Looking forward to vlogs from this year’s just-began CMAA Colloquium for some vicarious participation of your own? Fear not, they will be returning this year! Stay tuned here to the Chant Cafe!
Looking Forward to Colloquium Vlogs?
Liturgical Calendar for OF and EF on Google Calendar
As both a musician and Master of Ceremonies, it is very useful to have the liturgical calendar available at all times on my phone, and especially alongside my other events (“Oh, you want me to come to a party on August 15? Sorry, that’s Assumption, we’ll probably have a pontifical Mass that evening…”). I’ve found this most useful in my own life, and I’d like to share it with others too! If you use Google Calendar and would like me to share this with you as well, sign up below and I’ll add you to the list, which will make the liturgical calendar appear in your calendar.
Click HERE to be added to the list.
Liturgical Music in the Context of Liturgy
Now here’s a fascinating idea: An entire Mass of music, in the context of a concert. Not just the ordinary and propers, but collects, and even the epistle and gospel, allowing the music to be heard in it’s fuller context (the fullest context being the liturgy itself, of course), instead of standalone pieces with applause in between and no context. Worth a listen if you have a while. If only more sacred ministers could sing this well 🙂
New In-Depth Youtube Series on Accompanying Gregorian Chant
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| An organ score from the Nova Organi Harmonia |
Recently, a user of the CMAA Forum began creating a tutorial on the methods of providing organ accompaniment to gregorian chant which many have found useful. His first video can be found below, and the rest can be found here. If this interests you, make sure to subscribe, so that you can continue to receive his new videos as they are released.
While there are collections of scores for this purpose, it is ultimately much more useful and flexible if an organist can learn the methods for improvising accompaniment, which this series attempts to teach.
Christus factus est: Holy Week is Upon Us
This text encapsulates one of the most important themes of this upcoming holy week: Christ’s willing sacrifice on the cross for His (and our) eventual glorification. We could all do well to meditate upon this text as we enter this sacred week.
Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis. Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum et dedit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen.
Christ became obedient for us unto death, even to the death, death on the cross. Therefore God exalted Him and gave Him a name which is above all names.
This text is specifically from the Palm Sunday Mass, Good Friday Liturgy, and the Holy Saturday responsory for the office. It’s also used for the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and on Holy Thursday in the EF.
Daylight Savings Time
Technology for the Church Singer: Choral Singing from a Tablet
I use a tablet for 95% of all my music, and I have to admit, I love it, and would never go back to paper for most uses. At the suggestion of Adam Wood, I am using this post to outline my setup, in case anyone else would find it useful. Here it goes….
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| Some may remember me as “that guy” at the last colloquium. You can see my tablet peeking out behind another singer in this pic from the 2014 Colloquium, singing with the esteemed Scott Turkington |
I have a dropbox folder filled with tons of resources. SEP, Graduale Romanum, Graduale Simplex, Liber Usualis, Liber Brevior, Offertoriale Romanum, Chants Abrégés, all the gregorian ordinaries via the Kyriale Romanum, a decent amount of simpler organ music (example), parish book of chant (1st and 2nd editions), Richard Rice’s communion books (with english and latin verses), Cantus Selecti, The Simple Choral Gradual, The Parish Book of Psalms,The American Gradual, The Gregorian Missal, The Palmer-Burgess Plainchant Gradual (pt 1, pt 2), The Revised Grail Psalms, Secunda anthologia vocalis (three voice motets), Fr. Kelly’s Missal Chants (entrance, communion), Nova Organi Harmonia, the entire collection of organ scores for the ordinary for when I sub at my parish, random resources downloaded from the forum, the entire repertoire for each of the several choirs I sing in, as well as any specific music for Masses for which I plan to sing/direct/play for (which rotates around depending on what I’m doing), and a ton more (for example). Additionally, you can find a large number of motets on CPDL and other locations online.
It’s between 1-2GB in all.
This collection lives in my dropbox on my computer, and also thanks to a third part app called DropSync, it is contained entirely offline on my tablet (Nexus 7, 2013) and my phone (nexus 5) and phone as well. I have used both of them at Masses, though obviously the nexus 7 is what I typically use. I use dropsync because the native android dropbox app only allows you to download individual files, not keep your entire collection offline on your device and synced.
Also, if you use THIS LINK to sign up for dropbox, you can get an extra 500mb free.
I’d recommend the Nexus 9. I think it’s a great option, and is quite fast. My tablet, the Nexus 7, is now being discontinued. It should allow you to store all these things offline and keep them synchronized like I doubt you could on an apple tablet. Adobe’s PDF reader on android also allows me to take and edit notes (both typed and scribbled) allowing me to fully take notes like any other singer, but also to sync these notes to my computer and phone, so that they follow me no matter what device I use. Depending on how fast things are running I also use an android task manager to kill all background apps when I am getting ready to sing to ensure there is absolutely no lag or delay in the processing to change pages or change files (for example, from the graduale PDF to the PDF of my next motet).
I am very satisfied with this system. If anyone wanted to set themselves up with a similar system, I’d be more than willing to answer questions here or by email. I’ve used this for upwards of 2 years, so I am very comfortable with it and know all the tips and tricks related to this!