Simon

Brave singer posts solo recording of Gregorian Gradual • and a challenge!
The Canticum trium puerorum is, I think, the longest single piece in the gregorian chant repertoire - some 20-25 minutes in length. On youtube one can find it sung by a group called Hartkeriana at a festival in Bratislava in 2009. The piece has been…

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Gramophone's Rankings of Top Twenty Choirs in the World
Rankings like this are often very subjective in nature of course - but still interesting. Certainly under their previous conductor James O'Donnell (now at Westminster Abbey - ranked nr. 16) the Westminster Cathedral Choir was seen by many Briti…

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Christmas Proclamation
One more thing - the credit for this goes to Prof. Kees Pouderoijen, OSB (Univ. Vienna) who made this for our and his own abbey's use some 10 years ago.

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Christmas Proclamation
I just figured out how to put the pdf here in the discussion. Here it is (I hope)

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Christmas Proclamation
I have a Latin (four-line notation) version of the proclamation as we plan to sing it at the conclusion of the first vespers of Christmas her in Amsterdam. If anyone wants a pdf of this send me an email and I will forward. It takes practice to sing …

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Christmas Matins
Our choir sang Christmas matins regularly back in the 1980s and early 1990s here in Amsterdam before moving to our present location where there was no time to fit the service in on Christmas eve. It's a lengthy service - about two hours if the …

Comment by Simon December 2010 permalink
Sung 1960 vespers
Consider singing the monastic vespers as outlined in the 1934 AM. We (Schola Cantorum Amsterdam - SCA Chantmen) do that when we sing vespers here in Amsterdam. For the most part, the only adjustment we make is the Magnificat antiphon to fit the pre…

Comment by Simon September 2010 permalink
Where else to find polyphonic propers?
There is a couple of Erbach's propers on the Westminster Cathedral recording of the Lassus Missa Bell' Amfitrit' altera - widely available (and recommended).

Comment by Simon July 2010 permalink
Where else to find polyphonic propers?
Found some more info on Christian Erbach. He wrote a whole cycle of propers for the church year (introit, alleluia and communio). Don't know if these have been published though.

Comment by Simon July 2010 permalink
Where else to find polyphonic propers?
The German composer Christian Erbach (ca. 1568 –1635) wrote some propers as well.

Comment by Simon July 2010 permalink
Vespers 101
Our Schola sings latin vespers every Sunday from Sept. to June - the men 2nd, 4th and eventually a 5th Sunday, women the 1st and 3rd Sundays. We men elect to sing the monastic version of vespers as outlined in the Ant. Monasticum (from the 1930'…

Comment by Simon July 2010 permalink
Thurifer Videos
Getting back to the first query - i.e. Imagine what it would be like if they had .... chant? What did they have when this was first introduced? Maybe nothing - it just happened with no music. Now they elected to sing whatever it is now. What the h…

Comment by Simon April 2010 permalink
What's your favorite recording of chant? (any interpretation!)
This is an interesting ensemble from the Netherlands. Here's the link to bits on YouTube with St. Gall neumes following the music: http://www.gregoriana.nl/0218live-recordings.htm The Schola Santae Sunnivae (a female choir from Norway) is …

Comment by Simon April 2010 permalink
Christmas polyphony
I'm not an expert but oratorio didn't come into vogue until the 1700s. The 1600s saw opera come into its own. Don't think you'll find an animal called a Renaissance oratorio. Renaissance composers stuck to motets and masses for s…

Comment by Simon April 2010 permalink
What you need before Easter Sunday!!!
Perhaps I'm a few hours ahead of US time (Amsterdam). Sang Easter matins at 7 a.m. (up at 5:30). Had breakfast after matins at a snackbar some 30 meters next to the church (adjacent to the red light district in Amsterdam) - then went back to …

Comment by Simon April 2010 permalink
In search of Mozarabic mode Lamentations
What a coincidence. I just made a photocopy of a publication from 1934 with these lamentations for Holy Week. The publication is called: Cantus Lamentationum pro ultimo Triduo Hebdomadae Majoris juxta Hispanos Codices. Apparently it's pretty ra…

Comment by Simon April 2010 permalink
When Do You Sit For Vespers?
We usually sing vespers antiphonally - after the first half of the first verse in the first psalm, the side of the choir that is not singing that verse, sits. When they commence singing the second verse, the other half of the choir sits. Where does …

Comment by Simon February 2010 permalink
Te Lucis by the Cistercian Monks
I have a volume called Completorium (or something like that - I'm at my work) in my bookcase at home - full of chant for the office of compline. I believe it is published by the Franciscans. I recall it includes virtually dozens of melodies fo…

Comment by Simon February 2010 permalink
Obrecht's Parce Domine
Just thought of another source. If you have access somehow (I don't): the New Obrecht Edition (editor. Ch. Maas) includes English translations for all of Obrecht's works. Volume XVI includes the motet Parce Domine.

Comment by Simon February 2010 permalink
Obrecht's Parce Domine
I'll give it a go. Other suggestions welcome. Parce, Domine, populo tuo, quia pius es et misericors. Exaudi nos in aeternum, Domine. Spare, o Lord, your people. For thou are just and merciful. Hear us, Lord, forever.

Comment by Simon February 2010 permalink
Music for the Imposition of Ashes
Two plainsong antiphons that are traditional for the imposition of ashes are Immutemur habitu in cinere and Juxta vestibulum. Singing one of these together with the Miserere as plainsong psalm is within reach of almost any choir. Depending on the nu…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
Music for Sprinkling Rite?
Our choir director, during a visit to NY city, experienced, for him, a revolting moment at St. Patrick's Cathedral a few years ago. At the sprinkling rite the melody used was Cat Steven's "Morning has broken" - the text commencin…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
Music for the Imposition of Ashes
Perhaps the moment is too solemn for music accompaniment. Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris. (Remember, O man, that dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return). I have never, in churches I have attended, heard any music acco…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
Singing the Passion (Palm Sunday, Good Friday)
Francis: An 'authentic' gregorian version of all four of the gospel settings is in the Officium Majoris Hebdomadae (Sung liturgy of Holy Week) downloadable on the home page of Musica Sacra. Look at the mass on Palm Sunday, for example, f…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
Liber Hymnarius
Gloria Patri settings in the eight tones is found in the back of most Antiphonaries (Monastic or Roman rite). Used to conclude Responsoriae Prolixae - the greater responds (mostly found in the Matins repertoire - a Gloria Patri concludes the third o…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
Soooothing chant.
As far as chant is concerned - only sing it. And than only vespers, compline and matins (office repertoire). Seldom sing a gregorian chant mass. Never listen to chant except very occasionally if someone asks me on my opinion on the style of how a c…

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
1963 Liber Usualis
Sorry Pat: that should be: www.libers.com

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
1963 Liber Usualis
St. Bonaventure Publications sells them. Not cheap though - almost a hundred big ones. see: www.liber.com.

Comment by Simon January 2010 permalink
T E N E B R A E ( ? )
The Schola Cantorum Amsterdam sung Maundy Thursday's plainsong Tenebrae matins and lauds last evening (Wednesday) in the St. Nicholas church in Amsterdam. The service lasted two and a half hours. We do this annually. In the past we used to sing…

Comment by Simon April 2009 permalink

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Username: Simon
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