Gregorian chant classes

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Here are some other resources you might find helpful:

“How to Start Your Own Garage Schola”
ceciliaschola.org/pdf/garage.pdf

“An Idiot’s Guide to Square Notes”
ceciliaschola.org/pdf/squarenotes.pdf

Also, Corpus Christi Watershed has undertaken an amazing project in posting PDFs of all of the propers (the chants that the Church has assigned for every Mass - these are different for each Sunday / feast day), along with mp3 audio recordings and/or youtube videos of them, and often additionally organ accompaniments. I direct a (very) small schola for our Sunday EF Mass, and I don’t know what I would do without these resources:

Here the link for Ordinary Form:
isaacjogues.org/chants/
and for Extraordinary Form:
renegoupil.org/

Here is a link to various chant settings of the ordinary:
antoinedanielmass.org/kyriale/

I would also strongly recommend heading over to the MusicaSacra forums - tons of helpful information and friendly people there who can answer just about any question you have. There are many people who have been (or still are) in your shoes. A valuable insight into the practical realities of being a parish musician!
musicasacra.com/forum/

Finally, I would second the suggestion to attend the Colloquium musicasacra.com/colloquium/
or at least a Chant Intensive: (last one was in January, not sure when the next one will be)
musicasacra.com/houston/

Hope this helps!
 
ProVobis said:
Not mine. English actually is more difficult to pronounce when syllables are stretched over notes. The -t, -d, -b, etc. endings are especially harder to stretch. I’ve heard Credo III in the English and it is awful. Italian is much easier with the vowel endings, Latin and Spanish (and many of the Slovac languages) coming right after in ease and softness. Latin doesn’t have many silent letters so pronunciation in the singing shouldn’t be a problem. There is a reason why Gregorian chant and not any other chant was chosen by the Church as a whole. Latin is the unifier, not English.
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I agree. Vowel endings are so much easier to sing, and many of the chants sound so much better in Latin. I’m just reporting on feedback I’ve personally received.

Latin may be the unifier for the Universal Church, but I’ve encountered much resistance (and even hostility) to it on the local church administrative level.
OraLabora said:
That really depends on the community. I think you’ll find that a community with a strong liturgical and musical tradition (for example Solesmes) will place a lot of emphasis on ability to chant, or at least ability to learn to chant.
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No doubt about it. Our parish is lacking in the historical and traditional roots & awareness of Catholic liturgical music. While it is changing, it’ll probably take another generation or so for parishoners (and music directors and choir leaders) to learn about it in this particular parish. Biological solution, you know?
OraLabora said:
I find the opposite, chanting in the vernacular is harder. Maybe I’m just more used to the Latin because that’s how I first learned to chant, but I find Latin easy to read and pronounce, and in fact the modality is made to fit the Latin accentuation but doesn’t work so well in most vernaculars. It probably helps that my mother tongue is French.

Otherwise I don’t find chant especially difficult, I started with very little musical experience. Some of the more melismatic chants do require practice, and indeed the neumes carry a lot of information. I’ve chanted with monks of two different abbeys of the same congregation and their sound is very different. It’s like the voice of two different people.
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As you said, it really depends on the local community. I’m just reporting on what has happened in my neck of the woods. We haven’t been “allowed” to bring chant into any of the eight Sunday Masses (and Latin isn’t even on the radar). Ours is probably a worse-case scenario.
 
Splagchnizomai said:
I agree. Vowel endings are so much easier to sing, and many of the chants sound so much better in Latin. I’m just reporting on feedback I’ve personally received.

Latin may be the unifier for the Universal Church, but I’ve encountered much resistance (and even hostility) to it on the local church administrative level.

No doubt about it. Our parish is lacking in the historical and traditional roots & awareness of Catholic liturgical music. While it is changing, it’ll probably take another generation or so for parishoners (and music directors and choir leaders) to learn about it in this particular parish. Biological solution, you know?

As you said, it really depends on the local community. I’m just reporting on what has happened in my neck of the woods. We haven’t been “allowed” to bring chant into any of the eight Sunday Masses (and Latin isn’t even on the radar). Ours is probably a worse-case scenario.
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Actually, I don’t think yours is a “worse-case scenario.” I think it is the norm.

We see posters on CAF who claim that chant is wildly popular in their parishes, and that the teenagers are flocking by the dozens to join the schola. That’s wonderful, but I think it is a fluke.

In our city, a Latin Mass parish has existed, with the full approval of the bishop, for many years, and the gentleman in charge of music at that parish is quite talented and a good teacher. But people are definitely NOT flocking to join the schola. They have about a dozen people on a good Sunday.

It’s my opinion that in most Catholic parishes in the U.S., you will find resistance to use of Latin and singing of chant, and that it is the CAF posters who are the exceptions, not the other way around.

And I think this has to do with an appalling lack of music education in our schools, both private and public, which has carried over now into at least two generations (parents and now their children). Also, I believe that corporate singing in general, including congregational singing in church, is something very strange to most Americans. I was really hoping that the TV show Glee would change all that, but Glee has become so bizarre that it seems to be having the opposite effect and convincing people that singing is for nerds and losers. Too bad.
 
Would it be possible to teach such a class here on CAF? I love Gregorian chant:)
 
Thanks everyone! True light don’t mention this in any other threads;)

I’ve emailed my Parish Priest so I’ve made the plunge.

We’ll see what happens.👍
 
Luigi_Daniele said:
Would it be possible to teach such a class here on CAF? I love Gregorian chant:)
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Wouldn’t that be fun?

Did you hear about that choir director who taught a choir online? People just joined up, then logged on during the practice? The choir is up to 2,050 people at last count. Here’s a link to the story: mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/04/eric_whitacres_virtual_choir_2.html

So how about it, triumphguy? Work with CAF and set up the world’s largest schola! (Isn’t CAF the world’s largest online Catholic community?) That would be a hoot, and it would be a good way to educate people who don’t have access to a scholar in their towns!
 
So my Priest emailed me back - “explain your thought progression”

Now he wears a cassock, and he teaches NFP so I think he’s swinging towards the traditional.

How can I sell him on this? He hasn’t said, “No” and he’s obviously intrigued

He’s asked me to teach RCIA next year, and he backed my application for the diaconate, so he trusts me.
 
Cat said:
Wouldn’t that be fun?

Did you hear about that choir director who taught a choir online? People just joined up, then logged on during the practice? The choir is up to 2,050 people at last count. Here’s a link to the story: mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/04/eric_whitacres_virtual_choir_2.html

So how about it, triumphguy? Work with CAF and set up the world’s largest schola! (Isn’t CAF the world’s largest online Catholic community?) That would be a hoot, and it would be a good way to educate people who don’t have access to a scholar in their towns!
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That sounds interesting, but there’s far more qualified people on this thread than me!

But… it does sound interesting!
 
triumphguy said:
So my Priest emailed me back - “explain your thought progression”

Now he wears a cassock, and he teaches NFP so I think he’s swinging towards the traditional.

How can I sell him on this? He hasn’t said, “No” and he’s obviously intrigued

He’s asked me to teach RCIA next year, and he backed my application for the diaconate, so he trusts me.
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Just some scattershot ideas.

You’ll need to consider Latin or English or a mix. If you don’t have Latin in your parish at any Mass, you may wish to use English.

If you do Gregorian chant with a schola, you may quite possibly be infringing (for lack of a better word) on another choir’s service, do you know what I mean? At which Mass will you have your schola chant, and will it displace another choir – whose members may just as dedicated to serving as you are. Consider the fact that the Life Teen Mass may not be a great place to chant.

I know one schola that chants at the Sat Vigil Mass each week, yet another only chants once a month on a Sat Vigil (note no Sundays).

Perhaps you could look for a Daily Mass (Saturday morning, for example) and chant the introit, Gospel Acclamation, and communion, maybe even the Agnus Dei?

Also realize that no one in parish may have expressed a desire for Gregorian chant. Your priest may want it, and you may want it, but maybe the parish council or the music director or etc has other ideas? They may be vehemently opposed to it – they were in my parish.

You’ll need to put your schola together and demonstrate singing and liturgical competence before ever serving at a Mass. That’ll go a long way in convincing the powers-that-be.

Gird up your loins! You are getting ready to see how the parish sausage is made. 🙂
 
Do not, under any circumstances, use music synthesizers like Vocaloid.
 
If you’re inclined towards a “full-immersion” experience in your own personal quest towards chanting, run, don’t walk, to the CMAA Sacred Music Colloquium in Salt Lake City in late June.
And there are any number of other local events hosted by CMAA associates, or with affiliates like Frs. Samuel Weber and Columba Kelly that are more focused towards certain aspects.

For those who’ve followed the thread, there’s obviously a ton of options and resources that don’t cost a red cent and are updated daily that benefit novice to expert alike. I would (as a contributor) highly recommend daily online visits to www.chantcafe.com if for only the audio/visual resources that are posted consistently. This is also expanded upon at www.musicasacra.com home page.

If you are faced with a diverse bunch of folks (musically literate or not, singing novices or trained voices, etc.) I would keep your objectives short and sweet at the beginning. For your own understanding should you be the schola master, in addition to the St. Cecilia books (Idiots Guide to Square Notes, How to Start a Garage Schola) I would add Jeffrey Tucker’s small book, SING LIKE A CATHOLIC, so as to clarify which objectives you may need to start with first.

For example, I personally think that a book that was briefly mentioned, THE SIMPLE ENGLISH PROPERS by Adam Bartlett (from Amazon or Lulu) might prove to be a better jumping off platform. We could discuss the nuances of enunciation and diction between Latin and English (or other vernaculars) 'til the cows come home, but getting people into the notation (less compound neumes) and feeling comfortable with the modes intuitively, and then working them towards basic choral proficiency that results with successful phrasing, beauty, precision and intelligibility is streamlined in this volume, even by comparison to THE PARISH BOOK OF CHANT (of which a second edtion is almost ready to be premiered.) I look at PBC as the next logical step up for the local parish schola, as the demands of Latin and the “coding” of more neumes are greater. But after the acquisition of skills via the SEP book, the PBC won’t seem like rocket science to a total novice.
 
superamazingman said:
Just an fyi, chant is almost never copyrighted. If it’s chant, you can assume it’s fine.
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How did you get this idea? Musical works enjoy the same copyright status as any other written or recorded work. Copyright law differs from country to country, but in the USA, any work published after 1923 may still retain copyright status. Works older than this are in the public domain, but if you are looking at a modern work, you must carefully investigate its copyright status and any licensing concessions. There are sites such as Corpus Christi Watershed who offer freely available chants for use in liturgy, but this is under a license - the publishers still retain copyright on these works.
 
Elizium23 said:
How did you get this idea? Musical works enjoy the same copyright status as any other written or recorded work. Copyright law differs from country to country, but in the USA, any work published after 1923 may still retain copyright status. Works older than this are in the public domain, but if you are looking at a modern work, you must carefully investigate its copyright status and any licensing concessions. There are sites such as Corpus Christi Watershed who offer freely available chants for use in liturgy, but this is under a license - the publishers still retain copyright on these works.
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Most Gregorian chant is in the public domain (though not recordings of it) – it is simply too old to be under copyright protection.

For example, Corpus Christi Watershed cannot retain copyright of Adoro Te Devote, either the music or the text. Adoro Te Devote is in the public domain.
 
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