1-2nd Dec: Chant workshop in Little Malvern

Chant Workshop at St Wulstan’s, Little Malvern (click for a map) to be organised by Iain Simcock of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge. Concludes with Mass on the Sunday in the Ordinary Form. Led by Iain Simcock of the Schola Gregoriana.

 Details are available at http://www.scholagregoriana.org/events/.

Ealing Abbey Chant training weekend 17-18th Nov

Gregorian Chant Workshop on performance of chant for the Mass 

17-18 November 2018, 11am to 5pm 

at Ealing Abbey, Charlbury Grove, London  W5 2DY 

organised by Ealing Abbey Lay Plainchant Choir  www.ealpc.org

Led by Philip Duffy, formerly Master of the Music at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

All with at least basic experience of singing plainchant or choral music welcome.  

Advance booking required – cost £30.  

Enquiries to Patrick and Annie Martin, tel 020 8991 1081. 

E-mail: parotema@gmail.com

Schola Gregoriana training evening in St James' Spanish Place: dates for the Autumn

Schola Gregoriana

Gregorian Chant Instruction

Directed by Dr. Peter Wilton, B.Ed (Hons.)  M.Mus

(Editor of chant for the Office of Vespers for Westminster Cathedral Choir)

Discover the profound beauty and infinite variety of this timeless music by learning to sing it.

From 6.30 (after end of Mass) to 8 pm.    Mondays  24th September,

29th October and 26th November 2018.  Advent party at 26 The Grove,

Ealing, London  W5 5LH  at 7 pm on Monday 17th December.

At  St. James’s,  Spanish Place,    George Street,  London,  W1

(nearest tube station:  Bond Street)

Study will include square notation, pre-stave neumes, interpretation, music for the Mass, daily offices, music for special occasions, psalmody and texts in different languages.

Anyone able to sing in tune is welcome, with or without chant experience.

Cost:  £5 per evening

Enquiries to Mr. Grey Macartney,  26 The Grove, Ealing, W5 5LH

Tel:  020 8840 5832            E-mails:  grey.macartney@gmail.com

Schola Gregoriana chant training in London

Schola Gregoriana

Gregorian Chant Instruction

Directed by Dr. Peter Wilton, B.Ed (Hons.)  M.Mus

(Editor of chant for the Office of Vespers for Westminster Cathedral Choir)

Discover the profound beauty and infinite variety of this timeless music by learning to sing it.

From 6.30 (after end of Mass) to 8 pm.    Mondays  23rd April,

21st May, 4th and 18th June and 2nd July  2018

At  St. James’s,  Spanish Place,    George Street,  London,  W1

(nearest tube station:  Bond Street)

Study will include square notation, pre-stave neumes, interpretation, music for the Mass, daily offices, music for special occasions, psalmody and texts in different languages.

Anyone able to sing in tune is welcome, with or without chant experience.

Cost:  £5 per evening

Enquiries to Mr. Grey Macartney,  26 The Grove, Ealing, W5 5LH

Tel:  020 8840 5832            E-mails:  grey.macartney@gmail.com

Successful Chant Training Weekend

This year's Chant Weekend was led by Chris Hodkinson of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, and Matthew Ward of Mayfield School. It is sponsored by the Latin Mass Society.



Some of the more experienced singers were able to practice conducting, and took it in turns to conduct in the final Mass of the weekend.

GCN Chant weekend 2018 update

The Gregorian Chant Network's annual Chant Training Weekend will take place in the Oratory School, near Reading, 6-8th April.

There is a change of tutors to announce: sadly Fr Guy Nichols, who was one of the two tutors last year, can't make it. Instead we will be joined by Matthew Ward, who is Director of Music at Mayfield School.

Full details of the course, and booking, is here.

Belgium chant festical, 9-13th May

Discover the program and the brand new website of the International Gregorian Festival of Watou 2018 (Belgium) Dear, Four hundred fresh, young and for the greater part professionally trained voices revive centuries-old music and texts grandiosely during the International Gregorian Festival of Watou, Belgium. It is going to be a sparkling and universal event in which 27 scholas and top ensembles from every corner in the world, from Columbia to Australia will take part. Vocal virtuosity is trumps. A large number of participating scholas are professional or semi-professional , which stands for the highest quality level and renewed radiation. Five youth choirs will create an atmosphere of admiration and tenderness. The Gregorian Festival, organized every three years, evolved in the course of the years to the most important festival in the world for this kind of music. It enjoys an international reputation, and is a unique event. The central program takes place at Watou, from Wednesday 9 tot Sunday 13 May 2018. The pre-ouvertures at Houtkerque (France), Grimbergen, Poperinge, Koksijde, Antwerp, Brussels, Dunkirk (France), Wervik and Haringhe provide a substantial foretaste from Friday 4th May onwards. Encounter, heartiness and an atmosphere of happiness and friendship form a harmonious unity during this ten day long festival, together with the heavenly voices, the musicality and the breathtaking mysticism, so typical of Gregorian chant. With a lot of pride and enthusiasm, we are delighted to show you our completely redesigned website: www.festivalwatou.be. We opted for a contemporary design (available in three languages), where all information about the Festival can be found. Click to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Best regards. Bernard Deheegher

Festival Watou www.festivalwatou.be Facebook

GCN Chant Weekend 2018

The Chant Weekend will take place this year from Friday 6th to Sunday 8th April, at the Oratory School near Reading (click for a map)

Led by Christopher Hodkinson and Fr Guy Nicholls Cong. Orat.

The Chant weekend, which returned to the Oratory School in 2017 after a break, was a great success with increased numbers. There is plenty of room in the Oratory School, the prices have been frozen, so we can continue to grow!

Book online here.

Registration 4 to 4.45pm on Friday; late Registrations 7-7.30pm

The Course ends with Sung Mass at 11.30am followed by lunch on Sunday.

Prices:
LMS members: £10 discount
£195 per person
£120 each for 2 people from the same choir or schola
£90 each for 3 or more people from the same choir or schola

Scholas must be registered with the Gregorian Chant Network: there's no fee for this, just email info@lms.org.uk for an application form.

Book online here.

Schola Gregoriana training in St James' Spanish Place, London

Schola Gregoriana

Gregorian Chant Instruction

Directed by Dr. Peter Wilton, B.Ed (Hons.)  M.Mus

(Editor of chant for the Office of Vespers for Westminster Cathedral Choir)

Discover the profound beauty and infinite variety of this timeless music by learning to sing it.

From 6.30 (after end of Mass) to 8 pm.    Mondays  15th  and

29th January,  12th and 26th  February, and 12th and 25th March

2018

At  St. James’s,  Spanish Place,    George Street,  London,  W1

(nearest tube station:  Bond Street)

Early Polyphony Study Day in Oxford, 20th Jan

PMMS Study Day
Polyphonic Music of the Late Middle Ages from England and the Continent. Sources, Context and Court Culture

Magdalen College, Oxford - Saturday, 20th January 2018

The 2018 PMMS study day accompanies the exhibition “Fragments of note: the afterlives of medieval manuscripts” at Magdalen College, Oxford, which examines the numerous medieval manuscript fragments held at Magdalen, largely medieval books that have been dismantled in the early modern period and re-used as binding waste or covers. The main exhibition focuses on fragments featuring musical notation and is complemented by a selection of contemporary watercolour, collage, and paper-pulp relief works by fine artist Janet Boulton.

Schola Gregoriana Gregorian Chant Instruction, London

New dates: up to November

Directed by Dr. Peter Wilton, B.Ed (Hons.)  M.Mus

(Editor of chant for the Office of Vespers for Westminster Cathedral Choir)

Discover the profound beauty and infinite variety of this timeless music by learning to sing it.

From 6.30 (after end of Mass) to 8 pm, Mondays 25th September, 9th, 23rd October, 13th and 27th November

At  St. James’s Spanish Place, George Street,  London,  W1U 3QY

(nearest tube station:  Bond Street; click here for a map)

18th December 7 pm:  Party at 26 The Grove, Ealing, W5 5LH

Study will include square notation, pre-stave neumes, interpretation, music for the Mass, daily offices, music for special occasions, psalmody and texts in different languages.

Anyone able to sing in tune is welcome, with or without chant experience.

Cost:  £5 per evening

Enquiries to Mr. Grey Macartney,  26 The Grove, Ealing, W5 5LH

Tel:  020 8840 5832            E-mails:  grey.macartney@gmail.com

Chant Course in Oxford, 11-13 August

SING GREGORIAN CHANT in the Liturgy SCHOLA GREGORIANA

Friday 11th - Sunday 13th August 2017

A weekend of enchanting melody and traditional liturgy in the beautiful surroundings of St.Stephen’s House, Oxford, to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the Founder of the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, Dr. Mary Berry (1917-2008), and to explore her legacy

Directors: Christopher Hodkinson, Philip Duffy and Fr. Guy Nicholls

The programme includes:

Study of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary and celebration of all eight hours of the Office

New book: Gradual, by Berkely and Scotland

From the Moretus Gradual, 1598

I've just purchased a read an intriguing, short book on the restoration of rare, late-16th century printed Gradual: a collection of chants for the Church's liturgical year. The Gradual in question was beautifully printed in the Spanish Netherlands, using hand-copied monastic chant books as its sources.

The chant notation (shown, left) looks very like that used in the editions most singers use today, though it used five staves and lacks some of the specialised note-shapes (singers will note that there don't seem to be any quilismas or liquescents). Again, it (obviously) doesn't include the editorial marks added by the monks of Solesmes to most modern editions.

Although the melodies are somewhat different from the ones used today, which have been restored by reference to the oldest available manuscripts, they are quite different from the simplified and clunkily-printed chant used immediately before the Solesmes-influenced 1907 Graduale Romanum, upon which later editions have been based, exemplified by the 1870 Pustet edition shown below.

Chant Weekend 2017

At last's year's course, Colin Mawby discussing organ accompanyment.

Gregorian Chant Network Chant Training Weekend:

Led by Christopher Hodkinson and Fr Guy Nichols Cong. Orat.

Friday 31st March to Sunday 2nd April 2017, The Oratory School, nr. Reading, RG8 0PJ

Registration from 4 to 4.45pm; late Registrations 7-7.30

Course ends with lunch on Sunday. 

An intensive chant course running alongside the Catherine's Trust Family Retreat (led this year by Fr Serafino Lanzetta). Singers will be prepared to participate in the liturgies of the Retreat, including Mass Ordinaries and Propers, Chants for Benediction and the Office, as well as discussing chant interpretation and history. All liturgies are according to the usus antiquior (the Traditional Mass). With two chant tutors, the group can be split for some purposes into more and less experienced, so everyone can get the most out of it.

Large discounts available for groups coming from choirs and scholas affiliated to the Gregorian Chant Network: see overleaf.

Fees

LMS members: £10 discount

£195 per person

£120 each for 2 people from the same choir or schola

£90 each for 3 or more people from the same choir or schola

   

Download an application form or book online: www.stcatherinestrust.org

Outside procession at last year's Family Retreat and Chant Course.

Support the work of the LMS by becoming an 'Anniversary Supporter'.

Does anyone want a harmonium?

A (more or less) working harmonium is Holy Trinity Church, Hethe, Oxfordshire is available for anyone who wants it. (Contact details here.)

Contact the parish to see it or collect it.

Holy Trinity is a lovely church, which thanks to an enterprising former Parish Priest has a very interesting 18th century chamber organ (in need of some restoration). For some reason it also has this harmonium, which takes up a good deal of space in the tiny choir loft.

Someone: give it a home!