Your favorite Gregorian Chant(s)

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Tepeyac said:
Vexilla Regis (hymn for Holy Week for the Liturgy of the Hours and Holy Thursday
at Mass)
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One of my all time favorites as well.
Victorious said:
Re chant in the vernacular: how did chant in French work out, overall? Chant may work in some vernacular languages (I hear it works very well in Polish) but I agree with the earlier poster who said it doesn’t work with English. There may be a very few chants in English that are good (though none spring to mind at the moment), but English and chant are just a very poor fit.
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It works out pretty good for things like the Eucharistic Prayer; also for chanted readings, and most of the dialog.

Where it is more problematic, is for psalmody on Gregorian tones.
 
IMO the most beautiful chants include those for the proper of the Mass, which have hardly come into the picture in this thread except for the mention of those from the Requiem Mass. This is understandable, since they were hardly ever used in parishes even in the “old days.” However, many of them can be heard in a variety of recordings of which the best known are by the monks of Solesmes. It is such a rich and varied treasure trove, including dozens if not hundreds of introits, graduals, alleluias, tracts,and offertories (the communions tend to be less elaborate), that it would be difficult to imagine having a single favorite, though one could start with the Mass for any of the highest feasts which are easiest to find.
 
jbuck919 said:
IMO the most beautiful chants include those for the proper of the Mass, which have hardly come into the picture in this thread except for the mention of those from the Requiem Mass. This is understandable, since they were hardly ever used in parishes even in the “old days.” However, many of them can be heard in a variety of recordings of which the best known are by the monks of Solesmes. It is such a rich and varied treasure trove, including dozens if not hundreds of introits, graduals, alleluias, tracts,and offertories (the communions tend to be less elaborate), that it would be difficult to imagine having a single favorite, though one could start with the Mass for any of the highest feasts which are easiest to find.
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I can understand why the sung propers weren’t used all the time. We’re going to have a Gregorian chant workshop next month with sung High Mass. I’ve seen the score to some of the propers. It looks like a swarm of ants! Should be beautiful, though.
 
jbuck919 said:
IMO the most beautiful chants include those for the proper of the Mass, which have hardly come into the picture in this thread except for the mention of those from the Requiem Mass.
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Most of the chants I named in my posts on this thread are propers of the Mass, including the two examples I gave above of chant in English: Viri Galilei, Puer Natus est Nobis, Assumpta Es Maria In Caelum, Alleluia Assumpta Es Maria, Laetatus Sum, Offertory for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time and Alleluia for the Nuptial Mass (Ordinary Form). I’d also like to mention Alleluia Pascha Nostrum (alleluia chant for Easter), one of my all time favorites.

One inexpensive way to become familiar with the propers of the Mass, is to go to this page: All Masses of the Liturgical Year and every week listen to the propers for that week’s Sunday. Most of the audio clips are paired with matching scores but one can also go to this page: Gregorian Missal Online, download the pdf file, print it out, and follow along in the Gregorian Missal (this books can also be ordered in hardcover elsewhere). The audio recordings were recorded live at a monastery so they’re not as good as studio recordings but they’re sung by real monks at Mass and they give a good feel of how Gregorian Chant can be sung.

Another place to find audio and scores for a Sunday’s Mass is at JoguesChant.org .

By listening to the clips and following along with the scores on the clips page or the Gregorian Missal one can become really familiar with chant and with the way chant notation works.
 
OraLabora said:
Kyrie cum iubilo (Kyrie IX) for solemnities and feasts of the BVM.

Indeed very beautiful. I sang it at Mass for the Assumption.
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I bet it was beautiful to hear. For some reason recordings just never seem to quite do the chants justice verses hearing and experiencing them sung live.

I was wondering if you could tellme if these are Gregorian Chants. If they are not do you mind explainin for me the difference between them an the Gregorian Chants?

youtube.com/watch?v=xFzgfCzfSQg&NR=1
youtube.com/watch?v=sRbRtFbJXNk
youtube.com/watch?v=srr_uPB0esI&feature=related
 
simple_soul said:
I bet it was beautiful to hear. For some reason recordings just never seem to quite do the chants justice verses hearing and experiencing them sung live.

I was wondering if you could tellme if these are Gregorian Chants. If they are not do you mind explainin for me the difference between them an the Gregorian Chants?

youtube.com/watch?v=xFzgfCzfSQg&NR=1
youtube.com/watch?v=sRbRtFbJXNk
youtube.com/watch?v=srr_uPB0esI&feature=related
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Old Roman chant, which pre-dates Gregorian by about 4 or 5 centuries. The liturgical texts are the same, the chant, similar but different. It contains Byzantine elements (the faux-bourdon for example).

Gregorian comes from about the 8th to the 10th or 11th century, that is around the Carolingian era.

We know very little about Old Roman chant, much of it is conjecture and piecing together a puzzle.
 
OraLabora said:
Old Roman chant, which pre-dates Gregorian by about 4 or 5 centuries. The liturgical texts are the same, the chant, similar but different. It contains Byzantine elements (the faux-bourdon for example).

Gregorian comes from about the 8th to the 10th or 11th century, that is around the Carolingian era.

We know very little about Old Roman chant, much of it is conjecture and piecing together a puzzle.
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*Thank you for clarifying this.
When I was younger I remember a group that my family was associated with that sung these chants in this style. For some reason I always thought they were the Gregorian Chants. (I believe it might be because the group were strong adherents of the Tridentien Mass.) But now that you explained the difference, I also remember that they were very much into Medieval Music as well. (I guess, maybe, I am just a medieval girl at heart.:D)
Thank you for the brief history lesson. *
 
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