Amici,
With all the bad things occurring (and dar Crom, they're getting worse every day), one needs a little uplift, so here's mine, FWIW: Gregorian Chant.
First, this documentary is about "Chant Camp" at an FSSP parish in San Diego, St. Anne's. The
FSSP were invited in by the bishop previous to the current one, the
notorious Robert McElroy, known for his flagrant Progressivism – I'm
just glad he hasn't shut down the parish, St. Anne's, and surprised,
too. Though maybe Governor Gruesome has done that for McElroy. (They're
trying to let Covid do it for them; if you wish, you can go here: to read about the insane conditions under which Holy Mass is said there – insane, that is, for those who bother to find out the truth about the now endemic Covid, etc.)
In the video (made in 2014), the PP discusses chant:
Fr. Gismondi, FSSP:
Pope Pius X said there are three special qualities in sacred music.
First, there has to be a sanctity in the music.
And then there has to be a beauty of form in the music.
He says when both of these are present, then a third quality spontaneously arises, and that is universality.
An P again:
That, of course, is polar opposite to much modern Church thinking about music!
At nine minutes in; Mary Ann Carr Wilson (you can listen to her sing various classical pieces here) the parish choir director and a professional musician and singer of
note (see further below), talks about how the idea of Chant Camp came to
her a year after they started up the parish.
Excerpt: It not about one or two showcasing their voice. It's about a whole team. The kids, they're a team. They use their diverse strengths to praise God. There's a real team atmosphere to chant camp. I like to joke around that I'm the coach and I'm the cheerleader, and they're the team. And they're supporting each other and helping each other out. Some of the teens, for example, are really advanced in Gregorian chant, and they help/reinforce the others. One of the things I stress is this is a movement. I want you to be able to carry this forward. This is a an aural art. It doesn't happen unless they're trained how to teach other people. So it has this very evangelical aspect to it, that you're sharing it...You're going to be sharing that with other kids.(10:22) There are two things in the structure of chant that make it different from other types of music. One very notable thing is the concept of rhythm in Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant will focus on text.... The text, to a large extent, determines the rhythm, or it shapes the rhythm. And in fact what you find is it pulls back and forth between syllable groups of roughly two and three. So you'd have something like (she sings a Kyrie eleison line to demonstrate her point). What this means in shifting rhythm is that A, you're able to capture the text in a way you're not in a fixed rhythm or meter-driven (music). And B, the rhythm itself is not predictable. It's timeless, it's outside of time. And in fact, that's one of aims of Gregorian chant, to take you outside of time. So it's a wonderful way to be expressing what's happening in the Mass.
An Préachán:That's one of the reasons people are attracted to the TLM (Trad Latin Mass), is Otherworldly, verticality, its outside-of-time spirit. It fits very well with The Ancient One's insight to Dr. Strange: "You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current and use its power as your own." Gregorian is a beautiful river in the power of the Holy Ghost, that's for sure. You cannot beat its gift of grace into submission to melodies and the rhythm of the Metronome.Mary Ann Carr again:(13:39) At camp we talk about two-fold purpose to sacred music. Why they're doing what they're doing. Sacred music, the Gregorian chant, is for the glory of God. They're not for (she lists various things), but they're singing for God, and they know that. The second purpose of sacred music is for the sanctification and edification of the faithful. (A cute kid now explains how they're singing for God and Mary and Joseph and all the saints.) Chant camp would never happen without kids and teachers. We really want to make something beautiful for them, who really want to take the time to learn their Catholic heritage, and to give back to their parish.
An Préachán again: I can't recommend this video enough for uplift – hearing these little kids sing it, some of them quite young. And also this Mary Ann Carr Wilson is an amazing singer. Here's her website.
From the Blurb:
Maestro Uwe Lieflander, Director of the Sacred Music Society and Professor of Church Music at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry's Bay (Ontario) https://www.seatofwisdom.ca/about/, holds a rehearsal about the Chant: Resurrexi.... This is meant for raw beginners. He takes you through the art of chanting step by step in front of an amateur choir. This is the first of 4 parts about this particular chant, and the sheet music is provided on screen for you to follow.This is a very dry presentation, but it works. Already after part one, you will know, and will be able to sing, most of this introit for the Easter Sunday Mass.
Have a cup of tea, relax, and join us in this adventure. Take a chance!!!
An P:
One
of my daughters and I went through the first instruction video in a
short time. Excellently done and very informative, this video (and I'm
sure the other three) is a great introduction to Gregorian Chant. Once
you understand how its musical notation works, as explained here, it is
easy to follow.
Maestro Lieflander says in his introduction:
Chant started about 100 A.D. in Rome and grew out of the very Mediterranean climate which had lost of quarter tones in it, was based on quarter tones. And about 100 A.D. the first chants started popping up and they were now based one whole tones and half-tones, which was a brand-new thing at the time. And whole new building blocks of music, before we had zeros, ones, and twos, and now the language, so to say, like programming language, has zeros and ones, all tones and half-tones, and starts creating a whole new language with these two basic building blocks of it. And so it is really like getting a brand-new music for a brand-new Covenant that God was giving us. And so Gregorian chant really connects us with the essence of what it means to be a human being. It's so intricately woven into us, into our very DNA that chanting itself really brings us back to our roots and even further back to the living God. It is God's voice. And so it is very important for other human being than Catholics to start thinking about chant and maybe even try and literally "take a chance" with it – because it connects us with who we are very very truly deep down as human beings.
Meself again:
I
think this is an extremely significant comment about Gregorian chant
being so old. We know it pre-dates St. Gregory the Great (pope from
590-604), who merely codified it. The Traditional Latin Mass, the TLM,
also predates Gregory, hence the reticence to formally call it "The Rite
of St. Gregory the Great". We also know that Gregorian chant is
intimately tied up to the Latin language, extremely so, and that is why
various attempts by Vatican II cheerleaders to create an English
language (or French, or German) Gregorian chant has failed utterly.
(I've read a couple of essays from such over time, lamenting how
wrong-headed their efforts had been.)
Now,
since Vatican II, there's been a wide disparaging of the TLM, and one
of the angles of attack was to say that Greek had been the main
liturgical language of Rome until the time of Constantine (reigned
306-337), so changing from Latin to the vernaculars after Vatican II was
just a repeat of that earlier change. When Constantine the Great moved
the imperial capital from Italy (it had been a Milan for some time) to
his new city of Constantinople, most of the Greek speakers left Rome and
thus the Latin language could finally predominate in the old imperial
city. However, if Gregorian chant goes back to anywhere around
100 A.D., then obviously Latin was the liturgical language of that city
and its environs. (Latin and Greek are related, of course, as
Indo-European tongues, and the fact that over half of the Latin
vocabulary comes from Greek indicates how closely Latin and Greek
speakers interacted for centuries, but they are structured quite
differently, and from its unique sound and phoneme structure, it is
clear Latin has always been the basis of Gregorian chant.)
The
TLM itself definitely originated in Rome itself, and early on. The more
commonly used liturgy in the West was the Gallician rite (really, a
series of closely related rites), originally from Milan (a very
important city, remember) and it came before that, it is believed, from
Antioch. But the TLM gestated in the actual city of Rome, on other the
other hand, and was unique. Over time, it replaced the various Gallician
rite families, except for a couple cases, such as the Ambrosian rite in
Milan (where it still survives, although in the Vat2 mutilated form,
and the Mozarabic rite in a chapel in the cathedral of Toledo, Spain.
So,
in short, the Gregorian rite is indeed basic to one "Catholic heritage"
and woven into our Western Christian DNA. I think it significant, as
well, to realize that is based on the actual word of Holy Writ,
emanating from their form, rather than forcing the words to fit into a
tune or melody. How much more "Biblical" can one get than that?
At
this site, you can learn about a modern Catholic choir director and
musician who composes in Gregorian chant (and classic polyphonic sacred
music): Mark Emerson Donnelly.
I
had no idea such music was being composed today. (Indeed, I've only
recently learned of Morton Lauridsen, the famous choral composer, who
"has spent his lifetime in deep silence to the 'inner song' to bring
forth choral works of radiant beauty for the world to hear and sing".
(N.B. Morton Lauridsen is the only non-Catholic among these
composers/singers/teachers.
An Préachán
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