Chant: The Passion According to St. John

Today we'll be participating in an ancient Good Friday custom:

Paraclete invites you to take part in a Good Friday tradition that dates back to the eighth century, with the chanting of the Passion Narrative according to Saint John. Take half an hour apart from the events of the day, and listen to these sacred words, chanted by monastic members of the Gloriae Dei Cantores Schola, in Latin, in Gregorian chant.

Hear the voices of the Narrator, Christ, and the Synagogue, in this noble narration which brings to life with a dramatic immediacy the events of the Passion, as the Gospel account unfolds. Meditate on the English translation as you listen, and allow the ancient language of the text, and the special Gregorian chant tone reserved especially for this holy season, to add a new depth and solemnity to your understanding of this familiar story.

You can read along in English on the webpage.

Ash Wednesday, sans "Ashes"

I've seen several posts around deploring the ubiquity of the song "Ashes" on the first day of Lent. We were fortunate in that regard -- we went to a 4 PM Liturgy of the Word yesterday because the schola I'm in was singing that service. Here's what we sang:

Processional: The Glory of these Forty Days
Distribution of Ashes: Parce, Domine; Attende, Domine; and chanted selections from Psalm 119
Recessional: Again We Keep this Solemn Fast (inadvertently announced as "Again We Keep this Solemn Feast")

We'll also be chanting during the Stations of the Cross on Fridays. Since we're the newest choir, we've been kind of marginalized (we've been given one Sunday Mass a month -- at 7:30 AM). Now we're looking forward to introducing the rest of the parish to the dignity of chant.

Chant for Gregory's feast day

At mass today, we chanted the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus dei in honor of the feast of St. Gregory the Great. In that same spirit, here's another piece of Gregorian chant.

Ego sum panis

I hope it's not cheating, but I put a mild reverb on it because the flat acoustic of my computer corner grows wearing.

Conditor alme siderum

The schola is working on some Advent hymns, including Conditor alme siderum, better known in English as Creator of the Stars of Night. Father J., our director, advised us to lighten up in our singing, and that's what I've tried to do here.

Conditor alme siderum

More Chant: Kyrie

Chantwise, I've tried something simpler this time: the basic Kyrie. I remember learning this at daily Masses around Cincinnati.

Kyrie Eleison

This is a familiar melody, but that same familiarity makes me unsure if I'm chanting it, or just singing it.

Me, chanting

Here it is: my attempt at chant. This is the Introit for the first Sunday of Advent.

Ad te levavi

Constructive criticism is welcomed. And of course it goes without saying that I'm not perfectly happy with every single pitch, but this is the take where the cat wasn't crying in the background.

I dream of chanting

Human loves are cyclical, and now, after a dry spell of several years, my great enthusiasm is the making of music.

Before I went to college I was quite musical. I had regular piano lessons over the course of twelve years, and studied viola for three years as a teenager. My family sings all the time, and not badly, either -- my sister, in particular, has been carrying off honors and winning vocal competitions for a few years . When I went to school, however, I stopped practicing my instruments, and I stopped singing, mainly because I lacked the confidence to sound less than polished in such a public setting. My one semester of voice class was an experience so utterly confusing that I came to the conclusion that I had no talent whatsoever.

Several factors have contributed to make me more confident musically: having the privacy of my own house in which to experiment and just be silly; having acquired a violin and (more importantly) a fine piano, and falling in with some young friends who are enough like my own family that I feel comfortable making merry music with them. And after a number of years I'm finally starting to assimilate what my voice teacher was trying to pound into my head.

Right now, my huge source of motivation is the proposed schola. I have been spending every spare minute learning chant. I listen to chant. I lurk on sacred music sites looking for advice. I have downloaded the Graduale Romanum. I dream about singing (no, literally). The basic, more hymn-like chants have been easy to learn, especially as I can already read neumes and can sight-sing. Not so easy is Ad te levavi, the Introit for the first Sunday of Advent. I wonder if some chant you have to hear to learn -- I finally had to find a recording and follow along before I could understand the vocal line. Perhaps part of the problem is thinking in terms of "tune". Chant follows its own internal logic, and that doesn't necessarily bear any resemblance to the logic and patterns of other forms of music.

Maybe some of you music types out there can give me some pointers. When I figure out how to post recordings, I'll put up some of my efforts for critique.