S. Stephen's

S. Stephen's Church in Providence

Music at S. Stephen's

Central to our mission at S. Stephen’s is the preservation and strengthening of the western Catholic tradition of liturgical music. We are blessed to have James Busby as Organist and Choirmaster. Our Schola Cantorum (choir) sings at the weekly Solemn High Mass, as well as at regularly scheduled services for Holy Days and other special occasions throughout the year. Our 1917 Austin organ, with seventy-six ranks of pipes, was rebuilt in 1955; and its console was rebuilt in 2006. Here at S. Stephen’s, the singing of the Mass and Offices combines ancient plainchant with choral music from the fourteenth century to the present.

A Compact Disc

Stephen, Full of Grace

James Busby directs

The Schola Cantorum

of S. Stephen’s Church

COMPACT DISC

The Schola Cantorum

S. Stephen's Church

The

Angel

and

the

Girl

are

Met

Music for Advent

and Christmas

James Busby,

director

S. Stephen's Church in Providence 114 George Street Providence, Rhode Island

Hosted by Homestead

Liturgical Music

The Church receives God’s revelation of himself in Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the ancient quest for the good, the true, and the beautiful. Our mission here at S. Stephen’s is to bear witness to the truth of the Catholic faith, to follow Jesus Christ as the one who teaches us the good life, and to express in our worship the beauty of holiness. In so much of the contemporary religious landscape, however, the beautiful has given way to the trendy, the trite, and the banal. For this reason, we are committed to worshiping God with the very best we have to offer: from the majestic English of the historic Book of Common Prayer, to the ritual choreography of the ancient and medieval Church, to the musical and choral heritage of the western Catholic liturgical tradition.

Our musical offerings are not entertainments. Rather, they are integral expressions of the Church’s faith and worship. Performed in a concert hall, religious music so often seems dry and lifeless, removed from the context that bestows its most profound meaning. Our goal, then, is to reunite what contemporary culture so often separates, and to allow both the music to adorn our liturgy with sublime beauty, and the liturgy to vivify our music as a vehicle of adoration capable of lifting us from earth to heaven.

John D. Alexander

Summer 2005

Please contact the Parish Office (phone 401-421-6702

or via email) for prices and information on ordering CDs.

Download:

Liturgical Music Calendar

2008-2009

Click below to see

The Robert Hale Ives Goddard Memorial Organ Specs.

Annual Organ Recital

September 9, 2007

James Busby, organist, Aaron Sheehan, tenor

with the Gentlemen of the Schola Cantorum

James directs rehearsals in the Choir Room before the recital. That's Aaron Sheehan, soloist on the right, who sang from Notebuch der Anna Magdalena Bach, Recitative & Aria by J.S. Bach.

The Gentlemen of The Schola Cantorum sang Messe Solemnelle a l'usage des paroisses by Francois Couperin. Click to enlarge picture.

James Busby takes a bow after his shining Sonata in G, Op. 28 by Edward Elgar. Click to enlarge picture.

Click to enlarge picture of organ console.

Busby directs the Schola on the Feast of Christ the King

Playing the organ with one hand, conducting with the other.