VA-MD-DC CMAA Chapter Event
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    Dear Chant Enthusiast,

    On Saturday, November 21st, as a follow-up to our most successful Chant Workshop, St. John the Beloved, McLean, VA will be offering a one-day opportunity for advanced chant studies. On hand for direction and leadership will be myself; Richard Rice, SJB resident chant conductor/composer; and Elizabeth Poel, director of scholas and teacher of Ward in the Front Royal, VA area. We will be preparing the Proper chants for the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the same Propers as the Votive Mass of the BVM which the schola sang for the Mass in the National Shrine Crypt Church.

    Participants who would like to tackle these more advanced chants, as well as those who would simply like to observe and refresh their skills, are welcome to attend. Please bring your Parish Book of Chant. The Propers will be furnished.

    Though no tuition will be charged, participants are encouraged to donate (suggested $10-20.00 )to the cause, to defray costs. You are welcome to eat lunch together with everyone attending at a local restaurant. We will order from the menu at the beginning of the day to save time.

    Father McAfee will offer the TLM at 1:30 p.m.

    Schedule:

    9:30 - rehearsal
    10:25 - break
    10:35 - rehearsal
    11:30 - lunch at Dominion Restaurant, Old Dominion Rd. (ordered in the morning so we don't have to wait)
    12:30 - warm-up for Mass
    1:30 - Mass
    3:00 - finished

    Please RSVP via this email address as soon as possible. I shall send you a return email with confirmation of the event.

    Looking forward to seeing you again!

    Most sincerely,
    David B. Lang, Master of Music
    Saint John the Beloved
    McLean, VA
    dlangee@yahoo.com
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    Last Saturday, November 21, St John the Beloved Parish in McLean, Virginia, sponsored a workshop on Gregorian chant, organized by David Lang, St John's master of music. The workshop, a follow-up to the very successful September pilgrimage to the National Shrine, focused on the Mass for feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Richard Rice provided instruction and practice in the Mass propers (Introit, Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion), and Elizabeth Poel led the chants of the Mass ordinary (Mass IX with Gloria XV). The morning was spent on instruction, followed by a convivial lunch at a nearby restaurant.

    Upon returning to the parish, the twenty or so participants made their final preparations to sing for the Mass that followed. Fr. Franklyn McAfee, pastor emeritus of St John's, offered a Missa cantata according to the 1962 Missal for the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. The music for Mass was fittingly concluded by a piece from the Triptych by Gerald Near, played by Richard Fitzgerald, organist at St Bernadette's in Silver Spring, Maryland.

    Several participants expressed the hope that this would be the first of many such endeavors.
  • Brian Kiernan
    Posts: 24
    The workshop was absolutely outstanding. Given that participants had participated in prior training with Scott Turkington, Richard Rice was able to assume and refer back to Scott's instruction on basic matters of neums, modes, rhythm, and the like and was able to immediately address more subtle aspects of rhythm, off-ictus accents, conducting, and dynamic rendering of larger rhythmic groups, etc. Richard's instruction was superb. I only wish it would have been longer.

    I hope CMAA will offer similar advanced chant studies in the future.
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    Congratulations! Sounds like a wonderful success. I'm hoping that local chapters around the country will follow your lead and organize these kinds of specialized, one day events!
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