Music Program
The primary function of the music program at Saint Anselm Parish is to enhance our worship and enrich life in our community. Our aim is to bring, through music, the beauty and expression to engage and inspire our parish members. It is our hope that meaningful sacred music will foster a fellowship among the parishioners and build a spiritual strength in their hearts and minds.
To hear the Musical Highlights of our Parish Music Program please click the image at right. We would appreciate your feedback very much!
The Choir leads the assembly in singing and provides music at the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Mass and contributes to the parish celebrations of major church feasts and solemnities. Join us to explore a wide variety of hymns and choral compositions and have an opportunity for vocal training and learning music fundamentals. The Parish Choir is a group of men and women who lead the community in sung prayer at the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Liturgy. They rehearse on Thursdays from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. in the Choir Room in the Parish Centre. No audition is required, and minimal choral experience is helpful but not necessary. All are welcome!
- For more information, please contact Dr. Andrzej Zahorski at (314) 878-2120 ext. 14.
Changes During Lent
The season of Lent has a quite distinctive character from all other seasons of the liturgical year. The difference is reflected by the manner the liturgy is celebrated and also in music.
One change you can observe is the sparing use of the organ. Now, it only assists the congregation in singing the Gospel Acclamation and a hymn chosen for the Preparation of Gifts. The tradition was even stricter, as the organ remained completely silent from Ash Wednesday to be brought back with, or after, the Gloria of the Easter Vigil Mass. Thus, most music, if not all, was in a form of an unaccompanied singing.
Another change in music that we observe in our Lent liturgical celebration is the use of the Mass Propers. The complete text of the Mass has sections (the Propers) that change with the day. The Letters, Old Testament and the Gospel readings are the Propers people hear at our church all the time. Other Propers, such as Introit (Entrance), Offertory, or Communion, rarely come to the fore and are replaced with the hymns. The Church highly recommends the full use of the Propers pointing out that the use of hymns for entrance, Presentation of gifts and Communion, though allowed, is done at the expense of the texts that are integral parts of the Holy Mass.
