Music for January's feasts and beyond

       World, 6 January 2022 -- January is the busiest month of them all for Salesian celebrations of our Saints and Blesseds, beginning with Blessed Titus Zeman on 8 January, followed then by Blessed Aloysius Variara on the 15th, Blessed Laura Vicuña on the 22nd, St Francis de Sales on the 24th, of special note on this 400th anniversary of his death; the 30th happens to be a Sunday but let's not forget Blessed Bronislaw Markiewicz on that day, and finally, on the 31st, St John Bosco!

       Readers may not be aware of the availability of music for the Proper Offices for each of these. The following link, http://sdl.sdb.org/greenstone3/library/collection/ufficio/page/about, will take you directly to the collection in the Salesian Digital Library (SDL) for all the Salesian Proper Offices, and from there you have a choice of selecting the 'Titles' tab which will offer them all in alphabetical order. So, for example, if you were looking for Hymns, Mantras (shorter than hymns and more repetitive, perhaps useful for morning or evening prayer) or Short Responsories for St Francis de Sales, you would scroll down to 'de Sales' (the lower case 'd' means it is further down), click on that then choose 'Music' and make your selection of hymns, mantras or responsories from there.

       Alternatively you could select 'Languages' and then 'English' followed by 'Music' from the above link, and all musical items will be listed there according to the names of the saints or blesseds again in alphabetical order.

       The melodies, and occasionally harmonies, are all the work of 'a salesian' as he prefers to call himself, preferring to remain that way and not detract in any way from giving glory to God through his musical ability, so we are happy to accept his request in this regard. His hope is that it will encourage others, be it in English or any other language, who have written 'Salesian' music, to share their efforts, in which case these could be sent to austraLasia/BoscoLink and they will be forwarded for inclusion.

       While 'January' has been fully populated in this collection, and despite the fact that all the other music has been written, it takes time to upload them all, so keep an eye on February and March and so forth as those months get closer, and you will find them fully populated with items

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