The Drama of St. Patrick's Cathedral
By FUPress
14th July 2010
“It’s hard to top St. Patrick’s Cathedral, not only as a church, architectural treasure and municipal monument, but also as a venue of drama This applies as well to the Cathedral’s music program, which has had almost as many high and low moments as New York City itself.” Thus begins a review of Salvatore Basile’s Fifth Avenue Famous on Handing On the Faith, the blog of the Archdiocese of New York.
And it’s true–Basile’s book chronicles feuds between music directors and Cardinals, post-Vatican II changes to liturgical music programs, and vast shifts in music style. The stories behind the music are just as dramatic as the famous organ housed inside the cathedral.
Says Maureen McKew in her review, “Whether your interest is music, New York history or you simply love an inside story, you will really enjoy this book…I enjoyed [it] so much that I read it from cover to cover in one night.”