We've been listing their events for years.

I don't think there should be much doom and gloom about it at all. Two years ago the only Chant session scheduled for the NPM annual conference was canceled for insufficient registration. In contrast, this year there are 7 sessions (plus a meeting for the Chant division). Admittedly a few of the sessions diverge from traditional Gregorian Chant, but they are nonetheless there. I think it's a shame that the CMAA does not have a significant presence there to help guide their development. As for the newsletter, I suspect that some volunteering might be graciously accepted, particularly in the area of practical applications of introducing Chant in the parish.

Here are the planned sessions:

MONDAY

Section Meetings
4:00-5:00 PM
Come and enter into conversation about issues in your area of interest or expertise.
Section for Chant - Rev. Anthony Ruff, OSB, Chair


TUESDAY

A 27 How to Conduct Chant
Charles Thatcher
An introduction to the tools one needs to conduct chant with your choir and your parish.

B 07 Sacred Song and Chant of South East Asia
Rufino Zaragoza, OFM, Paul Nguyen, Kai Vang, and Barbara Tracey
Experience traditional multi-tone chant techniques of the Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese communities. Soak in the tranquil melodies of South East Asia, whose liturgical texts often draw on themes from Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Learn bilingual pieces to use in your non-Asian congregation.

B 20 The Choral World of Chant
Rob Strusinski
Learn how to understand the voice, find the best music for your singers, explore choral music based on chant, and more.

B 27 Making Chant Work in the Parish Community
Anthony Ruff, OSB
Discover the place of Latin chant in the larger context of using the unaccompanied voice in worship, primarily in the vernacular.


WEDNESDAY

C 22 Sing, Chant, Move, & Play: Music Learning Theory is the Way!
Christina M. Hornbach
This workshop will give elementary general music teachers ideas on how to incorporate singing, chanting, moving, and playing instruments in a fun, interactive, and experiential manner. Participants will engage in a short lesson as students and come away with activities to do right away in their classrooms.

C 27 The Chants of the Church in a Parish Setting
Charles Thatcher
Discover how to incorporate chant into your parish worship experience.


THURSDAY

D 31 Showcase: Psallite—Sacred Song for Liturgy and Life
The Collegeville Composers: Paul Ford, Paul Inwood, Carol Browning, Cyprian Consiglio, and Catherine Christmas
Easy accessible melodies for the assembly with creative arrangements for schola and choirs, this music does not rely on accompaniment, rediscovers the role of antiphons and incorporates a wide variety of styles, including chant.

Oops! I forgot one of the best sessions at the NPM Convention:

Gregorian Chant Intensive
Monday: 9:00 am–12:00 noon
Anthony Ruff, OSB and Peter Funk, OSB
An introduction to and an overview of the resources and the practical ways of introducing chant to your choir and congregation. Fee: $30 Pre-Registration Required

Arlene, you should have trademarked "Chant Intensive" (tm). Just kidding.

There's always a benefit to knowing things but I'm unclear how multi-tone Hmong chant integrates into the ritual music of the Roman Rite.

Of course, where I live, we prefer spirituals to reproaches, but I digress...

Re NPM and chant - any programming from them is a positive sign and diversity is an article of faith with them, so I'm not surprised with the Hmong, etc. While chant for them is "one of the many flavors of the church and its music," we can't know who will stumble into one of these workshops and be smitten. God works in mysterious ways.

While chant for them is "one of the many flavors of the church and its music,..

I guess that's how we can 'invite' church musicians to learn Gregorian chants also? Could NPM emphasize that "the Church put Gregorian chant as the most suitable and therefore has the first place in Roman Liturgy, and all the church musicians (of Roman catholic church) should learn it as their basic knowledge and be able to perform and teach it in their music ministry?

I just wish that people would choose to learn it more consciously , rather than stumbling into chants by accident. In my parish we had 3 music directors so far, but they didn't know what the Church says nor about chants.(They never mentioned about them while I was working with them last 10 years.) I went to local NPM meeting a couple of times, but mostly they talk about what kind of music they like and exchange ideas on personal musical preferences. I wish I was informed about what the Church's guidlines were and what the litrugical music is about.
I assume that NPM is a resourceful group that inform and support the church musicians to follow what the Church guides and implement solid litrugical music in local parishes, because that's how we can evangelize and Glorify God through our music ministry.

But I see your point, especially in these days and also in the Western culture, it may not be so practical. (Also, in my culture, being an oriental, I think 'respect to old and authority' has a different concept.)

Happy Easter to you too. >:-)

IDEALISTIC WISH OF A POPE

THIS IS THE NPM VIEW.....

Excerpts from the NPM SITE:

Iubilate Deo ("Shout to God"), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, expanded edition, 1987.The entire order of Mass for congregational singing in Latin, including all the responses and some settings of the Ordinary, plus a few other miscellaneous chants. The idealistic wish of Pope Paul VI was that this would become the core repertoire known by Catholic congregations around the world.

Kyriale Simplex ("simple Kyriale"), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1965. A kyriale is a collection of Mass ordinaries. An interesting collection of Mass ordinaries, astutely drawn from non-Roman traditions of Latin chant (e.g., Mozarabic, Ambrosian) to provide the most singable congregational Mass settings.

Chant Books for the Choir

Graduale Romanum ("Roman gradual"), Solesmes, 1974. A large book of Mass propers-those difficult masterpieces of the chant repertoire-with the Order of Mass and Mass ordinaries also included.

Gregorian Missal for Sundays, Solesmes, 1990. English translations next to each Latin chant, excerpted from the Graduale Romanum to include all the Sundays and feastdays. Other liturgical texts (e.g. presidential prayers, eucharistic prayers) are also included in English.

Graduale Triplex ("triple gradual"), Solesmes, 1979. Identical to the 1974 Graduale Romanum, but with early lineless neumes written in above and below each chant melody (hence the "triple" in the title, with a total of three notations for each melody). A book for specialists, but some study of it will be helpful to understand how to interpret and convey the Latin text in chants of all levels of difficulty.


Easier Chant Books for the Choir

Alongside any major Catholic hymnal, which has Latin congregational chant which can also be sung by the choir, here are some easier collections of chant for choir.

Graduale Simplex ("simple gradual"), Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1975. Although intended for congregations, the scope of this collection and the fact that it is entirely in Latin makes it rather unusable for most congregations. In practical use, a handy fall-back when the choir is not able to learn the propers from the Graduale Romanum . Easy chants for Mass-entrance, Psalm, Gospel acclamation, offertory, and communion-with an easy antiphon and several pointed Psalm verses, for use at any Mass within a given season. The short, easy antiphons were taken from the Psalm antiphons of the Latin Liturgy of the Hours.

Unrealistic: Music that is not under copyright by the big 3 and can not generate revenue for them.

Sadder yet is that the writer may actually believe this....

Prior: At least for me, this isn't about the word "idealistic". It's about how the author advertises chant. Look at some of those definitions; do they make you think of chant as something YOU can do? Does "any major Catholic hymnal, which has Latin congregational chant which can also be sung by the choir..." make you want to spend the money on any of these books? Even if you enjoy the challenges of chant and are willing to seek out new resources, our typical Catholic colleague is intimidated by music that will make the choir complain of its difficulty and reticent to spend money on anything but the latest choral packet from a mainstream publisher.

This is the strength of the CMAA's approach: it presents chant as something immediately accessible. This author, knowingly or not, is presenting chant as something intimidating. And no, before anyone objects that the untrained shouldn't attempt chant, I don't think it's better to not do chant than to do it "badly".

As for idealism, I'd like to address that claim that the pope's wish was idealistic. I don't think it is. EVERY American Catholic, whether they want to or not, knows Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation. MOST of them know the Kyrie from Mass of Remembrance. Most know Proulx's Community Mass (at least the Eucharistic acclamations), and I would suspect that a sizable number of American Catholics remember the JD Sanctus and Agnus Dei, whether by remembering the 50s or in a new parish that learned it. Learning the JD Mass ordinary is not a challenge; it's difficult to hear it 10 times and NOT remember it!!

And most American Catholics know and will loudly sing: Eagle's Wings, Be Not Afraid, Holy God We Praise Thy Name, I am the Bread of Life, Gather Us In, and I dare not continue lest I give our older members an anger-induced stroke. But my point is that familiarity with the JD repertoire (with the exception of Te Deum, if that's in there) is not beyond the typical Catholic congregation. In fact, I was talking a couple months ago to an old music director and mentor, whose program is perhaps just the typical OCP stuff - no chant. And yet he mentioned to me how in 5th grade he sang for the Requiem Masses and told me of the "beautiful Kyrie" they sang - and proceeded to sing the Introit tune to the words "Kyrie Eleison"! Obviously his memory is somewhat distorted, but he remembered that tune after perhaps 50 years without hearing it! Some may say Paul VI went too far, I say he didn't go far enough!

And I agree that idealism is a good thing (although I will point out that our Savior was NOT an idealistic lawgiver - He was given to pay for our failures to live up to the Law, not to give a new one). The issue is what our ideal is. I am an idealist - I think that every church, every Mass, should have the Roman Gradual in each pew, with the congregation singing the antiphons of the Mass in Latin, with Byrd propers for high feasts. Now, I realize this ideal will not be fulfilled - ever (except in rare cases like universities and seminaries). But having it as an ideal means that when I make changes, I move towards that. At my last church, I introduced the chants to the choir, had the congregation sing more psalms, and even got them chanting the Introit. I think our ideals should be clear, whether it's an all chanted Mass, orchestral Masses, or whatever, and that we should move towards them as best we can.

There's a difference between that and "the idealistic wish of a pope" for Catholics to know 1 Mass Ordinary and 10 hymns.

Does anyone know, is there a way for NON-members of NPM to attend a session, e.g. "B 27 Making Chant Work in the Parish Community
Anthony Ruff, OSB
Discover the place of Latin chant in the larger context of using the unaccompanied voice in worship, primarily in the vernacular," without registering and paying for the whole shebang?

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

I know you can attend the entire NPM convention w/o joining for a slightly higher fee. I bet you could sneak in by wearing your name tag from CMAA Colloquium around your neck- one tag looks much like another. LOL

I mentioned the awful music conference I went to last weekend on another thread, but the funny thing was that the best thing John Rutter brought to it was something titled 'Gems of Gregorian Chant" eleven chants for choirs starting at the 'Hodie Christus natus est' and ending with 4 antiphons for the Virgin Mary. (Everything was in Latin with tiny English translations at bottom of page.)There was utter silence in the room- I think the four of us may have been the only liturgical musicians in a roomful of protestants.

Thanks, G. ;-)

Fr. Ruff's chant intensive was wonderful. His friendly, laid-back style of presentation helps chant feel more natural, unlike the strict teachings of some educational sources. Don't get me wrong - it takes a lot of work to do it smoothly, but it's nothing to be feared or intimidated by. And there's a considerable amount of leeway in doing it "right." After scads of research, scholars have determined that established singing styles aren't necessarily correct. But that's not to say they can't still be used. The main thing is serving the text. I was surprised to learn there has been some new notation devised to more clearly indicate how to sing.

The text we used in the intensive was a preview of Fr. Ruff's hopefully-soon-to-be-published "Canticum Novum: Gregorian Chant for Today's Choirs". The preview was put together by GIA, but I was unable to find information on their website about a publishing date for the finished text. (Publishing date pending final approval from the Holy See.)

The main ideas I brought back to my own rag-tag schola were: Learn the basics of singing chant, stick to things you can easily manage, and don't fight the text. Let it flow naturally. I know some people are downright rabid about chanting with a very specific style. I don't believe that's a good approach. It should be accessible to everyone, provided they don't try to turn it into opera.

- Chris

"I heard much the same in an intensive with Fr. Columba Kelly."

I am surprised to hear you say this, priorstf.
Other than his preaching the primacy of the text, (something that i don''t think anyone would argue with... WHAT AM I SAYING!?#?$??^?&?? we can ALWAYS find someone to disagree :o)) in the course I took with Fr Kelly, I felt he showed a sort of kindly contempt for anything other than semiology.
Not to say it wasn't a wonderful class....
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

G - Call it my interpretation of his presentation then. :) Definitely keen on semiology he is, which explained the use of the Triplex in the class. I noted as a result that there is less 'adhesive' to the Solemnes method. Everything is "indicated" but I didn't find it to be as rigid as 4-line squares.

"His friendly, laid-back style of presentation helps chant feel more natural..."

up with that!

The clearest distinction I've ever encountered, save for an professional (eccentric) ensemble from France, that illustrates the natural flow of choral chant ALONGSIDE a studied and wholly prepared "interpretation" of chant was the gradual versicle sang by Mary Ann Carr-Wilson with the psalm by the schola on Sunday Mass which concluded this year's colloquium. Both sides of the equation complimented the other. I know MA fretted a millisecond about the intonation (in the immortal language of Miles Davis: "So What.") But it (the whole enterprise of that movement) was the very embodiment of "musical heaven." Truth in advertising.
We follow MJB's rule chorally. Messa di Ballou.

Anything can be over used, intentionally or by accident. Or, as my organ professor used to say without a smile, if you accidentally pull on the trumpet en chamade during communion, they will notice.

Very well, thank you, sir. (Ma'am? Chris is one o' those names...)

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Kathy - what a wonderful analogy for controlling vibrato - or overly enthusiastic singing!

That's sir, thank you. *scratch, burp*

Don't you go condescending to ME, buddy. ;o)

(Incidentally, completely off topic, but when I was at conservatory i knew a tiny, delicately beautiful lyric soprano who could belch the entire "Our Father," on a single breath.)

Save the Liturgy, save the World

The time has perhaps come to work together---

What are the suggestions? (I am very interested in hearing some concrete suggestions from volunteers for the suggestions, instead of asking CMAA leaders to do all the work.)
We have to remember CMAA leaders and members are made of volunteers like you and me, who are working out of their time and spaces while working on their own parishes. I'm sure if NPM members ask specific help here, people here are willing to help.

Please note that I've mentioned a number of these in the past and the response from CMAA leadership has been deafening silence. I'm not certain we should wait for them to ask so much as we should offer the skills and talents we've been given to share.

Suggestions:

1) A significant number of CMAAers attend the NPM conference and help boost the chant session participation
2) Arrange an evening Chant concert/presentation as part of the NPM conference
3) Work with the NPM chant committee to prepare and perhaps present additional chant sessions
4) Organize impromptu chant singalongs in the hallways
5) Prepare a traditional Gregorian Chant Vespers and/or Mass
6) Get a booth at the NPM conference and sell PBC and other Chant-oriented materials
7) Volunteer in local and regional NPM meetings to conduct chant sessions
8) Work with NPM committees to encourage the inclusion of Chant language into their materials
9) Develop standards for cantor/DM certification with traditional Church music to parallel NPM certification
and most importantly
10) Stop badmouthing NPM and the various publishing companies who have chosen to partner with this largest organization of Catholic musicians.

"Ah, the ignorant one speaks ..."
It's getting hard to follow. I humbly and respectfully request a decryption of the following - PBC, DM, OF, EF, CMAA.

Mea culpa, et gratia cum oryza.