If you are too late for the CMAA’s Winter Chant Intensive, kicking off today in New Orleans, don’t despair. Another educational offering awaits in St. Louis, Missouri in February. The Saint Louis Conference, sponsored by Musica Sacra of Saint Louis, opens for registration today. Faculty includes Father Samuel F. Weber, O.S.B., among others.
Advanced Chant With Dr. William Mahrt
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.
Upcoming Events Announcement
Many have asked…
Winter Chant Intensive: January 3-7, 2011; New Orleans, LA. Details and registration information forthcoming.
Sacred Music Colloquium XXI: June 13-19, 2011; Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. Details and registration information forthcoming.
Are you drawn in?
Some of you will remember Fr. Cizcek from the Colloquium. Look at this:
What is going to strike most of us is the choice of music in this video. I was puzzled at first. I am liking it more and more and here’s why: This is a video. It is a popular medium. It is not the Mass itself. If it were Mass, I don’t think Father would have allowed this pop, Euro sound. Coupling this music with beautiful shots of the priest, his actions, and the altar is startling and edgy and exciting. That’s what videos are supposed to be.
What do you think?
Desperate Music Director Seeks Help…
The OF offers too many choices. What is supposed to be liberating turns out stifling. What if we would just all write letters to the complaint department at the top? I offer here my musings posted over at NLM.
Singing into the Sunset
Announcing the CMAA Fall Practicum: Gregorian Chant at the Houston Cathedral. October 21-23,2010 This three day event is sponsored by the CMAA Houston Chapter, the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, and St. Theresa Church in Sugarland, Texas.
Faculty includes Dr. William Mahrt, Scott Turkington, Arlene Oost-Zinner, Rev. Robert Pasley, Dr. Crista Miller, and Jeffrey Tucker. There will be separate courses in beginning Chant for women and men, an advanced chant Master Class, Training for Priests, Deacons, and seminarians, as well as lectures and fellowship. Vespers will be sung in Latin and English on Friday evening; The event will conclude with a Missa Cantata in the ordinary from on Saturday, October 23rd.
Spotted today…
outside the CMAA programs office in Auburn, Alabama. Crumbs on a mattress (behind the dumpster, no less). Can a church musician expect more?
A bird alighted on the feast just moments after this picture was taken.