John Foley
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In the fall of 1994 at St. Louis University in St. Louis, the
Center for Liturgy opened its doors. It is a national think tank
for the study and analysis of liturgy and its practice. It is headed
by the Jesuit priest John Foley, a name that has become synonymous
with the renewal of liturgical music since 1962. He now stands at
a most exciting point in his career as musician, composer, and theologian.
After thirty years of creative music making, he now embarks on a
new wave of liturgical music ministry. The Center for Liturgy provides
an opportunity for him to explore his need to express a fuller involvement
in the formation of liturgical practice than just composing and
performing. "I have never been satisfied to just write music--I
am a theologian as well," he said. "But the rigors of
full-time teaching would leave little time for work in liturgy and
in music."
That music activity began in his childhood in Kansas and reached
its first flowering in 1969 when he joined musical forces with Bob
Dufford, SJ; Dan Schutte; John Kavanaugh, SJ; and Tim Manion (and
later, Roc O'Connor, SJ). The result was the collection Neither
Silver nor Gold, and it marked the birth of--what else?--the St.
Louis Jesuits. Their names still flourish some twenty-five years
later.
Foley has studied composition at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto
under Samuel Dolin, with Reginald Smith Brindle in England, and
with Dominick Argento in Minneapolis. His Movement for Orchestra
was recorded and released by the Louisville Orchestra. His musical
accomplishments are balanced with a doctorate in liturgical theology
from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. In
1993 he joined GIA when his collection When Every Gate (G-3930),
which numbers fifteen pieces, was released. His setting of sixteen
psalms in the Psalms for the Church Year, Volume VII was released
at the 1995 convention of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians
in Cincinnati.
As a Jesuit he participates in a 400-year-old legacy to serve the
Church wherever the Church has a need. He states, "We Jesuits
tend to offer ourselves where the Church has a need. There is need
in the liturgy."
For a listing of Choral Music, try our Choral Music Search.