MADISON — Its future no longer in doubt, the Madison Diocesan Choir returns to celebrate Lessons and Carols on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Holy Name Heights in Madison resuming a long-running tradition interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With its new director, John Sittard, conducting and Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison presiding, the liturgical service will begin at 4 p.m. in the quiet oratory of Holy Name Heights, far from the holiday season frenzy, to herald the Christ child’s birth.
Located at 702 S. High Point Rd., the former seminary is wheelchair accessible.
Though the event is free, guests are asked to bring a non-perishable food item for the Catholic Multicultural Center food pantry.
Freewill offerings supporting the choir’s music ministry and student scholarships also are greatly appreciated.
A legacy continues
The choir began nearly 50 years ago, and it has celebrated lessons and carols for more than 30 years, the last one in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
Since then, it lost its beloved director, Dr. Patrick Gorman, who died at the age of 58 on September 28, 2021. He led the choir for 28 years.
A year ago, Andrew Kreigh, music director at St. Bernard and Immaculate Heart of Mary Parishes, was named diocesan choir director.
In July, however, he accepted a position as director of music for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Once again, the choir had no director.
Enter John Sittard, a Church musician with impeccable credentials, a career that began 27 years ago as an organist at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
He has served as director at two cathedrals — Blessed Sacrament in Greensburg, Pa., and St. Paul in Worcester, Mass. — and three churches, the most recent being at St. Hugo of the Hills, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he was director of music for 12 years.
Appointed in September, Sittard arrived in early October and in an email to members, announced Lessons and Carols would take place on December 18 with Bishop Hying presiding and that rehearsals would begin in earnest on October 11.
“So, we will hit the ground running,” Sittard wrote. Running and singing, one could say, for the rehearsals have proceeded at a fast pace, efficient and focused, given the late start.
Typically, the choir begins the year with a retreat before Labor Day.
In a recent interview, he said he is pleased with the choir’s response.
“They are rising to the challenge,” he said. “We’re making great progress. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Sittard has directed Lessons and Carols since 1997, the year he served as music director, principal organist, and conductor at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Worcester.
He recalled as a child listening to holiday broadcasts from King’s College in Cambridge, England, where it all began.
Celebrating the tradition
According to historians, the readings and carols were first introduced in the Anglican Church of England in 1880 by Bishop F.W. Benson.
On Christmas Eve in 1918, the King’s College Cambridge Choir presented its first Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.
Ten years later, the King’s College event was broadcast for the first time, and its popularity has grown with broadcasts around the world, bringing people of all faiths together.
“It’s not part of the official Catholic liturgical life. It’s been adopted,” Sittard said.
At a recent rehearsal, he said the Madison Diocesan Choir appeared among the first to make it an annual event.
“It’s pretty widespread now. A lot of cathedrals and a lot of parishes are celebrating lessons and carols.”
The nine scripture readings begin with Genesis 3, Adam’s temptation and fall.
They conclude with John 1, the great mystery of the incarnation, the Savior’s birth.
This final lesson is read by the presiding prelate.
“It’s just so scripturally rich,” Sittard said. “Just such incredible readings, and to hear from the prophets! The Gospel of Luke, the Magnificat, basically, which is very near and dear to my heart. I love Luke’s Gospel. He’s the only one who talks about Mary being pregnant and the actual birth itself. And it’s just beautiful.”
Sittard and his wife, Siegrid, were married on St. Luke’s Feast Day, and they have a son named Luke.
“That was no accident,” he said.
In addition to the readings, Sittard said the format also allows a director great creativity in choosing the music to follow the readings and complement text, from ancient carols and motets to contemporary works, selections to be sung by the choir or all in attendance.
Of those he chose for what will be his debut as choir director, Sittard is hard-pressed to name a favorite, one or two he is especially eager for people to hear and enjoy.
“I just think they are all going to hit people differently,” he said. After a long pause to reflect, he noted two by the English composer John Rutter, “I Wonder As I Wander” and “What Sweeter Music?”
“I think it’s hard to find music that is both so beautifully crafted and so approachable,” Sittard said.
“The one based on that Appalachian carol ‘I Wonder As I Wander’ — it’s very haunting, and I think he breathes new life into this lovely carol. It’s very evocative.
“And then you have ‘What Sweeter Music?’ which is just a new text, or newer text, and there’s a beautiful warmth about it.”
The role of family
Choir performances during Gorman’s tenure were at times family affairs, including his daughters Katie and Sarah.
Early in their marriage of nearly 30 years, his wife Denise sang in the choir.
Members were pleased with her return to the alto section this fall.
For Sittard, the event this year is also a family affair.
Siegrid, a soprano, is the featured soloist in the Rutter arrangement of “I Wonder As I Wander” after the first reading.
“She’s a real gift, to me certainly and to the diocese,” he said.
“She’s a tremendous cantor, and that’s a rarity! As a singer, you’re taught to bring the whole focus to yourself. That’s what a soloist does. And yet when you cantor, you have to take all of the focus off of yourself, because you’re just a vessel, you’re proclaiming the word, singing in service to the liturgy. It’s not about you, the soloist, and she is really successful in switching from one role to the other. It’s hard! She does it, and I’m amazed.”
Of the carols for all to sing, Sittard noted two.
“One may be a little unexpected, certainly in this country, and that is the lesser known tune for ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem,’” he said. “We’re using the tune ‘Forest Green,’ which is not as well known in this country as it is in England. It’s a very beautiful tune though. There’s a certain elegance and, it’s very dignified. I hope that’s going to be a pleasant surprise for people. It’s a tune that’s easily sung.”
The other is also of English origin, “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending,” which he chose as the processional hymn with brass quintet and timpani.
“It’s becoming more and more familiar in Roman Catholic Churches,” he said.
“That’s very stately, and I’ve actually arranged the brass parts for that hymn, so that will get its first performance.”
The brass accompaniment will provide a sense of familiarity, but for regular attendees, the event will have a different look this year. The choir and musicians will not be front and center, assembled before the beautiful Singer mosaic in the historic chapel. Rather, all will be in the choir loft.
“Acoustically, in that space, because of its traditional form, you’re taking advantage of the natural flow of sound through the length of the nave, when you have the choir up in the loft and behind the congregation, and I think that’s good,” he said.
The importance of the organ
Sittard also said the choir will be closer to the organ, the Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ rescued from a Kenosha church, restored and installed in the chapel, a project funded with a gift from the estate of the late Msgr. Delbert Schmelzer.
He said Lessons and Carols will occur within one day marking the fifth anniversary of the organ’s dedication.
Sittard is first and foremost an organist.
At the age of 11, he played the organ at Mass in Worcester. During his career, he has been involved in organ restoration projects. He said those involved in restoring the Schmelzer organ got it right.
“It really is beautifully matched for the space and acoustics of that chapel,” Sittard said.
“It’s actually kind of amazing. Those marriages that are sort of arranged like this don’t always work. You can’t just take one instrument and put it somewhere else. It may not fit. It may be too large or too small for the space. This is just the perfect match.”
Sittard won’t be at the console for Lessons and Carols. Michael Mills will play the organ, while Sittard directs the choir and brass quintet in the loft.
It helps that the choir is fewer in numbers, roughly 50, compared to 70 or so in the past, representing parishes throughout the diocese.
Sittard’s goal is not only to recruit more diocesan choir members but help music directors in parishes all across the diocese.
He currently divides his time between duties at St. Bernard Parish in Madison and the diocese.
Starting in January, he hopes to visit parishes, meet with priests and musicians, and serve as a resource for them.
“I know the bishop supports that, that it’s really important to be a resource,” he said.
“My dream is to have what’s called a schola cantorum, which follows the European model from the 19th century established to train young musicians.”
To that end, he said he hopes to enlist others to help teach singing, organ, composition, improvisation, all the disciplines necessary to be a church musician.
“We have to train the younger generations because it’s a field that’s in trouble,” he said. “If you look at the universities, the number of organists coming up, it’s diminishing, it’s dwindling, so we need to train these people.”
Sittard said he was looking forward to Lessons and Carols and all to follow in service to the bishop and the diocese.
Recalling his first meeting with Bishop Hying, he said, “He wanted to get a sense of where I was, and certainly I wanted to know his vision, that we were on the same page. I really came away with a good sense of where he is.
“He really is an extraordinary pastor, and then I got the privilege of hearing him preach the next morning at Mass and he’s just a brilliant homilist. He’s a real gift.”
To learn more about the choir, opportunities to become a member, or patron and support its music ministry — its scholarship initiative in particular — visit madisondiocese.org/diocesanchoir