Howells and others

Sometimes when I go to St. Stephen's for church, it feels so Episcopalian. Yesterday, the choir did Herbert Howells' "Like as the Hart Desireth the Waterbrooks," another one of my very favorite anthems. The hymns were Leoni, O Waly Waly, and McKee. All of those would have been very much at home at an Anglican service. Of course, they still have problems with their service music (a problem which seems to be shared by all of the Catholic parishes in D.C. I've visited). I fear it's a diocesan illness. Vatican II was such a disaster for liturgical music in the United States (but not all countries!). Perchance next time I see the cardinal, I'll have to see if he'll go to dinner with me or something, and then I can chat him up about strengthening the service music in the archdiocese. I understand the pope is going to keep His Eminence on for at least another two years. That should be enough time to fix the music before it's irrevocably lost.