Chant Café

Online Classes in Chant with Instructor Arlene Oost-Zinner. Need to learn how to read Gregorian chant, or just brush up a bit? You can now do this from home, right from your laptop computer.

• Reading Gregorian Notation II Tuesday March 26, 2013 @ 08:00 PM CDT TONIGHT. Don’t worry if you haven’t take Chant I. That will be offered again soon but this class will still be enormously valuable.
• Gregorian Chant, The Minor Modes Tuesday April 02, 2013 @ 08:00 PM CDT

• Gregorian Chant, The Major Modes Friday April 05, 2013 @ 04:00 PM CDT

The jobs section of the MusicaSacra.com forum includes a push for a new director of music at the NAC. It is a sign of how much everything has changed in the last ten years. There’s no going back.

PONTIFICAL NORTH AMERICAN COLLEGE (Vatican City State) –The Pontifical North American College, an American Roman Catholic Seminary located in the Vatican City State, is accepting résumés in anticipation of a potential opening for a Full Time Director of Liturgical Music commencing in the fall, 2013. In addition to directing the Seminary Choir (TTBB, 35 to 40 members), the Director of Liturgical Music will also be responsible for the training and administration of Gregorian chant scholas (10 to 15 members), the cantoring program, the house organist schedule, planning and preparation for Sunday and weekday celebrations of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, preparation of programs related to the liturgy, liturgical music instruction of the seminary community, individual training in the presidential chants of the Liturgy, and other liturgical music/instruction as needed for celebration in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. They will also be expected to serve as organist for some liturgies, organist responsibilities being shared with seminarian organists. Occasional assistance at the Casa Santa Maria, the graduate residence of the Pontifical North American College, will also be required. The Director of Liturgical Music will work under the direction of the Director of Liturgical Formation. Qualifications will include at least a Master’s Degree in organ and/or church music, excellent conducting skills and experience, mastery of the organ, extensive knowledge of Gregorian chant and the sacred choral repertoire, a familiarity with English plainsong resources, an understanding of and familiarity with the liturgical tradition and documents of the Roman Catholic Church, and effective pedagogical and communication skills.

The College is home to two organs: a 63 rank, 3 manual Mascioni organ in the main chapel, and a 6 rank, one manual Wech organ in the crypt chapel. The Casa Santa Maria also houses a 10 rank Cavaillé-Coll organ.

Besides a base salary and medical benefits, housing will also be provided in an apartment at the College, which is close to St. Peter’s Basilica.

Please send cover letter, resume, at least three references, and two recordings—one organ piece and one choral piece both in Mp3 format— to Fr. Kurt Belsole, O.S.B., Director of Liturgical Formation, at kbelsole@pnac.org.

Nicholas Wilton is another of many composers of outstanding liturgical music in our time. Here is his website where you can hear some of this work.

Nicholas Wilton’s Missa Brevis Sample Recordings:
kyrie.mp3
gloria.mp3
sanctus-benedictus.mp3
agnus-dei.mp3

The Lamb’s high supper, long foretold!

In white salvation dress enstoled,
let all his ransomed people sing—
the Red Sea crossed—to Christ our King.

Whose thirsting Body crucified,
upon that altar where he died,
and whose bright precious ruby Blood,
have let us live our lives for God.

He kept us, on that Paschal night,
From that destroying angel’s might,
And saved us in a foreign land
From Pharoah’s dreaded cruel command.

For lo, our Paschal Lamb is Christ,
The guiltless Lamb is sacrificed,
Sincerity’s unleavened Bread,
His flesh he offered in our stead.

O worthy sacrifice and true!
All hell is torn apart by you.
Your captive people are set free:
Your life, the price of liberty.

Now Christ arises from the grave,
The victor from th’abysmal cave,
And binds the tyrant, and restores
The paradisal open doors.

Be always in our minds, we ask,
O Jesus, joy of this great Pasch;
then those reborn by grace may be
in Your parade of victory.

O Jesus Christ, be glorified,

who shining forth in triumph died
whom with the Father we adore

and Holy Spirit evermore.

I have to admit that Palm Sunday isn’t exactly my favorite day of the year. There’s just so much that can go irreparably wrong. I’m lucky that I now work in places where this liturgy is well organized, so the circus-like atmosphere is minimized, but learned reactions are hard to undo, so I’m a grump.

In spite of my cantankerousness, though, there is one thing about it that always gets to me, one of those moments of art that batters my heart whether I want it to or not. It concerns the transition from the procession to the Mass itself.

This liturgy, as we all know, begins with fireworks, with the chant Hosanna filio David. Then there are upbeat narratives such as Pueri Hebraeorumthat eventually give way to the unbounded praise of Gloria, Laus, et Honor. The choir and congregation take the part of crowds who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. Then, as the procession enters the church, or comes to a close, the schola chants Ingrediente Domino, another narrative, but one of a more subdued musical character. It’s as if the music is leading us down the mountain, into Jerusalem and into the Passion narrative.

Ultimately, though, the Introit finishes off this process, taking us from red to purple hues. “Oh Lord, remove not thy help to a distance from me…deliver me from the lion’s mouth.” The hushed beginnings of this mode 8 melody have something of desperate urgency in them which ultimately crescendos into begging. Earlier the congregation and schola sang the words of the narrator and the crowds, but whose words are these in the Introit? There is something of Gethsemane in them, as if they are meant to be the words of Jesus himself. It’s a powerful effect and yet a smooth transition from the pomp that preceded it to the Passion that is to follow. Start at 1:31:00 in the following video to hear both Ingrediente and the Introit: