ALL Chant Course at Buckfast in August

Active Involvement in the Chant!  Sing from the Graduale Parvum at the Association for Latin Liturgy’s two-day summer school at Buckfast Abbey this summer:

Monday 17 – Tuesday 18 August 2015

The Association’s meeting for 2015 marks a completely new departure: a short summer school over two days, at the School of the Annunciation, Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0EE. Website: schooloftheannunciation.com. The summer school will run from lunchtime on Monday 17 August to lunchtime on Tuesday 18, and the cost, including one night’s accommodation at the School’s residential centre, breakfast, and the use of the School’s facilities will be £80 per person. For non-residents, the charge is £20. The cost of two lunches and one supper in the Abbey restaurant will be additional to this, costing in the region of £10-£15 for lunch and from £15-£25 for supper, depending on which options guests choose.

The accommodation in the Abbey is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and we cannot promise to be able to secure accommodation at the Abbey for late applicants, but there is accommodation available at a variety of places in the Buckfast area. Speedy booking is advised! [Please note that if a booking is later cancelled, we will only be able to give a refund if the place can be filled by someone else.]

If you would like to extend your stay at the Abbey, or to take in the summer school as part of a holiday in the West Country, contact the School of the Annunciation direct to book a further stay. Alternatively, there are several bed and breakfast establishments in the immediate vicinity. 

Directions to Buckfast Abbey can be found by following the link on the School’s website. If driving, the postcode for satnavs is TQ11 0EE. There is a regular bus service to the Abbey from Totnes: see www.cartogold.co.uk/devon_transport/devon. It is also possible to reach Buckfastleigh by steam train, changing from the main line at Totnes. See: www.southdevonrailway.co.uk/timetable

The summer school will focus on active involvement in chant, using chants from the work in progress on the Graduale Parvum, less-florid chants based closely on the Graduale Romanum, currently the ALL’s flagship project, and on an investigation of the ‘untranslatable’ elements of the Latin Missal. The chant workshops will be led by Fr Guy Nicholls, and will culminate in participation in the sung Mass on the Tuesday, while the theme for the translation workshop will be: “Hidden Treasures: what no translation can ever tell us.” In these sessions, led by Mgr Bruce Harbert, we will investigate elements in the original Latin which cannot be carried over into the vernacular. Participants should bring with them a copy of the Ordo Missae (Ordinary Form) in Latin and English. If these are not readily to hand, copies are usually available for purchase in the Abbey’s excellent bookshop. The music for the chant workshops will be provided, and is included in the fee.

Please send, by 1^st July at the latest, a cheque for £80 (residential) or £20 (non-residential) payable to Association for Latin Liturgy, to The Treasurer, ALL, 47 Western Park Road, Leicester, LE3 6HQ. Please give a postal and an email address. Please check first to see if accommodation is still available, by email to Christopher.Francis@latin-liturgy.org.