Michigan: Gregorian chant workshop for beginners

4 Comments

1. MargoB says:

   29 September 2008 at 7:53 AM

   Fr. Z, some of your words — at least on my screen — are crossed off/have a line through them. But the info is correct, per Fr. Rob’s blog. Commenting here in case it’s not just my computer.

   ~Margo
2. Scott W. says:

   29 September 2008 at 8:10 AM

   Save the music, save the liturgy.

   Rich Leonardi posted a quote from Tracy Rowland’s book, Ratzinger’s Faith:
   The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI:

   Benedict believes that the Mass is a Holy Sacrifice, offered ritually as worship, not a fellowship meal, that those who attend do so for the purpose of Divine Worship, that music which is based on most contemporary popular musical forms is completely unworthy, and that everything that is related to the Mass and other liturgies of the Church should be marked by beauty. Beauty is not an optional extra or something contrary to a preferential option for the poor. It is not a scandal to clothe sacred words in silken garments. Catholics are not tone deaf philistines who will be intellectually challenged by the use of a liturgical language or put off by changeless ritual forms.

   As a musician who has performed everything from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis to the heaviest of metals and still retains sympathy for all of it, this is spot on. Save the music, save the liturgy. (And what follows of course is Father Z’s baileywick: save the liturgy, save the world. :))

   At this point, usually someone dives down the subjectivist escape hatch. But it is one thing to say music is highly subjective, but another to say it is soley subjective. The fact is that attempts to make liturgy “relevant” by adopting pop-culture sensibilities means only one thing: that the Faith is just another disposable commodity among thousands.
3. RichR says:

   29 September 2008 at 11:58 AM

   The men’s Gregorian chant group that I sing in has been thinking of doing something like this for our locals. We plan to use the worship aid, The Mass of Vatican II Ignatius Press), as our ultimate goal in teaching chant to the people. We will go over basics in reading, pronouncing, and singing chant, then we will move into the Mass parts of the Missal of Paul VI.

   The result will be a general competency not simply in chant, but in chanting a Mass. We hope the people will see the next logical step: “Now that we know how to sing a Latin Pauline Mass, why don’t we ask Fr. to do one?”
4. Scott W. says:

   29 September 2008 at 12:17 PM

   “The men’s Gregorian chant group that I sing in has been thinking of doing something like this for our locals.”

   Good on ya! Dr. Blosser posted recently about the use of propers and how we need to break the “Four Hymn Sandwich” stranglehold on liturgical music here:

   http://pblosser.blogspot.com/2008/09/tridentine-community-news_28.html

   And Fr. Z has a link to it, but if you have not checked it out, see The New Liturgical Movement blog for sources: http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/

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