LiveBlogging the CMAA Winter Chant Intensive

Today after morning Mass at my parish I packed my bags and rushed out the door toward my first official CMAA event–the 2011 Winter Chant Intensive.

I made it to the Phoenix airport on time, successfully boarded the plane and made it as far as sunny Tucson, AZ, where I am currently, in a Holiday Inn, because my actual flight to New Orleans was canceled. Oh well, such is life. The good news, I suppose, is that Continental Airlines paid for my hotel room, dinner and shuttle service that I would have had to have covered otherwise, and it seems that I will still make it in time for the beginning of the first session. But 4:30 tomorrow morning will come very quickly, so I’ll make this brief. As long as my iPhone alarm will actually go off (unlike this morning) I should be off to meet many of my, up-until-this-point, cyber-colleagues in the flesh for the first time. Maybe I’ll ask for a wake-up call!

Assuming that I arrive safely in New Orleans tomorrow I plan to liveblog the Chant Intensive, at least daily, with the happenings of the event, pictures, insights I’ve gained, and so on.

I have several personal aspirations for the Intensive:

1. First and foremost I look forward to absorbing the seasoned and refined musicological and practical knowledge of Dr. William Mahrt, President of the CMAA and instructor of the “advanced class”.

2. I have a particular interest in studying and participating in a school of thought in Gregorian chant interpretation other than the one that I have been primarily trained in, and in which I commonly practice my direction and singing of chant. Many here are surely familiar with the different schools of thought in the world of Gregorian chant. The two primary schools that are operational in the world of actual Catholic liturgical music are the school of the “Classic Solesmes Method”, or “Old Solesmes” and the “Semiological”, or “New Solesmes” school (which is the arena in which I have studied and practice chant interpretation). Some who are new to the world of chant might be surprised, even shocked, at how impassioned debates between these two schools of thought can get! A part of my quest in attending this event is to observe the real similarities and differences between the two schools of thought, and to dispel, at least in my own mind, the myths that have come to be in the “impassioned debates” and to assess, especially against the backdrop of our current situation in the liturgical life of parishes, the areas of overlap and of continuity between the two “schools” of thought. Interestingly, I am told that Dr. Mahrt is not a strict adherent to either school, being that his background is in Dominican chant and in academic musicology. Whatever the result, I’m sure the experience will be most enriching and informative.

3. I also have as an object of my participation in the Winter Chant Intensive a consideration of how training events such as these can be applied to the educational and formational efforts of my own Diocesan Office of Worship. Many great things are happening in the Diocese of Phoenix, and I have been sent in part by the Worship Office to consider how the Diocese might incorporate training in chant into the effort of ‘New Translation Catechesis’, both for parish music directors and musicians, and also for priests.

4. Lastly, I look forward to a week of focused study and spiritual retreat. From the looks of the week’s schedule this will not just be an academic exercise in Gregorian theory, but also an immersion in Gregorian chant as liturgical prayer, as it ought to be.

So the week is sure to be a great one. I personally cannot wait. Watch daily for updates on the happenings of the Intensive, and maybe even some pictures from New Orleans nightlife–from the looks of the schedule, dinner appears to be found in the restaurants on Bourbon Street (though I promised my 4-year old princess that I would visit “Tiana’s Place” one night). I reckon I’m gunna havtuh get me s’m jambalaya!