Sax and the city.

IT'S TOUGH TO DISPUTE (THOUGH IT'S BEEN TRIED) THAT among musical instruments horns have a history that scores high on the holiness scale. Trumpets show up frequently in scripture, heralding everything from the Incarnation to the end of time. So what could possibly make today's pastoral musicians, clergy, or worshipers the least bit skittish about the emotive sounds of a relatively young addition to the instrumental world--the saxophone?

Sonic debates about what musical instruments should be used in Christian worship are as old as the church itself. Many instruments were suspect

because of their history in pagan worship, others because they were emotionally evocative. St. Jerome didn't think any decent Christian girl should even know what a flute was.

Some say the saxophone is inherently sensuous, and that makes them nervous. It may be just a little too sexy for the church. But not if saxophone virtuoso and Catholic pastoral musician Riccardo Selva has anything to say about it.

"Music is the most intangible of the arts--it happens in time so one can't see, taste, or touch it, yet it physically, emotionally, and spiritually moves you," says Selva, who has written the book, so to speak, on liturgical saxophone. His doctoral disseration from Northwestern University's School of Music was The Saxophone in Sacred Music.

Selva is quick to point out that the saxophone most closely resembles the human voice, and therefore brings emotional capabilities unknown to musical instruments before its invention in the mid-19th century. In the 20th century Hector Berlioz wrote a treatise noting how uniquely sorrowful the saxophone can sound and how it can carry a "priestly calm."

Selva demonstrates this whenever he has the chance at churches in the Chicago area, including the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in the city's Little Italy neighborhood and the Newman Center at Northwestern University in nearby Evanston. He also teaches at a suburban conservatory.

Growing up in Detroit, love for the saxophone blossomed when Selva joined the school band. A classmate picked the saxophone, and he thought that sounded like a pretty good choice to follow. That classmate soon dropped her sax studies, but Selva's choice never wavered. Now his expertise is not limited to saxophone but extends through the woodwind family, including flute and clarinet.

In 1985 at the Interlochen National Music Camp in Michigan, Selva, a junior in high school, decided to dedicate his music to God. It was the night before he would audition for a University of Michigan music scholarship. He remembers a "quiet summer night, in the bunk, in a cabin full of high school boys, praying--really joining in prayer. It was really cool, these high school guys praying Our Fathers and Hail Marys." Selva believes people often say they feel a healing power in his music because it is always grounded in prayer and sincere dedication to God.

When asked who his greatest inspiration is, Selva doesn't name a famous musician. His answer, however, does point to a man of faith who had the soul of an artist--Pope John Paul II. The pope's challenge to "be not afraid" at the 1993 World Youth Day in Denver also touched Selva.

"When you hear the pope speak words that connect with your deepest convictions--that you're striving not just to make money but for a deeply rooted, purposeful life with a bigger picture--then that's a dangerous thing," he says.

NOW SELVA HAS A VISION FOR A SPIRITUAL CENTER FOR retreats, seminars geared toward artists, and concerts that would involve famous artists of faith such as jazz great and fellow Catholic Dave Brubeck. The dream comes out of his scholarship, his performing, his teaching, and his volunteer work in hospital ministry, which he has done for nine years.

"I'd like to develop a professional orchestra and choir and staff of musicians to do events that would set the standard for the entire city of Chicago artistically," Selva says. "This is often done in the big Protestant churches, and it's an embarrassment to me as a Catholic when Brubeck says he never performs his [jazz Mass] in Catholic churches."

He also wants to build a premier recording studio where music and faith will come together as artists share the joy of God's gifts. With Selva's passionate tenacity and powerful prayer life, there's little doubt he will be successful. And if he has his way, horns--including the saxophone--will continue to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.

By MARYELLEN O'BRIEN, a doctoral student at Loyola University Chicago and the author of Living in Ordinary Time: The Letters of Agatha Rossetti Hessley (ACTA Publications, 2005).

RICCARDO SELVA

SAXOPHONIST, PARISH MUSICIAN

HOME PARISH: St. Hugh in Southgate, Michigan 

WHAT MY PARENTS TAUGHT ME:

My mother challenged me to see the Word of God as relevant to my daily life. My father taught me the value of investing oneself with excellence.

WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO ME: Music is a medium through which the Lord has spoken to me throughout my life.

MY WEBSITE: http://rickselva.home.comcast.net/

"When you hear words that connect with your deepest convictions--that you're striving not just to make money but for a deeply rooted, purposeful life with a bigger picture--then that's a dangerous thing."

--Riccardo Selva