My, how things never change!
  • Voce
    Posts: 16
    Under the category of "there is nothing new under the sun," check out this review written in 1851 of the then-new "Lambillote's Antiphonary of St. Gregory:"
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    We are pleased but not surprised to find that the subject of Ecclesiastical music is attracting increased attention both in this country and on the Continent. Amongst ourselves it is beginning to be felt, that melody of hearts, and voices, and instruments, is an acceptable offering by way of worship to God and our Redeemer. And further, that the most dignified and appropriate mode of conducting that worship publicly, is not by employing therein the voice, and gestures of secular and ordinary conversation, but by the adoption of peculiar tones and manner consecrated to that employment alone, and distinguished from the familiar talk of men in the world. Moreover, it has been at last discovered, that it was not necessary to turn the noble words of inspiration into doggerel, before they could be repeated as songs of praise to their Divine Author,—that a dialogue between a Clergyman and a vulgar parish clerk was not exactly the mode in which the inspired Psalmody of Scripture ought to be uttered ; and so the chanting of the Psalms, of Anthems, and Introits is gradually recovering its proper place amongst us. Nor are devout and Catholic minds content any longer that the nasal ditties of the conventicle should encumber the ground which should have been occupied long ago by the ancient hymnology of the Church. In the Roman communion a similar spirit is prevailing: and it is gratifying to observe the repugnance which is now beginning to be shown to the operatic airs and cantatas, which for a long period have been borrowed from the theatre, and forced into an unnatural union, in their churches both at home and abroad, with the most solemn and beautiful words of the divine offices.

    Now to those who make the public praise and adoration of GOD their study and delight,—who would invest it with as much dignity and beauty as man is capable of giving it,—it has always appeared that the Gregorian intonation was, so far as music was concerned, better adapted to attain that object than any other. It has with it, as the compiler of the volume before us remarks, in a singular manner the saviour of unity. It has formed the staple of church music, as we know, for eleven hundred years at least. It brings us into fellowship with the multitudes of saints, confessors, martyrs, bishops, and other holy persons, who have used mainly these very tones in their worship from the earliest period of Christianity ....
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    Nasal ditties and theatrical music at mass in 1851?? Gregorian chant making a rebirth? So maybe we shouldn't blame it all on Vatican II!
    Jeffrey Tucker, did your great grandfather write this? :)
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Wow, what a time. Sacred music is constantly being discovered. It must always have been so, and thank goodness for it. We inherit, we learn, we sing, and then others take over, and thus does true beauty, the union of art and faith, extend from age to age. What a privilege to be called to be part of it.
  • Voce
    Posts: 16
    I should have included the reference: The Ecclesiologist, 1851, vol 9, p. 378. The whole article is online at

    http://books.google.com/books?id=se1JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA378&dq=Lambillote's+Antiphonary+of+St.+Gregory&hl=en&ei=xSbWTLt7wvvwBo7H-LML&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

    and the book that was reviewed is online at

    http://books.google.com/books?id=DwdcAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16&dq=Antiphonaire+de+Saint+Gr%C3%A9goire&hl=en&ei=1SnWTK2fBYG78gaR5rXDBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

    Lambillote, by the way, was a Jesuit who was on the hunt for old Gregorian chant manuscripts somewhat before the good monks at Solesme. His 1851 publication contained his transcription of a late 8th century Gregorian chant manuscript from the Benedictine Abbey at St. Gall, Switzerland...thought to have been brought there from Rome. Lambillote's transcription stimulated a lot of interest in the old chants at that time, and though it seems he made some errors, was thought to be ahead of his time in trying to unravel the old neumes. Bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lambillotte
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    That is such an exciting book. It has lots of great graphics.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    For reasons I don't fully understand, Lambillotte's PANIS ANGELICUS was the absolute favorite of my high school singers.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Well, JO, for one thing, it is less ostentatious than another setting that also perseveres to this day.
    This is a very compelling realization. I'm living it now with a concert project that features the works of American catholic composers from that very era. We've mentioned Albert RoSewig; having now completed a choral arrangement of one of his "Ave Maria" settings, I had been very conflicted about whether there was any intrinsic worthiness in the original that justified any performance. Having now heard it live and realized, it will serve the purpose of the concert. One simply has to realize that a lot of American victorian composition for liturgy amounts to little more than warmed over Mozart/Haydn, Brahms, with an occasional foray into nativistic originality (Fairlamb's Te Deum in F.) This stands in contrast with the villancicos we're also preparing. The Peters Mass in D, at least, had a long shelf life apparently- he died at the start of the Civil War, but church choirs were singing the Mass into the 90's. Was it the "Mass of Creation" of half that century?
    And that N. Montani was the primary agent of the discrediting of his predecessors is, to me, an irony of huge proportions. Nothing, as in all matters of taste, really ever changes.
    And over in the quiet corner, chant waits, ever-patient and at the ready to move from the monastery to the naves and choirs of cathedrals and churches.
    But we'll doubtless continue to debate stuff like "MacMillan v. Marty" just for blood sport. It's what we do.
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