Have you ever been to a Schoenstatt meeting, experience or activity where you heard a beautiful song and then couldn’t find it again? Yes, it has happened to many people! But the members of the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement in Brazil have decided to join forces to make these searches easier.
Since 2020, a group has been working on creating a website that contains not only songs with audio, lyrics, musical chords and sheet music, but also liturgical training for Schoenstatt musicians and anyone else interested. And the good news is that it is now available, having recently been launched in Portuguese, at the following link:
Schoenstatt Sings: The fruit of a daring project
The Schoenstatt Sings website is the fruit of the Magnificat Project. The initiative began in 2020 and has involved dozens of people and more than 200 composers from 12 countries. Its objective is to spread Schoenstatt spirituality through music, to collaborate with the apostolic activities of the Schoenstatt Movement and to promote a Schoenstatt musical culture in Brazil. At the same time, the group dreams of one day internationalizing this project and translating the songs into other languages.
The project has a large working group and is coordinated by Sister M. Carolina Montedori. Initially, a search was made for authentic Schoenstatt songs in terms of content and message, composed for the Schoenstatt Movement. Eight hundred and ninety-five (895) songs were selected in four languages: Portuguese, Spanish, English and German.
A team made up of Sisters of Mary and lay people belonging to the Movement was then organized to carry out the translations and adaptations into Portuguese. A team was also organized to contact the more than 200 composers, to make them aware of the project and ask them to authorize in writing the compositions.
The result of all this mobilization is 720 scores in Portuguese and Latin, organized into 10 themes: God the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Mary, Father and Founder, Heroes, Shrine and Tabor Mission*, Hymns and Liturgy.
“The main objective is to sing about what is genuinely the face of Schoenstatt, its style and its spirit, songs that help people to pray, that contribute to Marian purity, that elevate the being and promote conversion and the inner transformation of people! In this way, we want Schoenstatt’s spirituality to spread even further and reach the hearts of many people, so that they can have the experience of encountering God and living our spirituality in a vital and authentic way,” explained the project organizers.
Schoenstatt songs in Portuguese to listen to and learn
All the lyrics are in Portuguese. The project contains Brazilian songs, but there are also songs translated from other countries. The Portuguese audio files will be the second part of the project, but everyone will be able to access most of the original audio files to learn the songs.
In order to enhance the musical production, each song includes information about the composer (lyrics, music and adaptation into Portuguese), as well as the country of origin. Wherever possible, the date of composition has been indicated.
In addition, the project fully complies with the General Law on Data Protection and Copyright. It should be noted that this initiative is not for profit, so all the composers and musicians involved have also contributed generously to its realization.
“Through song we express our soul’s love!” (Father Joseph Kentenich)
The team in charge emphasizes that this is not a finished project, but one that is still in development. To this end, there will be a space on the web where musicians can submit their compositions for publication. All the necessary criteria will be indicated on the website.
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*The Tabor mission is part of the national ideal of the Schoenstatt Movement in Brazil.
Translation: Maribel Acaron