Chant Café

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius held a chant camp for kids (sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?). Here is a report.

You can look at the prehistory of modern chant editions, with manuscripts from the first millennium of Christianity, by browsing the full Paleographie Musicale in PDF. This is, in so many ways, the fulfillment of the vision of Mocquereau and Pothiers, who imagined a future in which everyone in the world could examine these manuscripts without needing to travel to farflung places. It took more than 100 years, but at last that dream is a reality. Also, the availability of these books underscores the reality that this kind of detailed study of pre-Guido chant signs was not something pioneered in the 1950s but has been of central concern to Solesmes from the very beginning.

We are at the end of one of the most inspiring chant workshops I’ve ever had the privilege of being part of. It was at St. Ann’s in Charlotte, and was attending about some 75 new chanters. Only a few had ever sung this music before. After two days, thanks to Arlene Oost-Zinner’s excellent teaching, we finished the workshop with a full Missa Cantata in the extraordinary form, with a full sung ordinary (Mass IV with Credo I and Gloria XV) and chanted propers (with Chants Abreges for the Gradual and Alleluia), plus two pieces of polyphony (I conducted these). It was an impossible undertaking that somehow worked in every way.

I gave two or three (or more?) talks on various aspects of chant in modern life. I’m again struck by what a strange situation we’ve inherited, living amidst a broken tradition and trying our best to cobble together knowledge from the past as a way of playing a role to assure the survivability of tradition into the future. Of course there will be missteps: we are talking about 2000 years of history and attempting to recreate the musical tradition in two days. But given the task, the results were just fantastic. Everyone learned; certainly I did.

Necessary ingredients here included a great pastor, a wonderful acoustic, happy parishioners, a regularly schedule extraordinary form about one year old, a welcoming environment. The parish itself is a thriving place; truly, we have a Catholic parish in its full glory doing the Mass of the ages and loving it in every way. A workshop like this convinces me that it can be done.

Mater Ecclesiae’s Tenth Annual Solemn High Mass of the Assumption

On the Feast of the Assumption, Sunday, August 15, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Mater Ecclesiae Roman Catholic Church will celebrate the Tenth Annual Mass of Thanksgiving at Saint Peter Roman Catholic Church, 43 West Maple Avenue, Merchantville, New Jersey. The Solemn High Extraordinary Form of the Mass will be celebrated according to the 1962 Roman Missal and will once again feature the Ars Laudis Festival Chorus and Orchestra.

For the tenth consecutive year, the Reverend Robert C. Pasley, KHS, Rector of Mater Ecclesiae, Berlin, NJ, will celebrate this Solemn Mass in thanksgiving for the canonical establishment of Mater Ecclesiae.

The Music for the Mass is:
Gregorian Propers
The Missa brevis septorum sanctorum dolorum B.V.M by Carl Heinrich Biber
Alleluia Assumpta est and the Dilexisti iustitiam by Heinrich Isaac
Offertorium de Sanctissimo Sacramento by Leopold Mozart, the father of A. Mozart
Dulcissima Maria – Francesco Guerrero
Sonata VII of Heinrich Isaac Biber
Ave Maria by Johann Joseph Fux
Sonata in D for two trumpets IV and Sonata in D for two trumpets II by Franceschini
O Sanctissima and Hail Holy Queen arranged for Brass and Orchestra by Timothy McDonnell

The orchestra and choir will be conducted by Dr. Timothy McDonnell. The singing of the Gregorian Propers will be directed by our Cantor, Mr. Nicholas Beck.

For more information, please call 856-753-3408 or visit the website: www.materecclesiae.org.

Mater Ecclesiae, in the diocese of Camden New Jersey, was established on October 13, 2000, the anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady at Fatima. All Masses and Sacraments are celebrated according to the liturgical books of 1962.

A very interesting piece in the NYT Magazine this week. If liturgical music is part of the commons, it will stand while others fall.

Here is a wonderful reduction of the principles of Dom Mocquereau, a publication of uncertain date but perhaps 1910ish: The Fundamentals of Gregorian Chant by Lura Heckenlively.

I’m sorry that you can’t buy this from Amazon, from what I can tell, but Presto Classical has this wonderful CD that is certainly worth grabbing: The Dedication of the Temple, Music from the Templars’ Jerusalem Breviary. The director and lead singer is Jeremy White and the group is the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, as formed and directed for years by the great Mary Berry.

The recording is the fulfillment of a project that Berry had in mind in her last years, so this recording is dedicated to her memory. The book in question is the actual Breviary of the Knights, dated from 1240. It follows very closely what Roman Catholics are used to hearing but with a special spirit and approach that is very appealing.

The order of liturgy chosen for this presentation is the Dedication of the Temple. It begins with a striking piece of organum and the moves to Gregorian chant sung by an all male schola (obviously for the Templars). There are people who regard chant as mood music for chilling out, but this performance sets that impression straight. Here we have the knights of legend at prayer. There is no mistaking the culture of the group.

As the liner notes remind us, this legendary order was not only military but also profoundly religious. David Hiley, who worked closely with Berry, writes the liner notes. This is not only an artistic triumph but also a scholarly one as well, the fulfillment of dream to unite history and performance art in one wonderful package. It is a grant success in every way.