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Music

Words & music

Alma Mater puts Pope Benedict's prayers to music | Arsenio Orteza

Associated Press/Photo by Pier Paolo Cito

The recent criticism by the Vatican of James Cameron's Avatar raises the question of just what the aesthetics of Roman Catholicism are these days. The recently released album Music from the Vatican: Alma Mater (Decca) provides a partial answer.

Subtitled "Featuring the Voice of Pope Benedict XVI," the recording unites a diverse cast of composers, musicians, choristers, and engineers in setting to music the recitation of Marian prayers by the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

A kind of sequel to Abba Pater, Sony's 1999 album of musical settings for the voice of Pope John Paul II, Alma Mater was assembled in what might be called reverse order, with the excerpts of Benedict coming first and the singing (by the Choir of St. Peter's Basilica) and the music (by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) coming later.

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February 13, 2010, Vol. 25, No. 3

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