Historic St. Joseph Church provides a magnificent setting for liturgy and music, and magnificent acoustics as well.  The parish takes full advantage of the opportunity provided by its wonderful building in carrying forward its worship.

For almost a century and a half, St. Joseph Parish has had one of the most outstanding music programs in the region.  Founded as a German ethnic church, the parish has kept to this day the tradition of South Germany and the Austrian empire for the celebration of great feasts with orchestral Masses.  The present church was dedicated in 1873 with the Heiligmesse of Franz Joseph Haydn, surely the first performance of that work in Michigan.  Over the years, the parish has presented orchestral settings of the ordinary of the Mass by Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, his brother Michael Haydn, Bruckner, Dvorak, and many lesser-known  masters such as Anton Diabelli, Johann Valentin Rathgeber, Zdenek Fibich, and Joseph Rheinberger.

During the nineteenth century,  the parish was a strong adherent of the Caecilian movement, devoted to the reform of Catholic church music. Established by Friedrich Koenen, the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral, the Caecilian movement was carried to America by Johann Baptist Singenberger, a German church musician who emigrated to Wisconsin and had vast influence on church music in this country.  The parish still performs Caecilian music today.

While orchestral liturgies and the Caecilian tradition are focal points of the music program, works of all periods and styles are performed regularly within the context of the Latin Novus Ordo Mass, which is offered every Sunday at 10:30 a.m., except on the fourth Sunday of each month, when the Latin Tridentine Mass is offered at 12:00 noon. This liturgy generally alternates weekly between congregational singing and choral liturgy.

St. Joseph is now the only parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit serving the German community, and special music is also often performed at German-language Masses, offered at 10:30 a.m. on the fourth Sunday of the month.

Organ music forms a strong part of the parish's tradition as well.  In March, 1874, at the dedication recital of the new and, for the time, very large pipe organ, three works by Bach were included as well as a piece by the important American composer Dudley Buck.  This indicates a high level of sophistication at a time when organ recitals often featured improvised "storm scenes" and sentimental sacred songs by soloists drawn from the local scene.   In 1973, the parish installed a new mechanical action organ in Neo-Romantic style to celebrate the centennial of the church building. It was dedicated by the internationally-known French virtuoso Marie-Claire Alain, and has since been played in recital by such figures as Christopher Herrick and for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society.

In recognition of its long and valuable liturgical and musical traditions, St. Joseph was chosen in September, 1998 as the host parish for the Sunday liturgy of the convention of the Society for Catholic Liturgy.

There are two groups within the parish music program: the St. Joseph Cappella is a choir of modest size which provides music on a regular basis; the St. Joseph Academy of Music carries forward the tradition of the orchestral Mass with instrumentalists as well as singers including those from the Cappella.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy issued by the Second Vatican Council directed the maintenance of Latin as the liturgical language of the church, the use of the vernacular where appropriate, and the preservation of the Roman Catholic Church's enormously valuable heritage of music. St. Joseph Parish has been a leader in the authentic interpretation of the directives of the Council, and has been widely praised for its liturgy and music.

The music program is under the general direction of Michael Semaan.

Those seeking further information on the music program, or wishing to inquire about singing in the St. Joseph Cappella, are invited to contact Michael Semaan at (586) 739-2089.