By EmmaLee Italia and Craig Pittelli | Correspondents

Gregorian chant and other sacred music, with roots in the earliest days of the Catholic Church, can elevate worship in ways easily overlooked without guided instruction. But not if the Diocese of Trenton can help it.

A summer workshop focusing on sacred music – particularly chant used in the Extraordinary Form (Latin) Mass – was hosted for young people Aug. 14-16 in St. John the Baptist Parish, Allentown – the second of its kind in as many years. Four instructors led classes for youth in grades three through 12, guiding them in vocal technique, music theory, chant notation, Church music history and liturgy.

Photo Gallery:  Sacred Music Camp

“Chant is really the first music that we have,” said one of the instructors, Peter Carter, St. John the Baptist Parish music director for Mass in the Extraordinary Form. “The oldest manuscripts of music we have are from the monks in the Middle Ages notating the Gregorian Chant – it’s the first music of the liturgy.”

Workshop participants studied various Mass part chants as well as sacred hymns, culminating in a Latin Mass held Aug. 16 in the church, showcasing the pieces they had learned. But what the students absorbed went well beyond notes on a page.

“It’s a really wonderful feeling when you’re trying to praise God through music,” said St. John’s parishioner and workshop participant John Taraba. “Gregorian chant is very beautiful in its simplicity; the notation … is simple and easy to read.”

Fellow participant and parishioner Jude Schuster agreed. “It’s much easier; I learned how to use notes better and how to breathe so you don’t hurt your voice, and it sounds much better,” he said. “When it all comes together, it sounds so beautiful, and it makes you very happy and peaceful.”

Lauren Walters, workshop instructor and parish coordinator of religious education, instructed the youth in vocal pedagogy – production, pronunciation and tone production – as well as explaining sacred music’s role in the liturgy.

“Gregorian Chant is this unspoken understanding, even if you don’t fully understand the Latin … that speaks to the depths of the human soul,” she said. “[It connects] this intangible realm between heaven and earth, and enhances the entire experience of the Mass.”

Making music, Carter attested, can have a profound physical response in the body to the spiritual exercise – something he hoped to impart upon the young campers. Referencing an article he read, Carter explained how scientists were able to determine that in a large choral group singing together, their hearts would start to beat at the same time.

“We use that as a poetic phrase, ‘our hearts beat as one’ … but there’s a physiological response to collective singing that affects us,” he said. “We’re doing something that’s not just personal – it’s interpersonal. I hope that… they recognize that they participated in something that was truly sacred –praying together as a Church.”

Walters, too, delighted in watching the young participants grasp the musical concepts and apply them to their church experience.

“As they continue to build on these experiences through sacred music, they’re able to really implement this deeper spirituality in their own existence, especially attending Mass,” she said. “I think that’s one of the most important takeaways: the children begin to understand the postures, the hows and whys of Mass … through melodies that are familiar to them.”

Video by freelance photographer Craig Pittelli contributed to this report.