Gregorian Chant: The Grandfather of Muisc

Reposted from a Paraclete Press blog. 

Lately, Gloriæ Dei Cantores’ chant recordings have received a lot of favorable attention. We’re thrilled, of course—we view Gregorian chant as the beloved “grandfather” of all western music, and it provides the heartbeat of our monastic vocation. “Seven times a day will I praise thee,” says the psalmist, and we endeavor to join him faithfully through the Liturgy of the Hours. The fruits of this opus Dei—this work of God—are sweet indeed.

Now I know that not everyone views chant as the “full contact sport” that we tend to engage in here in our monastery by the bay. The CDs most of our customers hear in the peaceful setting of home, car, or office, with those clean, smooth lines and (hopefully!) unified voices are generally only achieved after a lot of mutual knocking off of corners and filing down of rough patches amongst the Schola members—a challenging process, but in the end, always a cause for gratitude. As regular folks, we have experienced the innumerable benefits of worshiping daily through this vibrant form of sung prayer—the experience of unity, the seeming secret language of prayer, the sparks of inspiration that occur when the critical mechanism of the mind takes a break and the heart opens.

We know we’re not alone in finding these sparks, because Gloriæ Dei Cantores sings a lot of other music—the early masters like Josquin and Palestrina, up through Bach, Mozart, Rheinberger, Brahms, Liszt, Faure, Vaughan Williams, and the list goes on—and we’re always excited to find that thread of Gregorian chant that has managed to weave its way through the music of the centuries, still living and breathing, into today’s choral music.
So if you’ve been reluctant to stray too far from the purity of chant, we invite you venture out into the other choral treasures that Gloriæ Dei Cantores has come to know and love—Gregorian chant’s great-great-grandchildren, if you will. It’s a lineage and heritage worth exploring.

A Faure Perspective

A new look at a beloved work - the Faure Requiem.

Very interesting that Gabriel Faure's Requiem, a work known in musical and non-musical circles alike - is so often heard in a version which he did not compose! The final version of the work - that which is most often performed today - has a much larger orchestra than Faure intended. It is amazing to study his original thoughts and score - as he says - he wrote this work "for the pleasure of doing so" and that he saw death not as terrifying end but as a welcome and peaceful beginning. It is that subtext which is illuminated so thoughtfully in his original scoring.

Anniversary

On a hot, HOT June day in 2000, The Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, Gloriae Dei Cantores' home church, was dedicated.  We were packed in like sardines, standing room only, to celebrate the day we had been waiting, planning, working and hoping for for over 10 years!  You could practically taste the anticipation in the air - the electricity of joy contained, like a caged tiger, poised and ready to explode free as soon as the latch was lifted.  Where now, brilliant colored mosaic and fresco tells the tale of our heritage of faith, bare concrete walls held us, bouncing back the sounds of our celebration.

A bishop's staff on a bronze door, words of proclamation, a swirl of banners and the swell of people pressing through the doors.....and the music!  From the peaks and valleys of the Mass by Samuel Adler, to the soaring melodies of hymn tunes by Bruce Saylor and Mike Hale, to the other-worldly shimmer of Dominic Argento's "The Vision" with text from Dante's Paradise....it was as though all the sounds present in creation stepped in to receive our best efforts of praise.

June 16, 2013 - thirteen years later....the walls are adorned with pigment of frescoes and tiny squares of hand cut glass and stone - vibrant colors adding to the centuries of story past and yet to come - stories of He who we worship in this space - and among the colors are sounds -  carefully placed neumes from the Liturgy of the Hours morning and evening, the rumble of final chords by Widor , Bach and others who best brought forth the organ's voice, the cries of funeral hymns, the joy of weddings and baptism and the other 12 anniversaries.  And a myriad of words and tunes from Palestrina to Brahms to Mozart to Schoenberg....the Our Father sung in languages now loved and understood, Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei!  And still the stone takes it in - no end to the capacity to contain what generations have put their pen to, and others have given voice.  So like the human heart - a bottomless well to fill with the sounds of conversation between Creator and created.

Tune the Ear

What an interesting discovery - to be able to "tune the ear".  

As Gloriae Dei Cantores has rehearsed the Vaughan Williams famous Mass in G Minor, we have discovered that Vaughan Williams often uses"modal" sounds - those sounds so common to chant. As we have rehearsed and noted these particular colors, we have also discovered that our ears became attuned to those sounds and gave us an entirely new appreciation and insight to this work!