Who’da thunk it?
Sant’Anselmo, the Roman liturgical institute (which hasn’t always been a bastion of tradition), is going to offer a Masters degree in GREGORIAN CHANT.
From CNA:
Rome university launches course on liturgical music
By Estefania AguirreRome, Italy, May 20, 2013 / 09:34 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A pontifical university in Rome has launched a master’s program in Gregorian chant and the use of the organ at Mass so as to build unity among Catholics world-wide. [I just about fell off my chair.]
“The most important thing is that music, when it is truly liturgical, creates community,” Father Jordi Piqué, dean of the Pontifical University of Saint Anselmo’s liturgical institute, said May 20.
“When one hears a Mass that is sung or the organ interpreting a beautiful melody, it’s never individualistic, it’s always as a group,” he added at the Benedictine Abbey where the university is located.
Fr. Piqué, who plays the organ, is from the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat, Spain, and was named dean of the program six months ago.
“The Pontifical Liturgical Institute has always had liturgical sources as its base and since the Second Vatican Council studies have been adapted to spread and make liturgy be valued by the faithful,” he explained.
“A very important part of liturgy is the music and chants, and now we’ve been able to unite with the Pontifical University of Sacred Music and offer this Master’s.”
The degree will require that students study Gregorian chant with “a scientific reflection” as well as seeing its central place, “directed within the liturgy.”
[…]
Read the rest there.
Great news!
Now, if only the Vatican would mandate that all seminarians learn how to say the TLM along with NO, then we’d really be headed in the right direction.
This is really great news. The next logical step would be to use the chant, wide-spread. One can always hope.
I was a bit puzzled by the phrase, “The degree will require that students study Gregorian chant with ‘a scientific reflection’.” I assume that means some musicology included in the liturgical discussions.
The Chicken
How about an online course?
Didn’t the Holy See start a school for Latin recently under Pope Benedict XVI, too? I wonder what the status of that is. Both are steps in the right direction.
OOOO-RAH! Definitely a step in the right direction.
Now, what about CDW-funded scholarships for laymen music directors to live in Rome and attend classes!
“How about an online course?”
Not quite interactive, but, here you go:
http://media.musicasacra.com/books/applied_course_chant_carroll.pdf
http://interletras.com/canticum/eng/index_tecnic_ENG.html
http://www.beaufort.demon.co.uk/chant.htm
Now, I could teach chant, but I don’t have a website :( I started a chant tutorial, online, back in the 1990’s for the USENET group, rec.arts.early-music, but we didn’t have the resources to make it interactive. I think that might be coming in a bit, as it sounds like a nice project.
The Chicken
And what to make of Piero Marini being in charge of teaching the course on V2???
(Perhaps it’s an Eye of the Tiber story?)
I sent in a comment, but it is still in moderation, that might give Scott W. some links to some very good material, on-line, about Chants. Perhaps it has too many links?
The Chicken
How do I apply?!
Yippee.