Tuesday, February 09, 2016

A Chant Master Has Died

We note in sadness:

Cistercian Father Ralph March, a founding member of the CMAA, died on February 6 at the age of 93

The obit is filled with landmarks, by the way.

...he was ordained a priest in the Abbey of Zirc by Jozsef Mindszenty,...He joined fellow Cistercians exiled from Hungary in the Cistercian monastery of Spring Bank in Wisconsin. He taught at Marquette University until the foundation of the University of Dallas, where he served on the first faculty in 1956...At the invitation of the cardinal-archbishop of Cologne, Fr. Ralph became the music director ("Domkapellmeister") of the city's monumental cathedral, a post he held for ten years...

We had the occasion to hear Fr. March's choirs twice; once at St Anthony's/Milwaukee, and once at the U of Dallas.  His rendition of Chant is definitive.  (Much lesser 'lights' in the Church don't agree, some of them actively flogging their E.F. creds in a town west of Milwaukee by about 90 miles.)

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace.  And may the Angels lead him into Paradise (etc.)

No comments: