In the Silence of the Word by the Carthusian Monks of Parkminster: the night offices and mass of the feast of the Holy Family. I wept when I heard them sing the first Gloria Patri.

This is captured prayer.

See here .

Well, I'm not at all ashamed to suggest many of the chanted propers and ordinaries from, at least, the last two colloquia. Though there are in some moments various issues of phasing (rhythmic imprecision), vowel purity and the omnipresent problem of sibilant s duration mid/end of phonemes, I think it's still miraculous that six scholas of people who just happened to assemble for six days FOTB can approach the Lord with such love and beauty. I know how much our directors contribute to that "success," but we have to remember we're not cloistered, we are literally all over the map. Astonishing, to me. The pure effort of active listening while singng, dedicated work efforts through the week, and the simple fact that "what is happening" is not some academic, didactic enterprise, but unadulterated worship.
I still have a profound appreciation for the sheer perfection of "Stift Heiligenkreuz," but just the last two Advanced Women scholas of CMAA give me the shivers, not to mention the virile and powerfilled grounding that still moved with fluidity among the various mens' groups.
Then, of course, there is Ecclesia Dei keeping vigil near OCP.

Those darn Benedictines from Silos and Solesmes really get to me. It must be the accents and the deeply felt connection to the words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsc8RK41VGQ

Oh, Adam . . . that link made me sick to my stomach.

: )

Chanticleer's "Mysteria" is excellent . . . and no, I'm not one to say "too excellent"; it's flawless, of course, but sounds quite prayerful, actually.

The major problem with chant CDs is that, even when you're Catholic, that doesn't necessarily mean you know what the heck the liner notes are talking about. Despite music history class and old days missal and everything else, it was only after I'd gone to CMAA stuff that I finally understood what the heck I was listening to, and was used enough to hearing people sing Latin that I could make out the Latin words, even with the help of liner notes.

(I'm notoriously bad at being able to make out recorded choral music, though, so your mileage may vary considerably.)

But of course, getting people listening at all -- that's the first and most important thing.

I second the Cantores recommendation of Jeffrey's, at least the "O Lux Beatissima" disc; I just listened to it again yesterday and it's excellent. Flawless singing, and a great selection of chant "standards." I'm going to make my wife start playing it for my kids when they're in the van!

My only quibble may be the tempos; a bit slow for me, but hey, they didn't ask me to conduct! : )

Go on rhapsody.com and type in Gregorian Chant. You will be surprised at the variations! I think it is important to hear all the well known monasteries and convents interpretations.

No chance, JT
I'm a CC kinda guy:
Charles Culbreth
Catholic Church
Creative Commons
Constantly Combative
and most importantly
curiouser and curiouser....

I'm thinking that the term Creative Commons is possibly a problem for liturgical texts. We don't exactly want to encourage creativity with texts! So maybe we should just describe CC as Catholic Commons.

It would be really cool if someone would put up a site with Catholic Commons badges and encourage Catholic bloggers to use them.

That sounds like a fantastic project.

Jeffery, I took a listen at the Cantores in Ecclesia and decided to purchase it 3 min later. Thanks for the recommendation, the different Choir sections add a lot to it. Im relatively new with this. Although in the past I have many CDs of full orchestrated works such as Bach, Handel, Beethoven(others too but mostly these for music that all though not technically Sacred Music were meant to glorify the Lord) Polyphony and Chant are things Im just getting into. I only have 2 Chant CD's (Stift and Milos Ave Maria) and two Tallis Scholars CDs. I also really like Rutter's Requiem and Magnificant, and am wondering under what sort of genre that falls under, and who else writes things such as that.

Thank you,
Keith

Thank you Adam. The texts seem to at least lean Catholic (good amount of Latin), especially the Magnificant since its about our Mother Mary.

Ill check out Sir Wilcocks.

Thanks again.

but a personal favorite is this one (Byzantine-style chant in Latin from the Knights Templar--before they got their bad rap).

Listening to it on YouTube...

Holy Kamoley!

The best CDs out are the ones published by the Abbey of Fontgambault. However, I think you have to donate money to them in order to get a copy, but it is certainly worth the small price; comparable to the price of a regular CD. They have several recordings, but the best ones are Easter, Christmas, and Assumption.