"Is there a difference between Sacred music and secular music?"

[The_Reginator]

I know you are of the belief that it is impossible to participate in the holy sacrifice of the Mass without belting out a few verses, but I think that the chant during communion allows people to meditate on what is about to happen – that we are about to receive the body and blood of Christ. I do not see this as being non-participative, or as being a bad thing.

One of my most memorable moments after my conversion was the way that my spirit was lifted heavenwards after I returned to my pew and knelt down. The very sound of the Gregorian chant really, REALLY helped me worship the Lord. Chant provided holy music and it was in Latin: I was not distracted my the words, as I know precious little Latin.

I later had to return to the local parish and the OF Mass. (Health reasons.)
After receiving Jesus and returning to my pew it took most of my concentration to try to ‘tune out’ (no pun intended) the song/hymn being sung by the choir and some parishioners.

Also,
The congregation can learn the Mass parts. For example, I have (practically) no music training, but after a few weeks I fell in love with Credo III!!
If only parish choirs could be taught our sacred historic musical traditions so that they could lead … (Wishful thinking? Maybe I’ll visit the Latin Mass as much as I possibly can.)

 

[Cat]

First off, don’t worry, it’s not remotely true that understanding the theoretical principle of the modal scales will make you suddenly “able to sing any chant melody.”

What this is talking about is the following: in piano terms, Gregorian chant only uses the “white keys”, with the one exception that sometimes the B can be flat (which is, in fact, why the flat sign looks like a b). Now, if you start on Do (C), then a scale going up proceeds by these steps: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, with that last half step being from Ti (B) up to the Do (C) an octave above where you started. If you start on Re (D), then, using only the white keys, your scale is not a D major scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D), which has the same intervals (wholes and halfs) as the C scale given above. It is a Dorian scale: D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, or in interval terms, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, whole.

The point is, the order of the intervals between the white keys on a keyboard never changes. But the Gregorian modes involve starting on some different key (say, an E, or an A) and playing seven notes up, on the white keys only, to an octave above.

Does this help?

Also:

Gregorian notation is as Western as it gets. (It’s just not modern.)

Yes, this is very helpful. Thank you.

I’ve read that keyboardists tend to think of music in terms of how it “feels”; i.e., they don’t really “hear” intervals, they feel what a particular interval sounds like. Hard to explain. I can show you with my fingers what a perfect 5th looks like, and that’s how I tend to sight read–by imagining playing the notes and feeling what they should sound like.

I realize that The Idiot’s Guide link seems to be written for singers, not keyboardists. Often singers do have a lot more experience with solfege than keyboardists. I have been in the awful situation where a conductor will tell me, “Just play Do Mi So Mi Do,” and I have to say, “What?” Embarrassing, but usually the conductor will laugh and say, “Arpeggios” and I’ll know what to do. (But then the singers don’t know what that means!)

I also think that learning how to read Gregorian chant by reading about it is kind of hard–it would be better if a conductor were conducting a live workshop so that we could all sing along, ask questions, and get the benefit of others in the class who have more understanding.

 

[Cat]

I understand there is computer software that will translate it for you, if that will help.

Yes, I think that would be extremely helpful. Even though the tutorial says to try to get away from using the piano as a crutch, I think that many singers would heavily rely on hearing the chant played on a piano to get the right notes.

And for a pianist, the four-line staff is totally wild–it’s like trying to play the alto clef–yikes a roni! I can do with one hand if I really concentrate hard, but I would make a lot of mistakes. I think that unless the pianist has had a lot of experience reading the chant notes, (you see, I can’t even remember what they’re called–I’ve TOLD many of you in the past that I simply don’t remember foreign languages!)–it would be a tough gig.