There is still room in Dr. Mahrt’s advanced class at the Winter Chant Intensive coming up in January in New Orleans. This is a rare opportunity to study with Dr. Mahrt for an entire week. For those of you who are curious about just what will be covered, here’s a more detailed description of the course:
The advanced course will include substantial singing of chants, first the propers for Epiphany according to the Solesmes method, and then chants in a wide variety of genres. Interpretation of the chants will include the approach to overall rhythmic structure according to the Solesmes method, but also bringing other ways to comprehend the overall formal rhythm of the chants, including accentualism and semiology.
Lecture and discussion will include the following:
1) A brief history of Gregorian chant;
2) The role of memory in the formation and performance of chant and the subsequent development of notation;
3) Modes in their application to psalm tones, formulaic melodies, and free chants, and the application of melodic analysis to performance;
4) Gregorian hymnody;
5) The intimate relation of musical style and liturgical function;
6) The aesthetics of Gregorian chant: sacred, beautiful, and universal.