Looking for a user friendly learning guide for In Paradisum
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 429
    Hello,

    Both of my parents are terminally ill and have approximately 3 years left. The choir at the Cathedral they will be buried at, and where my grandmother was buried last January, doesn’t know how to sing In Paradisum, or anything in Gregorian chant or how to pronounce anything correctly in Latin. I could do it myself, but based on my previous experience trying to “perform” (not the best word, but as opposed to just the way people sing casually in the pews) funeral related music when I’m down, I don’t think I could get through it on my own without breaking down the day of.

    We do have a slight advantage as my mother’s cousin is and has been the pianist/organist and the unofficial volunteer director of music at the Cathedral for the past 35 years and we also have time on our side for them to learn it and add it to their repertoire.

    Does anyone know of (preferably free) good user friendly learning guides for singing the traditional chant version of In Paradisum including a good pronunciation guide that would be suitable for people not accustomed to singing in Latin or singing chant? An organ accompaniment may also be helpful. I don’t think they’ve ever sung anything unaccompanied before.

    Thanks!
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,440
    — solfège with them. Work on basic intervals because even if you’re the one intoning it, getting the familiar pattern from When the Saints Go Marching In will give them some success (in fact it seems apparent that this chant is the source of that melody).
    — I prefer by a long mile the Solesmes style of abbé Portier. You can download it at the Internet Archive; look for the PDF version. Also Potiron in PDF here.

    To that point I’m sure that it’s found in hymnals with round notes if square notation is too much, with accompaniment too if you have the organist’s version of the hymnal. But I’m a fan of the French style. YMMV.

    — I don’t have a short version of a pronunciation guide but I would also read the text with such a group.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 429
    solfège with them. Work on basic intervals because even if you’re the one intoning it, getting the familiar pattern from When the Saints Go Marching In will give them some success (in fact it seems apparent that this chant is the source of that melody).


    Unfortunately I live in a completely different province, let alone diocese, so I’m not really able to help teach them. I have nothing other than a Liber.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,826
    Are the only singers in that city the Cathedral choir members?
  • CGM
    Posts: 710
    Here's Flor Peeter's harmonization with an approximate pronunciation guide.
    InParadisum_FlorPeeters.pdf
    740K
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen DavidOLGC
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,493
    CCWatershed has some amazing resources.

    Go down here to Nov 2nd and Absolution of the corpse. Go to end and scroll up.


  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 429
    Are the only singers in that city the Cathedral choir members?

    No, but my mom sang in that choir and bringing in outsiders isn’t really the custom there. There is a Traditional Latin Mass in the city, but their schola isn’t particularly competent at singing Gregorian chant or intonation.
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 640
    There is a Traditional Latin Mass in the city, but their schola isn’t particularly competent at singing Gregorian chant or intonation.


    So much so that it would be simpler to teach a cathedral choir which doesn't sing chant and doesn't know Latin???
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 429

    So much so that it would be simpler to teach a cathedral choir which doesn't sing chant and doesn't know Latin???

    Believe it or not, yes. The vast majority of the choir has some sort of formal music training. The Latin Mass schola, not so much. The community itself also has a strong aversion to the OF. It’s a small insular community.
    Thanked by 1trentonjconn
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,233
    An additional help may be the recording at
    https://churchmusicassociation.org/pbc4/#155
    (item # 166)

    The recording has both the In paradisum and the Chorus angelorum, since it's common for them to be sung together.
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