Last call for the Chant Weekend

We have a good number of people signed up for the Gregorian Chant Network Chant Weekend with Colin Mawby, but there are still places available. Please don't delay: book now!

The course runs from 8-10th April, that is Friday to Sunday.

It starts on Friday afternoon, with Mass at 5pm, followed by dinner at 6.30. You can register either before Mass or after Mass, if you can't make the earlier time. It ends with lunch on Sunday. Here is the application form.


This is a unique opportunity to be taught by Colin Mawby, the distinguished composer and former Director of Music at Westminster Cathedral, in the context of the Traditional Mass (EF). As well as sung Mass each day, there will also be Vespers, Compline and Benediction. The course runs alongside the St Catherine's Trust Family Retreat, so we will have an audience for our singing!

The full cost of £90 is discounted as low as £30 for groups from the same schola, so come along and bring your friends!

Two people from one choir: £60 each
Three or more people from one choir: £40
An additional £10 off for Latin Mass Society members.

Sound from the Portsmouth chant course

You can hear it here.

The Gregorian Chant Course continues at St John's Cathedral Portsmouth until June 2011. The next Workshop in the series takes place this Saturday 19 March, running from 1000 to 1600, when the participants will have the opportunity to put their skills into practice in the Cathedral at Vespers and Benediction.

If you have not previously registered it is not too late to do so, please contact me. Reductions are available for students, children and groups. Bursaries are also available on application. Please pass the word.

This Saturday's Workshop will include a continuation of the organ accompaniment practicum led by Neil Wright.

If you can play a melody instrument (strings, brass, woodwind etc.) you are invited to bring your instrument to this Workshop. Players of low-register instruments

(cellos, trombones, bassoons etc.) are especially welcome. Instrumentalists are requested to bring a music stand. Please contact me if you plan to bring an instrument.

Some pictures and recordings from the last Workshop are at our blog page - thanks to Liz Masebo for arranging. Do have a look, and especially a listen as it sounds very good:

http://gregorianchantportsmouth.wikispaces.com


Remaining Course dates are: 16 April and 11 June

The Choir of St Mary Magdalen's, Brighton

have got a new blog!

http://stmarymagdalenchoir.wordpress.com/

New Chant initiative at Maryvale

An interesting snippet from the Catholic Herald, about the Birmingham Oratory. The Maryvale Institute is, of course, located in Birmingham.

“It also announced that Fr Anton Guziel would become parish priest, replacing Fr Guy Nicholls, who has been in the post for 10 years.

The statement said that Fr Nicholls would be setting up a school for liturgical music in partnership with the Maryvale Institute.

Fr Richard Duffield, provost at the Oratory, said its focus initially would be to teach Gregorian chant to clergy who want to set up choirs in their parishes. He said it aimed to “implement the Holy Father’s desire to have more plainchant and Latin in the liturgy”.”

Catholic Herald, 11 Feb 2011

Report on Portsmouth Chant Days

(Chris Hodkinson leading a Chant workshop in Portsmouth Cathedral).

More than 100 different people have attended one of the current series of Chant Workshops organised at St John’s Cathedral in Portsmouth by the Schola Gregoriana Sancti Nicolai (chant choir in Portsmouth). The Workshops are part of a pioneering Course in Gregorian Chant which continues at the Cathedral until June 2011.

(Chris and Abbot Cuthbert Brogan with the singers.)

Each Workshop introduces a new theme. At the January Workshop, Abbot Cuthbert Brogan, the Benedictine Abbot of St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough - who co-directs the Course with Christopher Hodkinson of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge - gave a fascinating introduction to the Divine Office (the daily prayer of the Church) and Vespers. This was followed by practical instruction in singing Vespers which the participants then sang together with Benediction in the Cathedral.

Up until now, participants have learned to sing the Chant without any accompaniment. At the next workshop on Saturday 19 February we will welcome the organist Neil Wright, who will introduce us to the organ and its use in conjunction with Gregorian chant. There will also be an opportunity for a small group of participants with keyboard skills to study chant accompaniment with Neil in more detail, beginning at this workshop and continuing in March (please contact me if you are interested).

(Some of the singers.)

The March workshop, on 19^th, will see a further exploration of the use of instruments in plainchant performance, as we celebrate the feast of St Joseph. Players of melody instruments (strings, brass, woodwind etc.) are invited to bring their instruments to both February and March workshops to participate in this. Players of low-register instruments (cellos, trombones, bassoons etc.) are especially welcome. Instrumentalists are requested to bring a music stand. (Please contact me if you plan to bring an instrument or if you have any questions).

Every effort has been made to keep the Course fee as low as possible. For those who haven’t yet signed up, the individual Workshop fee is £15 and the course book (Parish Book of Chant) is available at discounted price of £10. Reductions on the Workshop fee are available for students, children and groups. Bursaries are also available on application.

(Abbot Cuthbert presiding at Vespers in a cope.)

Please contact the organisers, the Schola Gregoriana Sancti Nicolai, as soon as possible, as follows:

E-mail: chantnetwork@gmail.com or Telephone: 023 92862384

Next Workshop is on Saturday 19 February, starts 1000.

Remaining Course dates are: 19 February, 19 March, 16 April and 11 June

There are a couple more photos here.

Proportionalism in the Chant

A fascinating article based on numerous historical sources on rythm in the chant, by Alasdair Cordona of Salmaire, Gregorian Chant Study and Performance Group (Edinburgh), can be read here.

Only rarely do we read hints that chant may have been rhythmically differentiated, and only in two instances are there remarks about the choir singing in strict proportional rhythms. Sometimes silence may speak volumes, but an argumentum ex silentio is weak for all that.
Gregorian chant (2009), David Hiley, p185

Is it true that only rare hints and an argumentum ex silencio support the use of proportional durations in Latin chant? Or is it rather the case that there are only rare (and condemnatory) descriptions of rhythmic nuancing and an argumentum ex silencio supporting that instead?

Gregorian Chant Network: new logo

We are pleased to announce our new logo.
It was designed for us by Daniel Mitsui, a Chicago-based artist, of the Lion and the Cardinal blog.

Schola Gregoriana Spring Weekend

Associates’ Spring Weekend, Holy Cross Priory, Leicester

11-13th March 2011

March 11-13, Holy Cross Dominican Priory, Leicester hosts a programme of Gregorian and Dominican chant and worship with beginners’ and more advanced classes preparing Vespers, Compline and for Mass in Ordinary and Extra-ordinary forms. For details go to www.scholagregoriana.org 'events' or ’phone a local organiser (01509 852259 or 0116 2856158).

More details.

Booking form.

St Bede the Musician

From an email.

I am writing to you in my capacity of the Chair of the Friends of Bede's World, a museum in Jarrow which celebrates the life and times of Bede. Amongst other things, we arrange public lunchtime lectures on the last Saturday of the winter months. In our wisdom (or foolishness) we decided to theme this year's lectures under the banner of "Bede the Musician"

I'd like to invite the North East Early Music Forum to attend the lectures. They are free of charge, once you are in the museum (entry to the museum costs £5.50 for an adult, with concessions for the unwaged and families. Of course, you could become a Friend of the museum, paying a single £15.00 per adult which gives you free entry to the museum for a year), and I think we have an exciting programme:

January 29th, we have Gordon Jackson speaking under the title "Chad and the Angels": Gordon is a poet who has translated most of Bede's Latin hymns into English

March 26th, we have John Rowlands-Pritchard speaking under the title of Bede and Monastic and Roman chant. John is also running a workshop on Gregorian Chant, for which there will be a cost

On April 1st the Durham Singers are holding a concert in St, Paul's Church, Jarrow, including some modern choral settings of Bede's texts

April 30th, we have Katherine Barker speaking under the title "Aldhelm of Malmesbury, poet and composer: setting the scene for Bede's World of Music". Katherine has recently supervised a recreation of Aldhelm's "Carmina"

And on October 29th, we have Carl Phelpstead of Cardiff University: no title as yet, but he's promised something on secular music of the period

Thank you for taking the time to read this email

Further information on the website:
http://www.bedesworld.co.uk/friends-of-bedesworld.htm

Yours faithfully
D. Richard Walsh

Chair
Friends of Bede's World


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Portsmouth Chant Course reminder

Gregorian Chant WorkshopS 2011

St John's Cathedral Portsmouth

Beginners and advanced students

Led by two experts in the Chant:

Abbot Cuthbert Brogan OSB, Abbot of St Michael’s Abbey and

Christopher Hodkinson, director of Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge

Workshops begin at 10am and conclude with service at 4pm

15 January, 19 February, 19 March, 16 April, 11 June

Fee £15 per Workshop + one-off Course Book fee £10

Reductions for students, groups, bursaries available, apply below.

To register: chantnetwork@gmail.com or Tel: 023 92862384

In association with

The Gregorian Chant Network, the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge and the Latin Mass Society

Beginners' Course in Solesmes

Just had this by email; it sounds very exciting.

Beginners Chant Course at Solesmes, February 2011

Participants will travel by rail and stay in the abbey or in nearby accomodation. They will attend the Divine Office with the monks and receive instruction from Dom Yves-Marie Lelièvre, choirmaster of Solesmes.

Dates: Thursday 3rd - Sunday 6th February 2011

Approximate cost: £300


For more details contact Candy Bartoldus (asap); email:

cbartold@gmu.edu or phone: 0754 010 8204

Pope Receives 'Pueri Cantores'

From the Vatican News Service's Blog:

VATICAN CITY, 30 DEC 2010 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received participants in an international congress of the International Federation of "Pueri Cantores", currently being held in Rome.

The Pope addressed the group in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Polish and Ukrainian. "As you use your talents and your faith to sing God's praises, you give voice to the natural desire of every human being to glorify Him, with songs of love", he said. "Yet beautiful music is able to express something of the mystery of God's love for us and ours for Him, as we are reminded by the theme chosen for your Congress: 'Deus Caritas Est'".

"Always remember that your singing is a service. Firstly, it is a service to God, a way of giving Him the praise that is due. It is also a service to your fellow worshippers, helping them to raise their hearts and minds to the Lord in prayer. And it is a service to the whole Church, offering a foretaste of the heavenly liturgy that is the goal of all true worship, when the choirs of angels and saints unite in one unending song of love and praise".
AC/ VIS 20101230 (210)

Chant CD now back up on LMS site

With the move to a new site, the Latin Mass Society temporarily lost the excellent selection of chants done by John Tennant. These are now uploaded onto the new site on a special page of their own: Chant Dowloads.

This is one of the most useful selections of chants available: it includes the Asperges and Vidi Aquam, Masses I, II, IV, XI, XVII and XVIII, the Ordinary of the Requiem, Credo I and Credo IV, all four Marian Anthems in both Simple and Solemn tones, a selection of commonly-sung chants from the back of the Liber Usualis and the Domine salvam fac - the prayer for the Queen sung at the end of Sunday Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Some of these, like the Domine salvam fac and Solemn tones of the Marian Anthems, simply aren't available on other chant selection CDs.

John Tennant, who sings regularly at St Bede's, Clapham Park, is very clear in his singing and is unaccompanied.

All for free! In MP3 format.

Chants for priests

'Windsor Latin Mass' has on their website some very nicely produced sheets with Collects, Epistles, Gospels, Postcommunions etc. set out in full to square notes for the priest to use.

An excellent initiative!

See here.


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Thought for the week

"Even though, as one can see, there are long and short notes in Gregorian Chant, as in all speech, it is not on this object that we should focus our attention. Who dreams of scanning his words while speaking? It is sufficient that one takes care to pronounce them well and distribute them well according to the natural divisions of the phrase."

Dom Pothier, architect of the Solesmes revival of Gregorian Chant, 1880.


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