About Roman Catholic Sacred Music

Welcome and Dedicatory Remarks

Welcome to Roman Catholic Sacred Music. May this website and its publications glorify God through His Wondrous Son, Jesus Christ, and for the Great Honor of Our Most Blessed Virgin Mary and Mother to whom I am most indebted.

May it also promote the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the wonderful prayers and devotions of our Holy Mother Church by continually providing Her with new works of sacred music.

I dedicate this work to the Blessed Virgin Mary, queen of both heaven and earth to whom much honor is due. As she once bore witness to us, 'My soul magnifies the Lord', if we as composers become transparent and carry the Holy Spirit within us just as Our Lady once demonstrated, we too can mirror the things of God and show the Light of Christ to the world.

I pray that everyone may find something of value here, and bring only goodness to your ears and then to your heart.

Sincerely,

Francis Koerber
Composer & Publisher

"De cetero fratres quaecumque sunt vera quaecumque pudica quaecumque iusta quaecumque sancta quaecumque amabilia quaecumque bonae famae si qua virtus si qua laus haec cogitate." PHIL. 4:8

The Right Partnership of Composer & Publisher

For too many years the composer has been at odds with its publishing/recording and distribution arm of the music industry. Like any other institution, a publisher offers its strengths and benefits, but also is prone to shortcomings and abuses. As we continue to ride in the wake of Vatican II, let us press onward to uphold the valuable treasure of sacred music that is already available to us through the chant and the art of polyphony.

Roman Catholic Sacred Music hopes to continue in that same tradition. It also hopes to establish a new and complimentary relationship between composer and publisher; one that has as its goal the promotion of the Roman Catholic Faith and to provide sacred music unto that end, especially in its liturgy.

Profit and livelyhood cannot be the driving force nor the focus of such an undertaking, but it should nonetheless be a fair and equitable trade that aids in supporting composer and publisher alike.

Inherent Flexibility in Finely Crafted Music

No two performances of the exact same musical score will ever be exactly alike. Not even by the same ensemble perfoming the same score once after the other. That is one of the many beautfiul aspects of our human condition. Tempi, dynamics and expression are all tools that can be employed by those who perform the score. I have chosen to employ dymnamics when obvious, but they are not a rule, merely a guiding prinicple. The text should always dictate the interpretation of the music along with the acoustic and other variables.

Music that has transparent sonority (individual lines within a polyphonic texture imbued with a well formed melodic contour) are almost interchangeable in an infinite variety of ways. Some include timbre (instrument employed), displaced octave, (many melodies can even receive a minor/major third or sixth added treatment without altering its foundational structure), and other compositional techniques.

This is particularly true of Bach and many of the composer's works of antiquity. Hence, why music in those epocs were not particularly concerned with those types of markings or restrictions. If one is highly skilled and so inclined, the addition of improvised notes is also possible in 'transparent' works. This is primarily due to the fact that certain composers follow a strict rule set which is grounded in the well established knowledge of musical theory and composition. Many 20th century composers (and the scourge continues into the 21st) were great offenders of these principles and their musicks become nothing but historical monoliths as a testimony of the way not to go.

Further, individual melodic line can many times be lifted completely out of the score and performed a cappella with an entirely different effect rendering it pristine. (see Anima Christi or Despectum et Novissimum). This is the beauty of the plainchant form. The melody becomes totally subserviant to text, and all preconceptions of performance with it.

How To Use This Website

The internet is such a wonderful tool for the three venues of Praise, Proclamation and Propagation of the One Holy Catholic and Aposotlic Church. It is a powerful tool for the promotion of Catholic thought, theology, hermeneutics, appologetics, and many other media technologies that help to spread and increase the faith.

This site will allow anyone to visit, read, review, hear and see sacred musics which the composer has created. It allows for the distribution of such through two methods: Electronic PDF (with a limited license), and Print on Demand order of Octavos.