Christendom professor Dr. Kurt Poterack recently joined the Christendom Conversations podcast to speak on music and its important role in the liturgy. The new episode, which launched today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more, is the second in a new season of episodes, with Executive Vice President Mark Rohlena and college faculty members discussing insights on the faith and how to live a Catholic life.
In this new episode, Poterack draws on his extensive background of musical education and performance to distill the principles of what makes music a unique art. While many people can observe the external beauty of music, it takes a trained ear to understand the underlying structure of that beauty.
“Everyone loves music. But there’s more to it than mere popularity and what people like or dislike. Music is demonstrably good for people,” says Poterack. “It took quite a while to understand that music does involve order. It involves logic and a numerical order that holds the totally abstract and the totally concrete, together. This ties into Thomas Aquinas’ notion of the beautiful and the harmony of the individual parts, the integritas of the whole.”
In applying this ordering and integritas to liturgical music, Poterack points out that sacred music is necessarily “set apart,” giving it the character of holiness and setting it apart for the worship of God alone.
The new episode with Poterack is the second of four new episodes coming this fall from Christendom Conversations, following on last month’s episode featuring Dr. Andrew Whitmore speaking on Aquinas and virtue. Episodes featuring Dr. Conor Sweeney and Dr. Chris Lane will be released in the coming months. The Christendom Conversations podcast launched last year with three episodes, including a conversation with College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell on the founding of Christendom College.
To listen to this podcast, visit Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Amazon Music and search for “Christendom Conversations” to tune in.
To learn more about Christendom’s podcast library, visit here.
Contributed by Helen Davis ’25.