The Catholic Choirmaster

Dom Combe presents the reader a sharply focused profile of a dedicated and extraordinary woman of the 20th century, Henry James'sister-in-law, independent in spirit and passionately devoted for more than 60 years to the cause of Gregorian Chant and its liturgical implementation. Drawing on her voluminous correspondence, he traces the main events of her life following her conversion in 1904 to the Catholic Church. From these letters emerges the clear image of a fiercely strong-willed and gracious woman who pursued her ideals with relentless zeal.

The story of three very different women finding courage, love, and compassion in the most unlikely places, this narrative follows medical interns as they work in a rural South African hospital. Spoiled Rachel struggles to establish her independence and learns to love across the cultural ÷ conservative Seema attempts to end a relationship that has become increasingly abusive; and street-savvy Nomsa finally accepts a past that she has spent a lifetime denying. Coping with rogue snakes, gang assassinations, and the public's denial of AIDS, these women demonstrate what it takes to be a doctor in South Africa.

The Roman Catholic Church has always been concerned with the quality of the music used in the liturgy, and the essays in this volume trace the church's efforts, during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, to cultivate a more appropriate liturgical music for its Latin Rite. The task of restoration - expressed, for example, in the chant revival associated with the monks of Solesmes, the efforts of the Cecilian movement, and Pius X's determination to reform sacred music in the universal church - is a recurring theme in the book. Meanwhile resistance, particularly to the reforms decreed by the pope's 1903 motu proprio, also finds a voice in the volume. The essays collected here describe selected scenes and episodes from the unending story of imperfect human beings trying to express in their music the perfection of God.