When Dean Applegate first arrived at Oxford University in the late 1960s, he never imagined his life would have turned out the way it did. The young Baptist had earned philosophy and theology degrees from Linfield College in Oregon and Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in New York. Oxford was supposed to be where he would put the finishing touches on his studies for Protestant ministry, but it turned out to be the site of his conversion.
Applegate was impressed by both the intelligence and hospitality of the Blackfriars, Dominican priests and brothers. He explained: “I was greatly welcomed by the Dominican community at Blackfriars Priory and gradually, after three years at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, I decided to embrace the Catholic Church and submit to her sacramental system, which I found surprisingly liberating.” The day after completing his Oxford degree, he was received into the Church.
Although Applegate’s clerical career ended with his entry into the Church, his musical career had just begun. While studying at the Royal School of Church Music in London, he was fortunate to meet Mary Berry, which led to his study with her at Newnham College, Cambridge. Berry, one of the foremost sacred music scholars and instructors of the 20th century, dedicated her life to the restoration of sacred song. She was awarded the Papal Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 2000 and died in 2008.
Applegate’s period of private instruction with Berry coincided with his appointment as director of music at Holy Rosary Church in Portland, Oregon. The Dominican pastor and prior, Father Albert Buckley, wished to establish a Novus Ordo Latin Mass with Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony (a combination of independent Gregorian melodies into one piece of music) and asked Applegate to form an “opulent liturgy” for the parish.
Seeking wise council
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) reinforced the Church’s longstanding support of Gregorian chant as its foundational music. In the council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, it is stated: “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as especially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (No. 116).
Even though this instruction was almost universally ignored, Applegate was fortunate to be among souls who embraced it. He explained: “The casual music popular in the Church at the time did not attract me in the least, but I was very blessed to participate in the ancient liturgy and learn even more about the centuries-old tradition of Gregorian chant from Dr. Berry.”
“The Fathers of Vatican II were clear about the preeminence of chant,” Applegate pointed out, along with this encouragement: “We take seriously the counsel of the Council and see that chant is not meant exclusively for what is commonly called ‘the Latin Mass’; rather, it is the music that forms part of the official worship of the Church.”
Applegate later proposed directing a second liturgical choir to sing for a weekly Latin Novus Ordo Vigil Mass at St. Patrick Church. It was fitting that the oldest continuously functioning house of worship in the city of Portland would be a refuge for those seeking the ancient music of the Church.
The choir, which was simply named Cantores in Ecclesia (Singers in the Church), has since sung mainly in Portland churches, but also in places as distant as Mexico, England, Spain, Italy and France, winning several awards along the way.
Passing the baton
Although Applegate retired in 2022, his influence is still heard today. He is the pipe organist at Holy Rosary, and his son, Blake, is the parish’s choir director — and the director of Cantores in Ecclesia. The younger Applegate’s duties include planning and leading a recent special performance at St. Patrick Church in Portland, which featured selections on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. These included “Pange lingua gloriosi” from Dominican giant St. Thomas Aquinas, “Caro mea” from priest-composer Tomas Luis de Victoria, and “Ego sum panis vivus” from famed Renaissance composer William Byrd.
Byrd’s influence on the Applegates has been clearly seen and heard, as they began and continue to coordinate the annual William Byrd Festival. This popular event, taking place Aug. 3-18, was anchored by Sunday Masses at Holy Rosary, with Byrd’s “Mass for Three Voices” sung — including on Aug. 4, the feast of St. Dominic. The festive fortnight also includes other Byrd performances by Cantores in Ecclesia, including on Aug. 15, the solemnity of the Assumption.
Talks were given by sacred music scholars such as William Mahrt, associate professor of music at Stanford University and president of the Church Music Association of America, as well as Cantores in Ecclesia alto and cantor Kerry McCarthy, former associate professor of music at Duke University and author of the book “Byrd,” printed by Oxford University Press.
Nicolai Bajanov, attendee at past festivals and current music director at St. Stephen Church in Portland, has great respect for Cantores in Ecclesia. Their influence is reflected in the music at St. Stephen: chant and polyphony for both the Novus Ordo Mass and the Traditional Latin Mass.
Bajanov said that Cantores in Ecclesia “definitely set an excellent standard for classic Roman Catholic music in Portland, and I’ve been influenced by going to their Masses and Byrd Festival growing up and as a young adult. I wish more people were exposed to that kind of great chant and polyphony.”
Extraordinarily ordinary
Those who cannot get to Portland in person might be able to listen to a compilation of live recordings from past festivals. An album is in the works, which, it was hoped, would be out by August or shortly thereafter.
Cantores in Ecclesia already has three chant albums available through Oregon Catholic Press: “O Lux Beatissima,” “Inclina Domine” and “Cantemus Domino.”
Blake Applegate said of this trilogy: “‘Inclina Domine’ is probably the most remarkable of the three, as it contains all the chants for the Mass of the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Most listeners would probably be floored to learn that they were hearing how the Novus Ordo Mass is sung, according to the 1974 Graduale Romanum, which contains the chants of each Mass throughout the year.”
Even parishes not planning to completely implement the foundational music of the Church will find in “O Lux Beatissima” many helpful selections that can be gradually introduced. Of these, the “Kyrie Eleison,” “Gloria,” “Credo,” “Sanctus,” “Pater Noster,” “Agnus Dei,” “Regina Coeli” and “Salve Regina” are among the best known.
Although growing in popularity, chant and polyphony have not yet regained the status of “ordinary” in a statistical sense, but they are “ordinary” in the prescriptive sense. They have been, and continue to be, the norm for Catholic worship, which is how Blake Applegate has always experienced them.
He said: “I’ve been singing in or directing Cantores for most of its 40-plus-year existence, so it’s much more than an occupation. It’s a way of life, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.” He has learned to appreciate the power of beauty in art generally and within music most specifically, which follows along the lines of what the Fathers of Vatican II taught. Sacrosanctum Concilium reaffirms how “the musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art” (No. 112) This is because, unlike other beneficial but not strictly-needed arts, sacred music forms an essential part of solemn liturgy.
That living aspect of sacred music in public worship has transferred into the younger Applegate’s soul. He has experienced the beauty of music in “a very deep and personal way” and feels a responsibility to share this beauty as long as he is able. Blake Applegate said: “It’s an honor to be continuing the work of my father, and I have profound gratitude for all those who have helped keep us going all these years: choir members, pastors, donors, listeners, producers, scholars and so forth.”
The elder Applegate sums it up this way: “Thank God for those Dominicans who brought me into the Church, and for Dr. Mary Berry, who expanded my musical knowledge. Without them, our little but much appreciated part in the history of sacred music would not have come about.”
The story of Cantores in Ecclesia started in Europe over half a century ago, and it is set to return to Europe next spring. Thanks to a generous and anonymous donor, the choir will be touring the continent for the first time in two decades. They are, after all, not only singers in a church, but singers in the Church, whose name, Catholic, means “universal.”
