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Stephen TownBook Reviews Editor, [lang ]STown[commat]nwmissouri.edu[rang ] (EDITOR)
The St. Louis Jesuits: Thirty Years
Mike Gale, editor
Portland, Oregon:
Oregon Catholic Press, 2006
191pp. $30.00.
ISBN: 1-56929-074-1 (softcover).
Oregon Catholic Press
5536 NE Hassalo Street
Portland, OR 97213
800-LITURGY-(548-8749)
[lang ]liturgy[commat]ocp.org[rang ]; [lang ]]
Thine the Amen: Essays on Lutheran Church Music in Honor of Carl Schalk
Carlos R. Messerli, editor.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Lutheran University Press, 2005.
320 pp. $26.00
ISBN: 1-932688-11-0 (softcover).
Lutheran University Press
P.O. Box 390759
Minneapolis, MN 55439
1-888-696-1828;
[lang ]publisher[commat]kirkhouse.com[rang ]; [lang ]]
T he St. Louis Jesuits: Thirty Years is a book of iconography, i.e., the pictorial material relating to or illustrating a subject or, rather, a pictorial record of a subject, about the musicians who became known as the St. Louis Jesuits (Bob Dufford, John Foley, Tim Manion, Roc O'Conner, and Dan Schutte) and the music they composed in response to the Second Vatican Council, folk-like pieces in English and accompanied by popular instruments. Measuring 10½´´ × 10´´, this lavishly-designed, soft cover book with smooth, shiny paper, much like photographic glossies, is opulently attractive and aesthetically-pleasing to hold and examine.
Divided into seven sections--"Introduction" (by Reverend Virgil Funk, President Emeritus, National Association of Pastoral Musicians), "Thirty Years Ago," "Berkeley and Beyond," "Then and Now," "A Time For Reunion," "Music of the Soul," and "Voices of Hope"--it reproduces memorabilia of all types--interviews (with each of the St. Louis Jesuits), letters (by various individuals praising them), manuscripts (of a few of their initial, hand-written or stenciled, songs, i.e., in the following order: "My People," "Your Are My God," "Hail Mary," "Sing a New Song," "Earthen Vessels," "Be Not Afraid," and "Trust in the Lord"), photographs (black-and-white and color of the past and present), reflections (on their recording sessions), testimonies (from other composers of Catholic liturgical music, e.g.,
David Haas), and tributes (of Ray Bruno, founder of North American Resources, and of Donald-David Fehrenbach, who painted the cover art included here for all but the last of their albums).
The interviews of each of the men in the section "Then and Now" are informative and proceed from a script of similar...