Recordings data base to accompany the new Parish Book of chant
  • Paul G
    Posts: 1
    Hello all, g'day from Australia


    Our Catholic parish has recently begun trying to learning the recently published book of Gregorian Chant from Musicasacra. We are working on the parts of the Mass to start with, and we hope to slowly re introduce this beautiful lost music to our Holy Mass, where it belongs.

    My limited voice and musical knowledge is helping the group read the four line staff, but good quality recordings of the various Mass settings: De Angelis,Factor Orbis, Pater Cuncta, Deus Genitor etc etc as well as the antiphons for the different liturgical seasons, the responses and eventually the beautiful hymns would help the less musically literate a lot.

    There does not appear to be any place on the web where interested people can down load quality recordings of this chant to listen and learn.

    Does such a resource exist? These musical treasurers of the Holy Church , this beautiful sacred music should be made as widely accessible as possible for the laity to learn. ( Second Vatican Council, although its 46 years late ) Any direction from those on this site, with much more knowledgeable than I, hope fully know something.

    Can anyone provide assistance.

    Thanks

    Paul G
  • Hello Paul,

    I certainly understand your situation. I can recall when just beginning just how much work it took for us to learn the basic ordinaries of the Mass with square note notation, unfamiliar Latin pronunciation and lack of familiarity with the melodies. I am sure you are aware of the online recordings available at the Christus Rex site and also the Belgian women's schola. We used them a great deal when we first began. That being said, we did find that it was sometimes easier to hear the little nuances of the various chants when sung simply by one voice unaccompanied. I began making simple recordings just for use by our schola to aid with practice. I would imagine that probably this has happened with quite a few scholae... and probably none of us are happy enough with the recordings to want to make our humiliation on the world wide web universal :)

    That being said... if you have a list of particular chants you are working on, I, and probably others as well who record practice chants for use by their schola members, would be happy to share with you.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Dear Paul G,

    I hope to post those resources soon here.

    However, until that time, you can E-mail me at jeff@ostrowski.cc and I will send you the Masses you desire.

    In Christ,

    JMO
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,464
    There is a Spanish site that has all the propers recorded. Anyone know it?
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    Here it is. It's actually St. Benedict's Monastery in São Paulo, Brazil.