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Video Gregorian Chant Revival The last Daily Blog post focused on the ancient institution of the human family. This one deals with something not quite so ancient, but still a venerable and honored tradition: Gregorian chant. But it’s not just your grandfather’s Gregorian chant. “Gregorian chant holds a place in popular imagination as the province of hooded monks intoning monotonous melodies along dim stone corridors,” according to this article published by McClatchey Newspapers. “It’s not like that.” “At St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Sacramento, the ancient musical form is sung by children and young men and women, a multiethnic...

HEILIGENKREUZ, Austria — Working to reach No. 1 on the charts? Try praying. Johannes Paul Chavanne, a monk at Heiligenkreuz Abbey, said there were concerns about how the CD would be marketed.  That's how the monks of Heiligenkreuz Abbey found fame. Their compilation of Gregorian chants, a form of sung prayer, has stormed pop music charts worldwide. The debut CD, "Chant: Music for Paradise," was first released in Europe in May and spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on Britain's classical charts. The album made it to No. 7 on the country's pop charts.  It was also the top...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 4, 2008 (Zenit.org). Parish music directors -- and congregations -- in the Archdiocese of St. Louis soon will benefit from Archbishop Raymond Burke’s recent initiative: The Institute for Sacred Music. Archbishop Burke, who has since been named to head the Apostolic Signature, the Church's supreme court, appointed Benedictine Father Samuel Weber as the first director of the new institute earlier this year.Father Weber is a professor in the divinity school of Wake Forest University in North Carolina and also a monk of the St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana. In Part 1 of this interview with ZENIT,...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNI2A45q61c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kalLSISsdu8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhGCMTEteI4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs8GCCS1c5g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKw9Of_Mlg0

One of the world's oldest styles of religious music is attracting a host of new enthusiasts.Gregorian chant is usually associated with monks in monasteries, but it's being heard more often now in regular services. Its growing popularity brought 70 representatives of choirs from Northern Ireland to a chanting workshop in the Dominican Convent in west Belfast. The college chapel became a study for a day as experts passed on advice on how best to perform the ancient melodies. Principal tutor Donal McCrisken said Gregorian chant was an excellent medium for vocal training. "You have to sing it very purely -...

Summer issue of Sacred Music By CMAA on May 21, 2007 at 3:34 pm Here is the contents of the Summer 2007 issue of Sacred Music. You can join the CMAA and receive this issue and three more for $30. EDITORIALS Et Erit In Pace Memoria Ejus † Richard J. Schuler | Robert Skeris On the Apostolic Exhortation | William Mahrt ARTICLES The Life and Meaning of the Sequence | By Lázló Dobszay Ornamented Chant in Spain | Lorenzo CandelariaREPERTORY The Alternatim Alternative | Susan Treacy Psallat Ecclesia | Sequence for the Dedication of a Church ARCHIVE The Young...

Pope wants comeback for Gregorian chants By Philip PullellaVATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, who last week told the world he does not care much for Bob Dylan, said on Tuesday he would like Gregorian chant to make a comeback. The 79-year-old German Pope said the Catholic faithful should learn more of the chanting traditionally sung in Latin by choirs of monks since the Middle Ages."The better-known prayers of the Church's tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung," he said in part of a 140-page booklet on the Mass.He lamented...

Political Correctness Takes a Hit in Kentucky Schools School Board Retains Traditional Historic Designations B.C. and A.D. By Jim Brown and Jody Brown June 15, 2006 (AgapePress) - A conservative advocacy group is praising the Kentucky state school board for refusing to add the secular terms "Common Era" and "Before the Common Era" to school curriculum. The board has voted 10-0 to continue using the designations "B.C." and "A.D." to mark historical dates in textbooks and tests. The unanimous vote overturns an April decision in which the board proposed changing the acronyms to "C.E." and "B.C.E." Since that decision was...

Interview With Researcher Julieta Vega García MEXICO CITY, JUNE 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Gregorian chant continues to be the official chant of the Catholic Church of Latin rite, though composition of new works is nonexistent, says a music expert. Julieta Vega García, who has a licentiate in philosophy and classics, with specialization in art history, and a doctorate in geography and history in the area of musicology, gave a brief overview of Gregorian chant in this interview. Vega García is a piano teacher with a certificate from the Higher Conservatory of Music of Granada, Spain, and director of the Schola Gregoriana...

Look up “Gregorian chant” in just about any current dictionary or encyclopedia and you will see a description that says it “is the liturgical chant of the Roman Catholic Church.” Notice that the tense of the verb “to be” is in its present form of “is.” What Should Customarily Be? The definition doesn’t place Gregorian chant in the past tense and tell us that it “was” a liturgical chant that we Catholics long since forgot. If it is our current liturgical chant, isn’t there something odd in the fact that so many of us Roman Catholics never hear it at...

Interview With President of Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music VATICAN CITY, DEC. 24, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Gregorian chant has been unjustly abandoned and its place in the life of the Church should be recovered, says a Vatican aide. Monsignor Valenti Miserachs Grau made this declaration at a recent encounter organized by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments at the Vatican. Monsignor Miserachs has been president of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music since 1995. This Spanish musician, who has composed more than 2,000 pieces, is also the canonical chapel director of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome....

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 16, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Mass is a moment of reflection and encounter with God, rather than a form of entertainment, says Cardinal Francis Arinze. In an interview with Inside the Vatican magazine, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments made a comprehensive assessment of the recent Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist and of developments in liturgical practice 40 years after the Second Vatican Council. Regarding "music in the liturgy, we should start by saying that Gregorian music is the Church's precious heritage," he said. "It should stay. It should not be banished....

Echoes of Catholic MilitancyA recent book titled, No More Christian Nice Guy, outlines a prevalent error in society. The book’s author, Paul Coughlin, explains that Christianity has been divorced of masculinity to such an extent that many Christian men feel stifled and even suffocated when trying to practice the Faith. However, this emasculated Christianity is opposed by the teachings of Christ and two thousand years of Catholic tradition. Indeed, Christ gave a supreme example of manliness when he railed against the Pharisees and again when He drove the money changers from the Temple. Following His example, pious Catholic men throughout...

Gregorian Chant In the three centuries following the death of Saint Benedict, there emerged in the Western Church a marvelously unified tradition of liturgical music known as Gregorian Chant, taking its name from the sixth century Pope Saint Gregory the Great, who did much to promote the use of the chant.Characterized chiefly by its purely melodic form, without even the simplest harmonies, Gregorian Chant is sometimes known as "plainsong"; the word "plain" being used to distinguish it from the later harmonic music rather than to denote any lack of charm or interest.Noteworthy also is the unmeasured or "free" rhythm:...

For about $20.00, (shipping included,) I purchased Bill Tortolano's little book on Gregorian Chant. The publisher, GIA, suggested that it contained "everything you need to know" about the topic, in the utilitarian sense--that is, one could, after reading the book and with some preparation, actually sing and/or train and conduct singers in the use of Chant. That's true. It's an easy, short read, and contains all the technical gobbledygook one needs; for that purpose, it's worth the money. Tortolano also includes a number of common Chants for the Mass, a few hymns, a Latin pronunciation guide, the Psalm-tones, etc.--enough to...

Catholic musicians are haunted by the question: Is the music in our parishes getting better or worse? Supposing we agree on what that means (and granting that some members of an aging generation are still attached to guitars and folk styles), it is a very difficult question to answer. The experience of the local parish reveals only so much. However desperately many of us hope and pray for a return to sanctity in music, along with chant and music especially suited for the liturgy, there are very few markers available to tell whether progress is being made. What about commercial...

Deposition, Funeral and Burial Rites of Pope John Paul II Deposition of the Body of the Roman Pontiff in the Coffin Before the Funeral Mass the body will be deposited in a coffin of Cyprus wood. It will the be closed in the presence of the Cardinal Camerlengo, the heads of each Order of Cardinals (Cardinal Bishops, Cardinal Priest, Cardinal Deacons), the Cardinal Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, the Cardinal Secretary of State, the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, the Prefect of the Pontifical Household, the Almoner of the Supreme Pontiff, the Vice-Camerlengo,...

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC -//IETF//DTD HTML//EN> | | | Front Page Story When the big hand says Thirteen Moon Calendar by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com August 27, 2004 The United Nations, which has a finger in every global pie, and ambitions to take over the World Internet, is inching its way towards calendar reform. Long on lofty words and windy clauses, the official UN description for calendar reform is, "Calendar Reform and the Future of Civilization" (CRFC). Ostensibly, the UN rejected considering calendar reform in 1995 as part of its 50th anniversary. Within four years, UN officials were passing calendar duty over...

Front Page Story When the big hand says Thirteen Moon Calendar by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com August 27, 2004 The United Nations, which has a finger in every global pie, and ambitions to take over the World Internet, is inching its way towards calendar reform. Long on lofty words and windy clauses, the official UN description for calendar reform is, "Calendar Reform and the Future of Civilization" (CRFC). Ostensibly, the UN rejected considering calendar reform in 1995 as part of its 50th anniversary. Within four years, UN officials were passing calendar duty over to lifetime activist for peace, Dr. José...