I passed this along to an organist friend and CMAA member who is not on the forum, and while my theory background isn't strong enough to get a ton out of this, he found it massively helpful, and said he will be listening back again and practicing some of the techniques you describe. Very good!

Super cool! Can't wait to watch this one tonight. You're opening a whole new world for me with this! As you say, learning to accompany chant from the square notes offers unlimited flexibility.

I find it fascinating in the other video when you explained that you can modulate your accompaniment to suit the needs of your schola, congregation and even to suit the liturgical season. That really blew my mind. : )

The possibilities are endless indeed.

Hi Aaron,

I was thinking about doing demonstrations of each mode, with harmonic patterns and ideas, so your request has solidified that plan for me. Can't promise how quickly I'll get them done, but I'll be working on it.

Patrick

. . . now if only you could publish your own accompaniment of the Kyriale, I wouldn't have to overcome such a steep learning curve at my advanced age. : )

I'm very partial to the luminous chant accompaniments on the Schola Bellarmina CD set of the propers. Are you familiar with them?

An example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=11&v=nuZqqZDkDJ4

An example of Fontgambault accompaniments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klddb5e70-c&index=25&list=RDnuZqqZDkDJ4

I altered my comment, because apparently I can't read.


That CD set is marvelous! Now I need to buy it.... Too bad I don't get paid.

Next video is up, this one on accompanying Mode I

Yes, sometimes a nice 8' flute and 8' string in the swell for left hand, with a rather stodgy 8' diapason on the great (and a 4' if really needed) for melody can be very helpful on the antiphons. Keep psalms on swell/choir with softer registrations. It can be nice to alternate choir/swell during the psalm with the alternatum. But with chant tempo, most of all, don't be afraid to push them, but never get too far ahead. [[sidenote: I do recall pulling some gnarly reeds on one particularly frustrating occasion when the seminarians were several beats behind and about 3/4 step flat during a procession. Definitely took care of that problem. But I wouldn't generally recommend that approach!]]

Re: the overzealous ones... assure them that even the SSPX happily accompanies chant on the organ, so it must not be intrinsically evil ;-) In my seminary time (FSSP), I had to deal with a few lads who thought that the organ itself was superfluous, always and everywhere. Wow.

flat seminarians

Doesn't that usually happen right before their ordination?

Thanks very much for the latest installment, 32CB! The light is beginning to dawn. I have been experimenting with Mode I propers that I have on hand and writing in chord names as you suggest, and it works! Just like that. It's magic. : )

I can't believe I can look at square notes now and begin to see harmonization patterns. I'm so used to seeing only a melodic line. As you say, it's so liberating to realize that if one could become adept at this method, all you'd need is a page of square notes, and you're good to go. No more accompaniment books in your music bag. My 13 y/o daughter is learning with me as we go along, so I imagine she'll be far better than I am someday if she continues along. (She's already better now! Mom's brain is rusty.)

I have to say that this has inspired me greatly! Also, shout out to Ben Yanke who posted your link on Chant Cafe and Facebook. I watched the whole video when I got into the office this morning, and I spent the last hour tinkering with the organ for tonight's rehearsal! I'm learning the organ out of necessity, since my very accomplished organist graduated last year. I find that harmonizing my own accompaniment is far easier than reading notes on a page with text. I was already doing this to modestly improvise during some interludes in our TLM, but I'm not trained in modal theory. I found that I was already following most of your rules (most of the time), and that gave me hope for accompanying my schola again.

Also, I can't thank you enough for your quick lesson on registration! My last organist always did things WAY TOO LOUD, and that was something I wanted to avoid, since we have 5 regular singers in the schola. I'll be catching up on the rest of your video posts during the week (hopefully).

Video 4 is uploading now (23:43 5/6), on accompanying Mode II

Dude this is seriously good stuff. People remember good stuff like this. For centuries.

Curious to know about accompanying the credo. I've been using the already notated ones cos they are so easy to read but my conductor has developed a semiology system and it's hard to follow these notated accompaniments. I want to move closer to the chant notation. I'm so fixed doh it's kinda nuts. I so far have succeeded in easier transposition from notated scores but I don't know how to choose the chords. I will watch all these videos before I head off to the colloquium. Sounds like good plane watching.

Anybody keen to catch up at Colloquium and help me out please?

I haven't stopped watching and it's so many hours later :P thanks for making them!