Author: Adam Bartlett

I was in the library the other day here at the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein and, while doing some research on Ambrosian chant, I stumbled across a little tract on the shelf by the father of Gregorian Semiology, Dom Eugene Cardine. The little book, published in 1964, was entitled: Is Gregorian Chant Measured Music? A Critique of the Book by Dr. J. W. A. Vollaerts, S.J. “Rhythmic Proportions in Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Chant”.

The topic is naturally of great interest to me, but I was especially intrigued by this because I have recently observed some adherents to Vollaerts’ (as well as Dom Gregory Murray’s) mensuralism who describe themselves as semiologists who have produced chant interpretations that are strikingly different from anything that I have ever taken from Cardine.

So I opened the book to have a look and found a pleasant surprise:

The cover page bears Cardine’s signature along with a number “6” which perhaps suggests that this was the sixth copy to go out. There is also a valediction inscribed in French which I could not at first make out.

So I took a picture of the page and sent it to my trusted chant teacher and mentor, Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB, who completed doctoral studies in Gregorian Musicology under Cardine in Rome in 1963 and I thought that this might bring back some memories for him. Indeed it did. He wrote back:

Dear Adam, 

The word is musicalment, the French word for musically. It is a barb against the mensurastical type of approach to chant! 

I did a master’s thesis on Vollaerts, the result of which he has included in his rebuttal of Murray and Vollaerts. 

Fr. Columba

Needless to say, he was familiar with the tract!

I find Cardine’s wry wit in this little memento to be quite charming and endearing, actually. Every time that I talk with Fr. Columba I can almost hear Cardine speaking through him. I will never understand why this treasure of a scholar has been so overlooked in our times. Anyone who has the opportunity to study with this giant who is now in his 82nd year should definitely not pass it up!

[Update/Correction: Commenters have informed me that the valediction is “amicalement”, meaning “friendly yours”, and what I thought was a number 6 is actually a common French abbreviation for the Benedictine order, “moine bénédictin”.]

My own activities in the field of liturgy have centred on my involvement with Glasgow’s Dominican community. Since 2005, I have served as choirmaster at St Columba’s in Maryhill. Our little choir comprises volunteers from within the parish, many of whom cannot read music. When we started, the congregation was accustomed to singing four vaguely apposite hymns slotted into the liturgy; in short, they were singing at Mass, rather than singing the Mass. Over the past seven years this approach has been altered to give chant (mostly in the vernacular) “pride of place”, as instructed by Vatican II.

Moreover, instead of replacing the Mass Propers with hymns, the assembly have starting singing these important prescribed texts, using a range of accessible resources. Of course the ideal source to which we aspire is the Graduate Romanum itself, the single most important book for any Catholic choir and the definitive source of Gregorian chant. Much of this chant is, however, beyond our choir at this stage in its development, which is why we have sought out a range of other chant resources – staging posts, as it were, on our path of liturgical betterment, and with the congregation’s involvement foremost in mind.  

There’s the Graduate [sic] Simplex, published by the Church for smaller churches just like ours, with a range of Mass Propers for each liturgical season. There are also many exciting chant adaptations in English, clearly devised for congregations, which are well within the capabilities of ordinary parishes. The Graduate Parvum, now being completed by the Blessed John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in Birmingham, offers simple and extremely usable chant Propers in both English and Latin, drawn from a range of authentic Gregorian sources. Our congregation is gradually assimilating some of these. Then there’s the Simple English Propers by Adam Bartlett: easy, freely composed chant Propers for every Mass of the year. We use at least one of these almost every Sunday. Our choir is becoming more fluent in this idiom all the time. Recently, we have been able to introduce Communion antiphons from the Graduate Romanum. A richly rewarding American publication is By Flowing Waters by Paul F Ford; it’s a large and full collection of chant-based liturgical song. Those who find their prayer heightened by the modality and supple rhythms of chant will find great riches in these collections. Whether in Latin or the vernacular, chant is an integral and important part of our Christian heritage and living tradition. A step in its direction is a step towards a deeper look at the meaning of liturgical renewal and its musical implementation. This music is for those parishes and communities who are serious about the liturgy, and singing the liturgy.

Please read the rest there.

You might remember Advent at Ephesus, the debut album of the The Benedictines of Mary, which spent six weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Classical Music Chart in 2012.

The sisters have announced and are now taking pre-orders for their second offering, Angels and Saints at Ephesus.

Here’s a preview: