Music
In the Christian church, music has a place of primacy among the arts, as the one which has the greatest potential for adorning the sacred liturgy and the one most closely linked to the faith, by the nature of its incorporation of sacred texts. The Holy Father writes: "In "lifting up your hearts,"-sursum corda-music of faith seeks the integration of man and finds it not within itself but only by going beyond itself into the Word made flesh. Sacred music which forms a part of this framework of movement thus becomes man's purification, his ascent."
Our professional choir appears about 50 times in the season, each time offering a different setting of the mass. Mass settings at the Resurrection are drawn from all major periods of church music, with a special emphasis on the breathtakingly glorious sacred music of Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporaries, which, oddly, is often neglected in church music programmes of today. Whenever possible, this music is offered with the accompaniment of an orchestral chamber ensemble.
If you wish more information about our programme, its music, or positions in the choir, please write to the Organist & Choir Master by e-mail or call 212-535-9666 ext. 31.
2011-2012 Music Schedule: Masses take place on Sunday at 11 a.m. unless listed otherwise. View the schedule online or download a PDF of the full 2011-2012 music season >
Schedule of Dedicatory Organ Recitals >
Orchestra in Residence > L'Orchestre des Portes Rouges
The New Organ
Resurrection’s organ is a rebuilt vintage Casavant (1916) pipe organ originally installed in the cavernous basement chapel of the Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, Lewiston, Maine. The organ campaign, begun in 2005 and completed in 2007, resulted in donations from parishioners, school families, and the Friends of the Resurrection across the country and around the world. Work on the organ began in 2007, the first services with the new organ were Christmas 2009, and the inaugural series of recitals and other events will begin January 2011.
In addition to the 1916 pipes by Casavant, the organ contains a French Horn by E. M. Skinner originally in a church upstate in the 1920s, a pedal Bourdon in the chancel chamber originally built by E. M. Skinner for his organ of 1924 at Resurrection, three ranks of pipes from the McManis organ of 1962 which have been rebuilt and revoiced, and several new ranks of pipes built as replicas of unique stops of the period in which the bulk of this organ was built, including the Tuba Mirabilis & Flûte Harmonique.