Maronite Chant • IS THIS SIMILAR TO GREGORIAN CHANT???
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Here's an example of MARONITE CHANT from the MARONITE RITE (video).

    QUESTION: In what way do you think that it resembles Gregorian chant??


    LEARN MORE about the Maronite Rite.

    image

    LEARN MORE about the Maronite Rite.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,415
    Unison. That's the primary artistic criteria that aligns with GC for me, Jeff.
    Heritage, patrimony, tradition are geneological components that both chant forms share.
    Beautiful, yes, though that's an attribute of the chant and its performance.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 12,041
    The Maronite Church may very well be the most "Latinized" of the eastern churches. So any resemblance would not be surprising.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,490
    I was struck by how rhythmic it is- so much so, that I wouldn't have called it "chant" if I some didn't tell me. I can easily imagine drum beats at certain points, and I almost want to get up and dance to it (I won't... I'll pray the rosary instead...).
    Clearly the mode is not western- it jumps out as Arabic or generally middle-eastern, as does the tremolo ornamentation (what's that called?).
    So those are the differences, of course (along with language).

    Similarities... again, unison obviously.
    Which also means that the music is based on melody, rather than harmony.
    Primacy of the text. I don't know what they're saying, but it's clear that the words are the important thing: the style is altogether declamatory.

    It makes me wonder a little bit if what we now know as Gregorian chant sounded a little more like that 1700 or 1800 years ago.

    Also, it really reminded me of:
    This recording
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    This is not a purely musical observation, but there is alternation between the soloists and the whole choir, which gives it a dialogic nature similar to most Gregorian chant.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    imageOK: Which of the Charles is the one I've met at two Colloquia who's wife is Wendy C. ?? My brain REFUSES to remember this. Can you possibly change your alias to your whole name? My brain would VERY MUCH appreciate this, if possible.

    I'm sorry I am so dumb, but I have a really hard time with these things.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 12,041
    That's Charles in CenCA.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,415
    Well, Jeff, you got lots on yer mind!
    Here's an associative: WINE/CALIFORNIA.....WINE/CALIFORNIA....WINE/CALIFORNIA.
    Is that a nmemnomic? (sp?)
    And I remain the one who's in a sling until at least late August from two shoulder dislocations in nine days.
    The barstools were really quite tall.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    now I'm even more confused !!!!
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,415
    Jeff, just think of moi via my better half-
    Chas.C vis a vis Wendy C.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 887
    So what do the Maronite Chant scores look like?
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,237
    I'll quibble with the "Arabic" characterization and say that it sounds Slavic.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,090
    We're fortunate to have Eastern Catholic parishes of various particular Churches in the area, including the Maronite parish whose choir is featured in the video.

    Similarly decorated cantorial singing can be heard in some Melkite parishes, whose rite is different (Byzantine instead of Antiochene) but whose people also come from the Middle East: from Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt. This music survives among first-generation immigrants who experienced it in their 'old country', but it is hard to preserve among the faithful born in this country.
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    like chrism, i would enjoy seeing a score to this music
  • vincentuher
    Posts: 134
    The video gives you a good sense of traditional Maronite Chant. Sister (Soeur) Marie Keyrouz for many years recorded and gave sacred concerts of Maronite and Melkite music. Ancient Maronite Chant (and most of it is truly ancient) is very austere in the respect that only voices are singing in unison. Also, very early in the development of the chant certain native instruments were designated as sacred instruments that could be used especially at the Resurrection of the Lord. One of my favourite Maronite Chants is for Theophany (Epiphany of the Lord) entitled Baytoun maghara. Hearing the oldest chants in Aramaic always moves me very deeply.

    The variations of music considered Maronite Chant include some more modern compositions that should rather be called Maronite hymns or songs. On some chants an ison is used in both modern and ancient chants.

    Related to this category of sacred music are the Maronite and Melkite chants and songs Fairouz -- the most famous singer in the Arab world and a Christian -- has performed at her Good Friday sacred concerts in Beirut. Some of that music can be heard online, and it is still possible to purchase in some quarters a recording she made of a Good Friday concert in the 1960's.

    The Maronites have suffered the same pressures to "liven things up" and "get with it". But with the calling of Pope John Paul II to rediscover the authenticity of their church's Liturgy and Chant and Pope Benedict's support of the same, a great deal is being done to return the Maronite Church to its centre. "The Spirit of Vatican II" aka Zeitgeist by any other name has been a tremendous pressure on the Maronites, and this pressure comes from prelates in the Latin Rite who were great fans of Bugnini... enough said.
  • Chris_McAvoyChris_McAvoy
    Posts: 385
    The main reason this has a stronger rhthmic element to it is because it is a type of hymn.
    Eastern churches use more hymn like compositions often times than does the western church.
    (save for sequences)

    It is not very melismatic.

    Another reason this has a stronger rhythmic element to it is because it is more of a living oral tradition than is gregorian chant. gregorian has become often more sterile due it it being a chant based more solely on reading straight out of the book... and not as much memorized by hearing an old master sing it, as the blind cantors of the coptic church.

    This is very beautiful, very ancient in style, and a great example of eastern christian chants.
    Thanked by 1hilluminar
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