St Basil's School of Gregorian Chant - Houston
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,386
    One week away -
    Beginning Saturday, the 2nd October St Basil's School of Gregorian Chant will conduct an eight week course in chant at St Basil's Chapel at the Univ of St Thomas.
    The course will cover basic reading of chant notation and solfege, the development of chant from ancient cantillation, and its progress through the Gregorian and Carolingian periods, as well as chant in the ordinary and proper of the liturgical seasons. Guest faculty will offer lectures on the history of our liturgy, chant in mediaeval and illuminated manuscripts, and chant in the thought of Vatican II and successive Popes. Chant in both English and Latin will be taught, with emphasis laid on repertory and singing. Also, the new translation will be discussed. The course consists of three hour sessions on eight Saturday mornings and all day for the last Saturday, culminating in the solemn vigil of Christ the King. The mass will be all plainsong, featuring the Burgess-Palmer propers and Mass XII (Pater cuncta) according to Fr Columba's adaptation. All readings and the prayers of the faithful will be sung.

    This, following a winter workshop with Fr Columba, a post-Easter 8 week course, and a summer 8-week course, will be our last offering for this year.
    We resume next year with another winter workshop with Fr Kelly on the three days preceding the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

    Please pray for the success of our continuing efforts at satisfying the great thirst among Catholics for the genuine music of our faith -
    and for experiencing the Roman Rite in its inalienable integrity.
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    http://www.chantcafe.com/2010/09/st-basil-school-of-gregorian-chant.html
  • Chris_McAvoyChris_McAvoy
    Posts: 389
    If you sell videos or audio recordings of this event and they are sung well, with some rhythm I will buy a few copies.
    Well sung English language gregorian chant/adaptations for solemn masses is a rarity these days !
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,386
    Chris - We have yet to make recordings or videos of our masses, but may do so in the future and will let you know if we do. It is our policy to teach and perform chant in both English and Latin, and for our liturgies to be completely in one language or the other. They have been very well received, and the participation on the part of the congregation has been commendable. Our last mass (Assumption, in English) was celebrated by one of our cardinal's secretaries who was more than enthusiastic and sang every last word (except the sermon). His comments to the people were to the effect that this is what Vatican II told us to do! - And that they should not be afraid of, but embrace square notes. Such direct admonition from a priest with bubbling enthusiasm makes all the difference in the world. (Incidentally, for our classes and liturgies the organ, other than for voluntaries, is not used even for so much as to give a pitch, and the singing is robust.)
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,609
    Do you...rent this secretary out to scholas in need?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,386
    Noel - Sorry! He's not ours to rent. We are just fortunate not only to have the cardinal we have, but that he chooses men like this for his 'familia'. Our next mass (Christ the King) will be celebrated by the superior of the Basilians at the Univ of St Thos. He, also, loves chant and sings a beautiful mass in English or Latin. He also sings a beautiful gospel to his own Byzantine-derived tone. Unfortunately, he is being transferred to Toronto next year - the bishop there wants him in some scholarly capacity.
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 834
    Amazing: there's such a difference between dioceses!
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,386
    If one had given the impression that this whole archdiocese is anywhere near what we are doing at St Basil's UST, or at Walsingham, one would have been greatly misapprehended. This diocese, in fact, has a reputation for being one of the worst musically and liturgically in the nation. Not that improvement is not being made here and there. We are supremely fortunate, though, to have a cardinal who loves sung liturgy, always sings it wherever he goes, and 'intimates' that everyone should do likewise. As we know, obedience to superiors is not a universal attribute of those in holy orders, whatever their rank. If it were, Catholic liturgy would not be in the straights it is.
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