By Fr. Paul Parecattil
Kochi, July 12, 2020: Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of Kerala is opening a youtube chanel to bring devotional music nearer to liturgical music; through its latest YouTube channel, ‘Sacred Music’. It’s a new venture of the Sacred Music department of the archdiocese which recently published its first song and got viral.
Hundreds of devotional songs are released every year in Malayalam language. However, only a few among them can be used for Holy Mass and other sacraments. In this context the Archdiocese has come up with the great venture to coordinate its efforts to differentiate liturgical music from devotional music on a popular platform like YouTube. The activities and uploads are being coordinated by the Sacred Music department of the archdiocese.
In July, 2020 the channel released its first song, a choral singing as its main attraction. Church singing groups are usually called choirs, as are small, professionally trained groups. All efforts will be taken to keep the choral singing simple with no compromise on its standardsm, said Fr. Ebey Edassery, the present director of the Sacred Music channel. After all, such music complements the liturgical celebration as per all the Catholic Church documents regarding liturgical music, including Sacrosanctum Concilium.
Archbishop Antony Kariyil, Archiepiscopal vicar of the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly released channel logo on July 3, 2020.
“Often, we forget the thin line between devotional music and liturgical music. There are differences between liturgical and devotional songs and hence, there is a need to consider these as two separate genres of music. However, in reality, not all devotional songs that evolved in recent times can be used for liturgical music” said Fr. Paul Ambooken, a priest of the archdiocese.
Fr Jacob Koroth and Fr James Thottiyil from Pilgrims Communications are in charge of the choreography.
Fr. Ebey Edassery, the present director of the Sacred Music channel said that, all the songs to be uploaded on the channel are promoting choral singing and can be useful for liturgical celebrations.