Mini Gregorian Chant Training

Some of the mothers have requested Gregorian Chant training on Sundays because their children cannot make the monthly workshops. So, starting this coming Sunday (March 21), there will be short chant training lessons for children/teens, alternating weeks for boys and girls. This Sunday, March 21, will be a boys' training. Altar boys are strongly encouraged to join. Immediately after eating donuts, there will be training in the convent (building across the street of Blessed Sacrament) for 15 minutes. Girls' training will begin on March 28. Parents are welcome to attend as well.

Monthly Gregorian Chant Workshops

UPDATE: Monthly workshops are canceled until further notice.

There will be monthly Gregorian Chant workshops every 2nd Tuesday of the month.


Anyone can attend. No previous experience needed. Please join if you have interest in Gregorian chant.

Gregorian Chant Workshop
2nd Tuesday of each month
Starting February 9, 2010
7:30pm to 8:30pm
St. Michael's Catholic Church on Summer Ave

If you would like to read some introductory material in advance from the textbook we will be using, please look at this link.

Guide to Singing Chant (on pages 169 to 179 on the book itself, 179 to 189 on the browser). You may want to set View Mode on the bottom left to "Scroll" for easier reading.

Hope to see you there!

Sacred Music and Gregorian Chant Summer Program for High School Students

June 16 - 20, 2010. For rising juniors and seniors in high school. Only 20 spaces available.
Christendom College, Front Royal, Virginia.
Guest Speaker is Father Zuhlsdorf (aka "Fr. Z")!

For more information, please visit: http://www.christendom.edu/admissions/summermusic.shtml

Winter Chant Intensive 2010 in Charleston, South Carolina

CMAA (Church Music Association of America) hosts a Winter Chant Intensive 2010 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Charleston, South Carolina. It will take place on January 4-8, 2010.

The workshop will be directed by Chant Master Scott Turkington (Stamford Schola Gregoriana). He has an international reputation, with specialization in the Solesmes tradition. He is a co-author of The Gregorian Chant Masterclass, and a marvelous teacher with singers of all skill levels.

Tuition for the course, which includes catered lunches on Tuesday through Friday, is $245. And there is a donation of $245 support for one person who is planning to attend the workshop. So you only have to pay for the stay in hotel.

The registration deadline is Monday, December 14, 2009. Late registrations: add $25; subject to space availability. Here is a preliminary schedule and please click on here for more information and registration.

Gregorian Chant Weekend

There will be a Gregorian Chant weekend at Clear Creek Monastery in Hulbert, Oklahoma October 10 - 12. The chant weekend will bring in the choir directors, as last year, from nearby polyphonic choirs/scholas in OK City and Tulsa, as well as Fr. Bachmann, choral master monk for Clear Creek Monastery.

Instruction covers:
Reading Gregorian Music
Modality
Psalmody for compline
Solfeggio
Rhythm
Elementary Latin
Mass XI Orbis Factor
Ant. Aperges Me
Communion Chant

Accommodations available for men in monastery guest house $50 @
or for women/children in the Guest Log Cabin $35 @.

Workshop cost is $25 per family; $20 per individual.
Workshop begins Friday, October 10 at 6pm and ends after Sunday High Mass - approximately 12 noon, October 12, although there is a picnic following High Mass.

For more information on the retreat, please contact the Clear Creek Monastery at
(918) 772-2454.
To learn more about the monastery, please visit:
http://www.clearcreekmonks.org/ and
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2008/slideshows/monks/index.aspx

Musica Sacra

"An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony" (Pope Benedict XVI, June 24, 2006)

[Polyphony] O magnum mysterium- Tomás Luis de Victoria

Sheet Music found at: http://wso.williams.edu/cpdl/sheet/victoria/vict-om1.pdf

[Polyphony] Ave Maria

Sheet Music found at: http://wso.williams.edu/cpdl/sheet/victoria/vic-ave1.pdf

Q: Does chant have to be in Latin?

A: When the Church speaks of Gregorian chant, she means Latin chant. Latin is especially preferred because it is the language of the Church. It is the language in which the chant was composed, and the chant melodies are constructed around the accentuation, phrasing, and articulation of the Latin text.

Other forms of plainsong do not have to be in Latin, and most vernacular languages can be used in chantlike styles. Indeed, it can be useful and feasible to chant some liturgical texts in the vernacular. But such a project has limits. Chant adaptation requires changing familiar words to fit the music, or modifying the music to fit vernacular texts. One might question the usefulness of such an exercise. The purpose of liturgy is not purely pedagogical, else the entire liturgy could be written in the style of a newspaper article.

The purpose of sacred liturgy is far deeper and more complex: it is to draw us out of time and place so that we might more clearly perceive eternal mysteries. The liturgy is not primarily a teaching session but rather “an encounter between Christ and the Church… The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father’s will” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1097–8). The relative remoteness and changelessness of the Latin language, especially when united to the chant with its purity of form, helps to realize this encounter by leading us away from the ordinary and toward the transcendent.

Q: What is polyphony and what makes it specially suited to liturgy?

A: Polyphony literally means many voices. Polyphonic music has two or more voice parts that move independently (or contrapuntally) to weave a musical fabric. The term generally applies to sacred vocal music from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. Polyphonic music occasionally sounds chordal (or homophonic), but the contrapuntal style is generally distinguished from the homophonic style in its approach to harmony. In homophony, chords are presupposed, and voice parts are written chiefly to fit into a chord. In counterpoint, voice parts are written more as individual melodies, with chords resulting from the simultaneous tones of the independent lines. This emphasis on the individual vocal lines shows the influence of chant, from which polyphony grew organically. The “golden age” of sacred polyphony lasted from about 1400 until 1650, but composers of later eras continued to favor the contrapuntal style, especially when writing for the church.

Q: Aren’t chant and polyphony too hard for regular parishes?

A: As with any art, sacred music ranges from very simple to very complex. From the earliest days of the Church, congregations have sung the simpler chant melodies. Collections like the Liber Cantualis (published by Abbey of Solesmes) and Jubilate Deo of Paul VI (1974) contain chants that everyone can sing. At the same time, the fullness of the Gregorian repertoire, consisting of several thousand chants for every purpose, requires experience, practice, and often a high level of mastery. The same is true of sacred polyphony. Many congregations can sing four-part hymns, but more complex contrapuntal pieces require a well-trained choir to sing on behalf of the praying community.

For hundreds of years, parishes around the world have fostered choirs and promoted choral singing. To ensure the preservation of the Church’s treasury of sacred music, the Council insisted that choirs “must be diligently developed” (¶114). While professionals can greatly enhance performances of sacred polyphony, nothing prevents amateurs from singing this music, and even directing it, if necessary. It can be hard work, and demands more of performers and listeners than popular styles. But only the best is good enough for the God we worship.

Full text of the "Frequently Asked Questions On Sacred Music": http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/smfaq.pdf

Sacred Music Colloquium XVIII

Sacred Music Colloquium XVIII

Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois

June 16-22, 2008

"Seven Days of Musical Heaven"

Sponsored by the Church Music Association of America

• Extensive training in Gregorian chant and the Renaissance choral tradition under a world-class faculty
• You can choose between a chant fundamentals class, two intermediate and two advanced chant classes
• Choral experience with one of four large choirs singing sacred music of the masters such as Palestrina, Isaac, Victoria, Byrd, Tallis, Josquin, and many others
• Daily liturgies with careful attention to officially prescribed musical settings

These are the videos featuring scenes from last year’s event.

For further information, click on the image or the link.