Posts

Posted on by Ben

New In-Depth Youtube Series on Accompanying Gregorian Chant

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.

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

Give the Kids What They Want…

…and what they want is not a “cool” Church. At all.

My friend and blogger Amy Peterson put it this way: “I want a service that is not sensational, flashy, or particularly ‘relevant.’ I can be entertained anywhere. At church, I do not want to be entertained. I do not want to be the target of anyone’s marketing. I want to be asked to participate in the life of an ancient-future community.”
Millennial blogger Ben Irwin wrote: “When a church tells me how I should feel (‘Clap if you’re excited about Jesus!’), it smacks of inauthenticity. Sometimes I don’t feel like clapping. Sometimes I need to worship in the midst of my brokenness and confusion — not in spite of it and certainly not in denial of it.”

What are Millennials looking for at worship? Lots of suggestions may be found here at of all things, the Washington Post.

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

By the Waters of Babylon

Newsweek chronicles the ancient and timeless liturgical music of Christians fleeing ISIS.

The ancient cities of Nimrud and Nineveh that they visited proudly to show their children the glories of the Assyrian empire from which they claim descent – soon these will be bulldozed by ISIS. They leave behind the treasures of Assyria in the Mosul museum – ISIS will loot the smaller antiquities for the black market and smash the statues too big to sell. And on the way to Mar Mattai, they pass the monastery of Mar Behnam: its gates are already barred by ISIS. From the steeple flies the black flag. In a few months, it will be destroyed.
What they carry with them is their liturgical music. It preserves strains of the earliest religious chants of Mesopotamia and of court songs sung for Assyrian emperors 2,000 years before Christ. Its antiquity is matched by its simplicity: clergy and congregation sing together, dividing between boys with high voices and older, bigger men who sing more deeply. Beyond this there is no distinction of note or pitch, and no melody. The call and response format is thought to enact a conversation between man and God.

Tonight, they will again sing the old songs. They make for the inner rooms: the hermits’ cells burrowed into the cliff–face; the Saints’ Room, with its reliquaries set in niches in the rock; the chapels dug deep into the holy mountain. (more here)

Posted on by Charles Cole

Concert for Ghana in London

A concert of Italian Sacred Music sung by Scherzo will be taking place at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, London on Friday 8 May at 7.30pm. The concert, which includes Rossini’s Petit Messe Solennelle, is in aid of the Parish of St Martin de Porres in Tema, Ghana, to enable the community to build a new church. The choir’s director, Matthew O’Keeffe (a very able musician and former chorister of mine!) visited the parish for a month and taught the choir Latin, Chant and Byrd. He described it as “an eye-opening experience, particularly in terms of the universal power of the traditional music of the Church”. There is a Facebook event page here. Please support the concert if you can!

Posted on by Mary Jane Ballou

Musica Sacra Florida at Ave Maria University

If you’re looking for a short but sweet little conference, this is the one for you!  May 15-16th this year on the lovely campus of Ave Maria University.  Chant for beginners/intermediates, advanced men and women, workshops, a special children’s workshop, a keynote by Fr. James Bradley.  Extraordinary Form on Friday evening, Ordinary Form on Saturday afternoon.  On-campus housing available.  Learn all the details and register over at www.musicasacra.com (where else?).  Please join us!