Fr Clarence Rivers

KEN IN CINCINNATI TO HONOR FR. RIVERS

Recently, a documentary film crew came to Holy Trinity to interview Ken Canedo and film the children of our parish school while they were at liturgy. The documentary is about one of the pioneer composers of contemporary Catholic music, the late Fr. Clarence Rivers, who was the first African-American ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Fr, Rivers wrote the classic song “God Is Love” and was the inspiration for Ken becoming a liturgical composer. Ken will be participating at a concert to honor Fr. Rivers on Friday, October 21, in Cincinnati where the documentary will be premiered. The film will eventually be broadcast on the Hallmark Channel. Watch for updates here on the Holy Trinity website.

To learn a little bit more about Father Rivers, here is a tribute that Ken wrote about him, as published in the quarterly Music News of Oregon Catholic Press.

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OCP Music News Sprlng / Summer 2005

GOD IS LOVE: A CLARENCE RIVERS TRIBUTE

by Ken Canedo

The legendary Father Clarence Rivers died November 21, 2004. Attending Catholic school in Cincinnati in the late 1930s, he grew to love the church and its liturgy and traditions, and his parents consented when he asked to be baptized. In 1956 he became the first African-American priest ordained for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

That alone was a major breakthrough in an American society that was still very much racially segregated, but Father Rivers had more gifts to share, most notably his love for music. He was a seminarian and priest during the most fertile time in the history of modern Catholic liturgy. He dared to dream of the possibility that Catholics could worship in a style indigenous to the American musical soul: the great African-American spiritual.

While the liturgy was still being celebrated in Latin, Father Rivers began composing original songs in English that empowered congregations of all cultures to embrace a more soulful way of singing. His American Mass Program was released as an LP record in 1963, roughly a year before the official promulgation of the new rite for Mass in English in November 1964. Radical yet unpretentious, this recording featured only Father Rivers and a parish assembly singing his songs a cappella – no organ, no guitars, no piano. In fact, the first "Folk Mass" had not yet been celebrated.

How groundbreaking was Father Rivers? The first official Mass in English was celebrated at the 1964 Liturgical Week at the Keil Center in St. Louis. The repertoire of conference participants was limited to singing English chant and a smattering of Protestant hymns since there were few Catholic hymns in English. Electricity filled the air when Father Rivers stepped up to the microphone and sang what would become his signature song:

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him,"

Blues notes! Spiritual song structure! Idiomatic English lyrics! Passion in vocal interpretation! This was largely unheard of in the Roman liturgy. The American Catholic church would never be the same.

As the 1960s unfolded, the songs of Father Rivers stood out among the guitar-based music that emerged at the close of Vatican II. He continued to compose and record new songs, and a whole generation of folk musicians was exposed to the beauty and wonder of the African-American style of singing.

As a teenager soaking up new music like a sponge, I remember playing through that, great Rivers repertoire: "God, the Father," "Glory to God, Glory," "There Is None Like Him," and, of course, "God Is Love." I studied those songs over and over again, taking note of the composer's way with rhythm, with melody, with blues notes, with scriptural lyrics and, most of all, with simple accessibility. I could never hope to sing as beautifully as Father Rivers, but I dreamed of one day composing like him.

Father Rivers came to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, and a group of classmates went over to see him. There was Father Rivers, young and in his prime. This was my first exposure to live gospel music. It was a treat to hear him sing his own songs and to experience his dynamic speaking presentation, his rousing choir and the most exciting piano player I had ever heard. It was also my first experience with live jazz piano. I couldn't take my eyes off that piano player -- the way he comped those chords and bent those blues notes, along with his walking-bass left hand.

After the concert, Father Rivers was gracious and engaging. When I told him I played piano for Mass he encouraged me to continue studying music and praying the liturgy.

It would be almost 20 years before I was able to compose something that was halfway decent. In 1989, I shared the beginnings of “Alleluia! Give the Glory" with my friend Bob Hurd, who had already begun brainstorming on what would eventually become the Mass of Glory. Throughout our composing of this work I often asked, myself, "What would Father Rivers do?" I am a Filipino-American composer but l consider it the highest compliment when people meet me for the first time at liturgy conferences and tell me, "I thought you were black!" Such is the influence Father Rivers had on me.

Father Rivers' music will live on in my heart and in every gospel-style song that I compose. I am a better person for having met him and for singing his beautiful music.

Glory to God, Glory!