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Obituary of nun who championed the revival of plainchant in Britain and abroad.
"Sister Mary Berry, who has died aged 90, was the modern champion of plainchant, which was withering away outside monastic communities when she founded her Schola Gregoriana in 1975.
In the decade that followed the Second Vatican Council, a wave of pedestrian singing was sweeping away the liturgical tradition that stretched back to Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century.
Sister Mary, a nun and a Cambridge don, decided to act. Having gathered a disparate collection of Catholic and Anglican novice singers, choirmasters and organists, she was turned down by several colleges and churches until she was allowed to use St John’s College chapel for one performance.
When a solemn High Mass was celebrated by the Right Reverend Alan Clark, Catholic Bishop of East Anglia, more than three times the expected number attended; and it was agreed that an occasional choir, made up of choral scholars and talented amateurs, would start to give concerts.
As the appetite for chant became clear, Sister Mary carried her message not only around Britain but also to Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States. One result is a large ecumenical community in Massachusetts which sings the full monastic day and night office, with responsibility shared between clergy, cantors, religious and married people. "
telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2039131/Sister-Mary-Berry.html?service
"Sister Mary Berry, who has died aged 90, was the modern champion of plainchant, which was withering away outside monastic communities when she founded her Schola Gregoriana in 1975.
In the decade that followed the Second Vatican Council, a wave of pedestrian singing was sweeping away the liturgical tradition that stretched back to Pope Gregory I in the late sixth century.
Sister Mary, a nun and a Cambridge don, decided to act. Having gathered a disparate collection of Catholic and Anglican novice singers, choirmasters and organists, she was turned down by several colleges and churches until she was allowed to use St John’s College chapel for one performance.
When a solemn High Mass was celebrated by the Right Reverend Alan Clark, Catholic Bishop of East Anglia, more than three times the expected number attended; and it was agreed that an occasional choir, made up of choral scholars and talented amateurs, would start to give concerts.
As the appetite for chant became clear, Sister Mary carried her message not only around Britain but also to Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States. One result is a large ecumenical community in Massachusetts which sings the full monastic day and night office, with responsibility shared between clergy, cantors, religious and married people. "
telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2039131/Sister-Mary-Berry.html?service