I just sent you a private message.

Thank you ,
Hehe" , yes we are from Bandung, since our schola cantorum bearing name Bandungensis :p . Wow 1986, i am not even born. But I heard Middle Java Province music is corporated with gamelan, I have heard once only in Javanese, not Latin.

I have read about article musica enchiriadis in wikipedia, and several thread in musicasacra. But I dont know where and which chant that can be applied strict organum and drone 'ison'

We once tried imitated from Ensemble Organum http://www.amazon.com/Ecole-Notre-Dame-Messe-Christmas/dp/B0000007N3 , which is Kyrie from Mass IV . But otherwise from that, I dont know how to apply this beautiful technic.

Should I move discussion about organum, to suitable topic? since I wrote "introduction" . :)

Florid organum is something I haven't attempted yet,

A small group from my choir sang Leonin's Viderunt at Midnight Mass. It was great fun.

. Wow 1986, i am not even born.

And, once again, it's the youth leading this movement...

I am no expert on organum and similar techniques. But I have a small, amateur choir with not enough experience singing chant - so perhaps my experience in trying to figure this sort of things out in a similar situation might be helpful.

Couple things:
-An 'ison' is just a drone: A single note held, usually by a few low voices, under the singing.
-'strict' organum is, as you probably know, just duplicating the melody at a 5th, and singing in parallel.

Both of these techniques now have a lot of history and theory/technique associated with them, but in their original form they were somewhat improvisational.

I would just try things. Really - take a chant everyone knows well (a part of the Ordinary, or some hymn) and just TRY DIFFERENT THINGS.

Have the lower voices hum on the tonic, see how that sounds. Have them hum on the dominant, see how that sounds. See if it makes sense to switch back and forth at certain points (like having the dominant for the notes approaching the cadence, and then the two parts landing on the final together in unison).

Try singing something simple that you know, and have two or three singers begin a 5th above, and then singing in strict parallel.

Try combining these two techniques. Try starting adding organum only at certain moments, or for certain phrases.

(When I do multi-stanza chant hymns, I'll often start in strict monody, and then add a drone after a verse or two, and then add a high organum part on the last verse. Very dramatic.)


Obviously, you should read more and listen more, and try to learn the 'right' ways of doing things, but there's a lot to be said for trying different things and figuring out what works for your group, what sounds good to your ears, and what moves your congregation to prayer.

What Adam calls "strict" organum is probably more correctly called "parallel" organum.

The statement that it is sung at a fifth is ambiguous at best. It was perhaps just as often sung a perfect fourth below the chant melody, and the notion that a perfect fifth (either above or below) is somehow "more consonant" for an ending is, in the opinion of many, overblown. When the tessitura of the chant is high as is often the case, it doesn't make sense to try to sing above the melody.

There is also more complex organum, which deviates at times from being parallel, but it is a rarer species and not exactly easy to devise (improvise) on the spot.

While they are dones, isons do not always stay on a fixed tone, but move from time to time to fit better the chanted melody. Moreover, isons are not necessarily a single part, but there may be two or even three isons (sometimes in organum with each other.

It is possible (likely?) that nonparallel organum and multiple voiced organum had an influence on the early development of harmony and counterpoint.

thank you for reply

so the correct terminology for singing same melody different tonic is parallel organum, for this case, perfect parallel 5th or 4th organum, correct?
and what different from parallel organum and fauxbourdon?

our schola cantorum have very minimal theory music knowledge.
Are all gregorian practically can be singing parallel organum? sometimes complex melody, is hard to sing parallel.

Is there any spiritual advice about this technic?
I mean, why we employ such technic.
Does it make more beautiful? or Does it make more mystic?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10201663583062805

last sunday, we celebrate Extraordinary Mass, It is since 2 years we couldn't celebrate.

and this is a small clip, from Kyrie Eleison

@noel jones

thank you for reply .
to be honest in that mass, we got irregular (i got no word for this, member who cant practice with us, but show up in the mass) member who sung in the spot, without many practice with us, but we welcome them.

because our member are few and the congregation is full, the sound is might be dampened, and we have to sung louder, and also congregation sung with us.

to be mentioned also, we don't have voice couch, or somebody who expert in Gregorian Chant to taught us.

We have question, do we have to sing to fill the room? or we sing softly with small member?

sometimes, if we have many member in our schola when in mass, we can sing more softly :p

thank you, we need constructive comment

I just came across this picture of your choir!

https://instagram.com/p/qrGJl3jp1I/