Watching this - guess what was just shown as the "great resource on the chant" - www.musicasacra.com, of course.

The EWTN schedule indicates "EWTN Live" has television (or internet feed) encores
http://www.ewtn.com/tv/NA_071909.asp
Thu Jul 23
6 am USA Pacific
...
9 am USA Eastern

Ok, it's over. Good talk, but I was waiting to hear the schola singing a Gregorian chant, at least just one. (sigh) Fr. Martin was great. (and a great chanter too) He sounded like he knew what we were talking about here. How Gregorian chant singing is different from Protestant-style hymn singing. How the chants are perfect for the prayers, one just participates in that prayer and rest, so even if one doens't understand evey word, he can still be in the spirit of praising God, just like singing Alleuia, where oftentimes the music goes on after you completes singing the words, praising God beyond words.(although it is also good to understand the words, more important is being in that spirit of praising Him.Many Catholics don't know what 'Alleuia' means, but they still sing and praise God.), and how simple to read chant notes etc. There were challenging questions. I think he answered very well in such a short time.

(One interesting thing I learned, the Father who interviewd him was a Jesuit, and he says Jesuits don't spend time in chanting, because their mission is go out and do Apostolic work. Very interesting. I somehow thought they liked singing.)
I wish I can get a copy of this talk.

Northrup, I'm glad you got to see some part of the show. The Colloquium info is in the front page of this site, second tap from the left on the top. I attended the Colloquium this year (it was first time for me. I did Chant Intensive in Chicago, which usually is held one week before the Colloquium, last year though.) It was amazing and so beautiful. There are lots of thread in this forum talked about the Colloquium and recordings. I hope I see you there next year.

I thought the show was overall very good - and I always like Fr. Mitch when I run across him. The level of the conversation and the answers to the questions were pitched at folks who don't know much about music. His great opener was that most Catholics were already singing at least tidbits of chant in the dialogues at Mass and they didn't even know it! (A useful line for folks who tell you chant is completely absent from the modern liturgy.)

It was particularly encouraging to me that Fr. Joel urged people to sing chant on their own, even if it were only with a recording, whatever the state of music in their own parish. Also interesting were his comments to the questioner who said he couldn't understand the words. Fr. Joel pointed out that he (Fr. Joel) often couldn't understand words in an English or Latin chant he was hearing, but that he still knew God was being praised. This caused me to reflect on how often we think the quality of worship depends on our comprehension of it. Hmmm.

And he did point out that while there were a few people who could never sing tunefully, over time most people can sing basic chant.

It may be something about how chant is "processed" by the brain. I mean, most kids sing offkey when they're little, but they usually get all the notes right in nursery rhymes (which in a way are chanted). It might be an extension of how people are usually able to produce the proper tones of voice while speaking, even if they can't hit a note while singing. Hmm. Nice neuro topic for research, because in other ways chant is not much like speech -- it's not "speak-singing" at all, like much modern song is designed to be.