concert took place weeks before the season of Advent, the words of G. K. Chesterton that Dr. Jones included in the program to accompany his former students’ piece, “A Brief History of a Star,” were a prelude to the preparation for Christmas:

“A word came forth from Galilee, a word like to a star;/It climbed an rang and blessed and burnt wherever brave hearts are;/A word of sudden secret hope, of trial and increase/Of wrath and pity fused in fire, and passion kissing peace./A star that o’er the citied world beckoned, a sword of flame;/A star with myriad thunders tongued: a mighty word there came.”

Learn about upcoming “Sanctus” series concerts at superiorcatholics.org/faith-formation/sanctus-music-series.