Totally blind and struggling with learning Gregorian Chant

[TBolt1000T]

Hi everyone. I’m totally blind, and I’ve been singing in the Latin Mass choir in my parish for four months now. I’ve been doing fine on the polyphony, but I’ve been having to sit out through most of the Gregorian Chant, because I just can’t get the hang of it. I guess it’s because I can’t find a pulse or beat, because there is none. I’ve sang the St. Meinrad psalm tones in the OF choir before, and I didn’t have any trouble with them, and I don’t have trouble with Gregorian chants like Pange Lingua and Attende Domine, which both are almost metrical. It’s the stuff like the Orbis Factor Mass, the solemn Te Deum, and the propers that I’ve been having trouble with. Since I can’t read sheet music, I have to memorize everything, and for some reason, this has been extremely difficult for most Gregorian chant. The ironic thing about all this is, that I’m actually writing a freeform Gregorian style chant for the Fatima prayer in Latin, and that seems to come natural, but when it comes to learning most Gregorian chant, it’s like banging my head against a brick wall. I’m sick and tired of having to sit out through the Gregorian Chant, and I’d like to sing the propers along with the rest of the men when our choir director gives them to the men.

Are there any totally blind singers out there, who have mastered Gregorian Chant, and who may be able to give me some tips on learning it? Any other advice from any other musicians on here would also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[purplesunshine]

I’ve seen deaf kids learn trumpet, so I’m gonna guess there is a way for a blind person to learn gregorian chant.

For me, when approaching any subject, it’s good to learn the history behind it, the methods they used and such. It may be good to see if you could find some methodology books or articles to read. Google books has digitized alot so you may have access to books that weren’t available even 6 months ago.

Also, you could learn like the deaf do. Ask someone to let you put your hand on their throat while they are singing Gregorian chant. Feeling the music may help you understand the rythm.

Also, could you have them copy the music onto a heavy sheet of paper and make a kind of impromptu braile sheet of music? I know it’s done for small children with disabilities so they can learn piano, so I immagine that you could find a cheap and quick way to do it for chant.

 

[wsxyz]

Would it help you to have the repertoire on CD?
musique-liturgique.com/content/view/1/21/lang,en/

 

[TBolt1000T]

Would it help you to have the repertoire on CD?
musique-liturgique.com/content/view/1/21/lang,en/

That may be a good start. Thanks!

I think that the other poster is also right. I do need to learn the history and methodology behind it. I don’t understand how I can learn all this complicated polyphony, but I can’t learn a simple plainsong. Back when I used to sing in our OF choir, I even sang tenor on part of Brahms’s “Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz,” which is in my oppinion one of the most complicated sacred choral works ever written, and it was actually easier for me than learning chant. Could I just have a mental block when it comes to Gregorian chant?

 

[laszlo]

I am not blind, that I remember that when I was kid, we chanted in the choir without any notes or written text (there were only a few book and this was before the time of the photocopies) just listening to others.

I am Hungarian, so this was easier, because in the Hungarian just like in Latin each vowel (regardless of the position in the word) can be any length. I believe this is the key: the Gregorian has no metric, just the continuous flow of the chant.

I remember one practice. There was a child song like

The dog barks at the moon, because the moon does not barks at the dog.

We chanted it for each vowel:

Tha dag barks at tha man, bacasa tha man das nat barks at tha dag
The deg berks et the men, becese the men des net berks et the deg
Thi dig …

This was exercise, because in Hungarian each vowel may have different pitch value, and the exercise showed how to abstract from it. So can be with the length.

 

[TBolt1000T]

I am not blind, that I remember that when I was kid, we chanted in the choir without any notes or written text (there were only a few book and this was before the time of the photocopies) just listening to others.

I am Hungarian, so this was easier, because in the Hungarian just like in Latin each vowel (regardless of the position in the word) can be any length. I believe this is the key: the Gregorian has no metric, just the continuous flow of the chant.

I remember one practice. There was a child song like

The dog barks at the moon, because the moon does not barks at the dog.

We chanted it for each vowel:

Tha dag barks at tha man, bacasa tha man das nat barks at tha dag
The deg berks et the men, becese the men des net berks et the deg
Thi dig …

This was exercise, because in Hungarian each vowel may have different pitch value, and the exercise showed how to abstract from it. So can be with the length.

Great post! I think you may have just found the root of my problem. Getting the right sylables with the right notes was a huge problem when I tried to chant the Rossini propers a couple of years ago. In English chants like the St. Meinrad psalm tones, there’s never a time when the second sylable of a word like “covenant” is accented, because in spoken English, the first sylable of that word is always accented. However, this rule doesn’t seem to apply to Latin Gregorian chant. I’ve noticed that in Gregorian chant, the word “Dominus” can be sung like “Dóminus,” or “Domínus,” and either way seems to be correct. However, when I hear the word “Dominus” spoken by a priest in Latin, the first sylable is always accented. This confuses the heck out of me when I’m trying to learn a Gregorian chant, because there’s no telling which sylable will be accented from chant to chant.

 

[laszlo]

slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/grammar/g-accnt.html

this is the best page about the Latin accent. My thumb rule is that outside of the listed rules on the above page ‘e’ and ‘i’ is accented only if followed by two consonants, the rest of the vowels including the double vowels like ae oe on the second to last position are accented. This thumb rule leaves about 4 % of the words (2200 out of 60,000) exception. (I work on a program which automatically accentuates Latin text; need a dictionary for exceptions)

This accent is issue for the psalm tones, and similar tones. Otherwise as far as I know the Gregorian is not metrical, although there are other opinions too

 

[Eugenius]

Is there anything in particular about the Orbis Factor propers that you are having problems with? The Kyrie or Agnus Dei perhaps? We sing the Orbis Factor in Latin during our OF mass. Few of us are experienced enough to sight read the plain chant so our director works with us during rehearsal.

The rhythms remind me of jumping on a trampoline, you might start out with a regular beat, but soon you are soaring higher and higher with each jump. As you reach the highest point your ascent begins to slow down until you experience weightlessness for a split second before beginning the descent down, which accelerates as you near the low point. Feel and experience the music instead of making it an excercise in technical proficiency.

 

[wsxyz]

Is there anything in particular about the Orbis Factor propers that you are having problems with? The Kyrie or Agnus Dei perhaps? We sing the Orbis Factor in Latin during our OF mass. Few of us are experienced enough to sight read the plain chant so our director works with us during rehearsal.

Brief digression: You are referring to the ordinary of the Mass, not the propers.

 

[Dotted_Notes]

Hello,
Yes, it is possible for a blind person to master chant. We have just started a forum for Catholic braille-reading musicians at:
thecatholicchoirbook.com/cbmforum/
This forum is to share braille sacred music and discuss topics such as braille Gregorian chant notation, locating braille music, general problems, etc.