SEAS Gregorian Chant Schola

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SACRED MUSIC RESOURCE LIST

 

 

EVENTS

 

Sacred Music Colloquium - June 16-22, 2008, Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois Gregorian Chant has been called the most beautiful music this side of Heaven. But as Pope Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council have emphasized, it is also integral to Catholic liturgical life and should be heard and experienced with wide participation in every parish. The Church Music Association of America is working to bring about this ideal with its Sacred Music Colloquium.

www.musicasacra.com/colloquium

 

Ward Method I Music Instruction Workshop – June 9-20, 2008.  University of Northern Colorado in Greely, CO (3 credits) Originally designed for Catholic teachers with no music background, it is easily used in the classroom, music school setting or for church music directors to train their choirs.  Correct vocal production is taught through intonation exercises designed to perfect sight-reading skills.  Analytical skills are emphasized through class participation of identifying correct pitch, timbre, rhythmic accuracy and melodic and rhythmic dictation.  Appropriate for adults who are interested in learning to read music from the staff and sing with correct tone. Call 1-800-232-1749 to register.

 

CMAA Chant Intensive, with Scott Turkington - June 9-13, 2008, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois.   For a full week prior to the Colloquium, you can study Gregorian chant with him in this program. His classes are famously engaging, with the teacher assisting students of all ages making a contribution.  It is called an intensive because it permits students to live and breath the art of chant like no other program. You will study the basics, yes, but move into into a detailed exploration of the wonderful world of modes, interpretation of neumes, rhythm, and the style required by chant. It also covers conducting (chironomy). The music is the nothing less than the full Gregorian propers, ordinary chants, chant hymns, Psalm singing, and also the history and performance aspects of this music.

http://www.musicasacra.com/intensive/

 

BLOGS

 

Bonfire of the Vanities - Fr. Martin has started to introduce chant and Latin to his parish and blogs about it occasionally.

http://frmartinfox.blogspot.com/

 

The Recovering Choir Director - Occasionally publishes the music program for his parish.

http://www.cantemusdomino.net/

 

Sacred Music for the New Millenium - Discovering Gregorian Chant and more.

http://catholicsacredmusic.com/

 

St. Cecilia Schola Cantorum - The mission of the St. Cecilia Schola in Auburn, AL is to assist other parish choirs in participating in the revival of this tradition.

http://ceciliaschola.org/

 

 

 

The New Liturgical Movement - Has lots of current news and historical information on the liturgy and sacred music.

http://www.thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/

 

Musica Sacra - Blog of the Church Music Association of America

http://www.musicasacra.com/forum/

Musical Musings - The articles in our "Musical Musings" section contain solid information on topics of interest to Catholic church musicians. The themes are varied and include fundamental theoretical knowledge as well as practical and immediately useful ideas. Articles are updated seasonally at the very least, so check back often for fresh "Musings!"   http://www.canticanova.com/art_main.htm

DOCUMENTS

 

Catholic Liturgical Library This site is dedicated to providing accurate historical and current information about the liturgies of the Latin (Roman) rite of the Catholic Church. Currently this includes the missal of 1970 (Novus Ordo) and the missal of 1962 (Tridentine).

http://www.catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentSubCategories/Index/2/SubIndex /17

 

Adoremus - Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy  - church documents page

http://www.adoremus.org/ChurchDocs.html

 

LINKS

 

Church Music Association of America.  Find reference books, hymnals, teaching aids, advice and blogs regarding the implementation and use of Gregorian chant, classical polyphony and sacred choral works.

www.musicasacra.com

 

Adoremus - Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy  The mission of Adoremus is to rediscover and restore the beauty, the holiness, the power of the Church's rich liturgical tradition while remaining faithful to an organic, living process of renewal.  Find a comprehensive catalogue of church documents on music and liturgy and related articles.

www.adoremus.org

 

Guide to Square Notes

http://ceciliaschola.org/pdf/squarenotes.pdf

 

Groove Like the Early Christians - An idea to generate chant interest in a parish

http://www.ceciliaschola.org/pdf/gregorianchant.pdf

 

CanticaNova - A source of quality music for liturgy. Provides music planning for liturgies for all the Sundays of the year.

http://www.canticanova.com/

 

Choral Public Domain Library - Begun in December 1998, CPDL is one of the world's largest free sheet music sites for choral and chant scores.  You can use CPDL to find thousands of scores, texts, translations, and information about composers.

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

 

 

Gregorian Chant Tutorial - This site provides background and history of Gregorian chant, directions for reading chant, and descriptions of performance methodology.

http://www.geocities.com/shusem81/chantmain

 

Liturgica - History and development of liturgy and music is explored on this site. Books and music on the subject are available.

http://www.liturgica.com/html/lit.jsp

 

CIPOO – Public Domain Choral Music – Free Choral and Piano-Voice(s) Music Sheet MIDI MP3 Files http://www.cipoo.net/music_mz.html

Liturgy of the Hours Apostolate - This website offers daily Liturgy of the Hours Night Prayer in various languages. The prayers are offered in Adobe Acrobat formats that print as booklets, display on PCs and mobile devices, and 'Read Out Loud' on PCs. http://www.liturgyhours.org/

Twelve Latin Chants Every Catholic Should Know - http://www.canticanova.com/articles/hymns/art2e1.htm

St. John Cantius Parish stands as a unique parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago. It offers the Novus Ordo Mass in both Latin and the vernacular, as well as the Tridentine Mass. Its imposing historic church, solemn liturgies, devotions, treasures of sacred art, and rich program of sacred music have helped many Catholics rediscover a profound sense of the sacred. In addition, throughout the year, St. John Cantius offers a diverse selection of presentations and classes in Latin, Greek, church heritage, catechetics, and Catholic culture. St. John Cantius Church is also the home of the Society of St. John Cantius, a new religious community of men dedicated to the Restoration of the Sacred.  http://www.cantius.org/HomePage.htm

BOOKS AND HYMNALS

Gregorian Chant Handbook – The fundamentals of reading and interpreting Gregorian chant for the person with no prior experience; a “handbook” for anyone who desires to acquire a practical, working understaind of chant notation, rhythm, modes, liturgical use (past and present), interpretation, and conducting, as well as Latin pronunciation. In English with Latin examples.

Liber Hymnarius - Contains the hymns of the Divine Office for the seasons and solemnities. The great corpus of chant office hymns under one cover. Includes a ribbon bookmark.  This 1983 “hymn book” has all the Office hymns, which are now identical for the Roman and the Benedictine office. The melodies are restored to their original form, as are the texts, as called for by the Second Vatican Council.

Chant Made Simple - The purity and simplicity of Gregorian chant is what fed the musical and liturgical life of Christianity for more than a millennium before there were any Protestants. But after the reforms of the Vatican II Council in the 1960s, chant went into disuse.  New for the second edition of this classic work are: an entirely new interior design that is easier to navigate and read, many additional chants, historical and spiritual introductions to each of them, and a complete CD of recordings to illustrate the best of Gregorian chant.

 

An Overview of Gregorian Chant - The modern liturgical movement owes a great debt to Abbey of Solesmes monk Dom Eugène Cardine (1905-1988), whose tireless research in the ancient manuscripts uncovered the elusice secrets of Gregorian Rhythm, thus revealing some of the original pristine beauty of Gregorian chant. In this volume, Dom Cardine sums up the origin, decline and restoration of the chant, and challenges researchers to continue his work.

 

Mundelein Psalter - The Mundelein Psalter is the first complete one-volume edition containing the approved English-language texts of the Liturgy of the Hours with psalms that are pointed for the chanting of the Divine Office. The music consists of simple yet beautiful Gregorian-based modes composed for this Psalter. Developed at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, the Psalter is designed for use by priests, deacons, religious, and laity, making singing the hymns of the Liturgy of the Hours easier for all. The Mundelein Psalter offers communities the opportunity to come together in prayer and celebrate the Divine Office as it was intended, with voices raised.

Features of The Mundelein Psalter:

  • Translations of hymns proper to each ferial day and a selection of hymns for feasts and solemnities (taken from the editio typica).
  • Music with the ancient modal settings is provided for each hymn. Hymns are also arranged to be sung with any long meter (lm) tune.
  • A collection of 14 optional modes that can be used as needed.
  • It uses the Grail Psalms and contains Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Night Prayer. It also includes the Sanctoral cycle and the Office for the Dead.
  • A Pastoral Implementation Guide for the progressive implementation of the Liturgy of the Hours in a parish setting.

Graduale Simplex

Contains authentic but simpler propers for all the seasons, solemnities, and major feasts of the liturgical year, the principal ritual and votive masses, the commons of saints, a shorter Kyriale, and all the chants for the Mass. All the texts are from the new Order of Mass.  If you want to introduce Gregorian chant to your parish but are worried about the complexities of singing different difficult chants on a weekly basis, this book is for you.

Kyriale

A simple book of chants for Mass including the Asperges me, Vidi aquam, Masses I through XViii, Credos I through VI and a number of ad libitum chants.

Traditional Roman Hymnal

 

This Traditional Roman Hymnal is a collection of the ordinary chants of the Mass, Hyms for the liturgical year, Kyriales, Credos, a special section for Confirmation, Burial and Requiem Mass, plus the Litany of the Saints for Rogations and 40 Hours.  This book will be a great help for congregations, choirs and religious houses.  The parts of the Mass are in Gregorian Notation while many of the hymns are in modern notation for polyphony

Gregorian Chant By Willi Apel

Interest in Gregorian chant has always been alive among musicologists and those devoted to preserving early church music in all its haunting simplicity. Willi Apel's extensive survey of the chant describes the evolutionary process of its long history as well as its definition and terminology, the structure of the liturgy, the texts, the notation, the rhythm, the tonality, and the methods and forms of psalmody. Under the heading "Stylistic Analysis" it offers chapters on liturgical recitative, the free compositions according to types, Ambrosian chant (by Roy Jesson), and Old-Roman chant (by Robert J. Snow). A short conclusion, titled "Prolegomena to a History of Gregorian Style," completes this impressive volume.

Gregorian Chant Master Class - Although various books and websites offer help in deciphering the square-note notation printed on unfamiliar four line staffs, experienced professionals as well as curious newcomers will want to explore A Gregorian Chant Master Class, an instructional handbook and CD from the Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Bethlehem, Connecticut….The musical examples are expertly sung, and aptly illustrate each topic.…Surely there is something here for everyone in this beautifully presented volume."  A great aid for self-help Gregorian chant instruction.

http://www.abbeyofreginalaudis.com/sitelive/cds/masterclass/masterclass.htm

Parish Book of Chant - Published by the Church Music Association of America as a unique resource for choirs, priests, families, and congregations who seek to sing and understand the universal musical tradition of Catholic people. It is a hardbound volume, 182 pages, with a very beautiful cover and outstanding print quality. It has been developed with the hope of bringing to life what the Second Vatican Council called a “treasure of inestimable value,” which is our Gregorian tradition of song.

Among its features:

·         It contains a complete order of Mass for both the Ordinary form of the Roman Rite and the Extraordinary form, in side-by-side Latin and English. The Ordos include the sung responses of the people and celebrant.

·         It contains a large Kyriale, which is a collection of chants that make up the “ordinary” of the Mass: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. part of Catholic history all over the world.

·         It collects 71 Latin chants, with English translations, that are for occasional use in Mass in various seasons of the year.

·         All music is set on four-line staffs with newly typeset neumes that make the music crystal-clear for singing.

·         It includes a tutorial on singing chant that is invaluable for the beginner and can also teach the more advanced singer. It teaches understanding of signs, melodies, style, rhythms, and modes, all in a very brief section at the back of the book.

These features were chosen with the parish experience in mind. There is no existing resource that combines them into a single volume: the Mass, the people’s music, tutorial, and translations. Again, this is not a reprint but a newly created book that offers the core of the people’s Gregorian music. This book could be the most valuable resource yet produced to help Gregorian chant assume its “pride of place” in Catholic liturgy.

This new publication will be available in June 2008.

Learning About Gregorian Chant CD - An overview of the history and elements of Gregorian chant with musical samples and spoken word descriptions.

Square Note Workbook - Grouped into five sections (Symbols, Simple Neums, Rhythm, Special Neums, and Modes), Square Notes clarifies the basics of Gregorian chant.  Every fundamental of chant is covered with a short explanation followed by written exercises to be done in the workbook - fill in the blank, identifying notes, writing notation, drawing rhythmic waves, and much more. 

Simple Kyriale CD - Inspiring in its solemn reverence, these simple chants by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle are beautiful to listen to, as well as providing the choir and choir director with an excellent example of the Latin chants to be sung at Mass. Includes many versions of Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and other parts of the Mass.

Jubilate Deo - A small collection of Latin chants sung at Mass; modern notation. Chants selected by the Vatican so that persons of all nationalities are able to celebrate together.

Liber Cantualis - A convenient, practical collection of chant repertoire for the parish choir. Contains the complete Order of Mass, seven of the chant masses and the Requiem, four sequences, and 40 hymns, canticles, and psalms drawn from the most familiar repertoire.

Aquinas and More Catholic Goods – Source for sacred music books, hymnals and CDs.  4727 North Academy Blvd. Suite A, Colorado Springs, CO 80918 (866) 428-2820, (719) 495-7493.   http://www.aquinasandmore.com/