For several years, I’ve been bouncing around the idea of helping start a plainchant choir at my parish. Mainly, the idea has been bouncing around in my head, because my desire exceeds the amount of free time I can spare, as well as my expertise (which is pretty much limited to loving chant and having many CDs of early church music).
Then one of the organists at our parish said he would be willing to help coordinate a plainchant group and help with the music. He also knows of one other bass who could sing. This may come to nothing, but if the time commitment isn’t too great, I’m very excited to do it.
Anyone have any advice? How to pick music, how many voices to recruit? Your thoughts will be poured into the empty vessel that is my mind.
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Eric, I just started such a group three weeks ago at my Newman center. I don’t know if I have much advice, I just wanted to express some solidarity -there’s people like you out there. My chaplain is hoping for a real schola right away, but although there is a fair number of people interested, there is a limited number of people whose musical experience is more than murmuring along with the cantor or the radio. They picked up Psalm tones right away, though. Not everyone was in the center of the pitch, but it sounded good anyway. We are hoping to sing evening prayer at least once a week with a mix of English and Latin. Maybe we will be able to contribute to Masses next, because almost no one is satisfied with the current choir (read OCP “folk” group).
Just curious Eric – what’s the purpose? Do you ultimately want to have a group that leads singing at Parish liturgies, or do you want to start a more informal music/prayer group?
AAE has some good resources here: http://www.cantemusdomino.net/blog/archives/001004.php
On the choir end – it’s great to get at least 3-4 people on a part to begin to even out some of the issues you might find with individual voices. My group averages around 20 people total, but when I can get 30 folks together blending is easier.
What else you want to know?
We’d like to sing at one of the Masses, or at least that’s what the organist and I discussed. (I have to watch my speculations, as one of our parish priests is a regular Catholic Light reader! However, he’s also a huge fan of the Mass in Latin.)
Keep in mind we’re not talking about polyphony, John, so 3-4 people per part would be…3-4 people total. (Just teasing you!) We’d probably want to branch out to Palestrina and the lesser 16th-century composers, but at first we’d just stick with the simple stuff. We also want to encourage the congregation to sing, too.
Other questions…where to get good sheet music? How do we find advice about starting this kind of thing?
Thank you for the plug, JS.
Eric:
The Preface dialogues and other dialogues are the easiest things to start people off with.
Masses XVI and XVIII are the easiest ones melodically. Mass VIII corresponds to today’s major scale. Credo III corresponds tonally to Mass VIII.
The texts for the propers (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia/Tract, Offertory and Communion) would be easy because they’re prescribed. You may want to check out David Burt’s Anglican Use Gradual (free online), which is essentially an Englished Roman Gradual on four accessible psalm tones. (My experience with the psalm tones is the same as Alex’s – most people pick them up easily.) They may or may not get repetitive, but it’s a good stairstep while people learn more complex chanting from the Graduale Romanum.
Practical advice on learning chant may be gleaned from this article by an old German monsignor (RIP).
http://www.adoremus.org/11-00-Hellriegel.html
His advice is much easier today given all of the free MP3s available online and inexpensive CDs.
I’ve thought of the same thing, but also lacking the expertise, I’ve joined the choir at Holy Trinity, Boston to begin acquiring such skills.
However, as for advice, I have the following:
If you are going to be a strictly chant choir as opposed to polyphony, a large group is not needed, as chant is melody only. As the group solidifies and attracts new members, polyphony, using several voices becomes a possibility. But I would say that 6 would be a good minimum. (Part of the beauty of chant is not just the melodies but the unison of several voices in the melody).
As for what to sing, I’m assuming you want this group to be a liturgical group, singing for a Mass. I would begin by getting a solid repetoire of 2 or 3 Masses under the group’s belt, and perhaps doing a concert for the parish before beginning liturgical ministry. This gives you a chance to let the parish know what’s coming up, and lets you have your first public event outside of Mass — you won’t feel as bad about the inevitable mistakes as you likely would when you make them during worship.
Third, for a resource that I think is fairly recent, there’s a CD that CanticaNova is selling with many chant Masses on it which I would recommend…this will help get the group up and running quickly, and provide ample opportunity for private practice to supplement group rehearsals.
Finally, get the little booklet Jubilate Deo, as it has many printed chants and hymns for Mass, and is, I believe, less than a dollar. GIA sells it in the U.S.A. GIA and Paraclete Press in Orleans, Mass. are your best sources for straight Gregorian Chant, although CanticaNova is also a great source for chant and chant-based hymns.
Good luck and God bless!
How about the Graduale Simplex, A? Does that have most of the basic stuff? (I gave my copy to a priest since he planned on doing full-on-Latin on a regular basis.)
With respect to Latin/Chant/Schola, etc.
There’s an issue of culture shock with your typical parish. You may want to start small (chanting the proper minus the Credo) and expand into other stuff.
I say minus the Credo because there’s a point where your average American congregant doesn’t get out of Latin what they should because they don’t know it.
Sanctus, Angus Dei, etc – people know what they mean and can even grasp the words. Credo – forget it. It will take years for that to be effectively back in people’s hearts and minds…
Am I making sense at all?
The Graduale Simplex is more a book of seasonal propers set to simpler melodies. It contains:
The chants are not nearly as involved as the chants of the Roman Gradual.
Additionally, the Cantus Project is attempting to shoehorn faithful English translations into the Graduale Simplex. Read more here:
http://www.nicholasmaria.com/cantus/default.htm
JS- you meant Ordinary minus Credo, not Proper minus Credo, right?
Your points are well taken regarding a sung Credo, however, someone’s got to start the ball rolling. The chief liturgist (a.k.a. pastor) would need to shepherd in this area. The only way I can vocally participate in a sung Creed is at the indult High Mass.
Yep – Ordinary minus Credo.
I think patience is required for the chant fans out there – because a well-intentioned pastor can conservatively make changes and get buy-in rather than put the congregation thru Roman Culture Shock. It’s a sad thing, but I think it would be more prudent.
You need only need a few people, as has been noted, there’s only one melodic line in chant, although if you’re planning to include both men and women (children?), you are dealing with parallel octaves, but still everyone’s learning the same melody, not harmony lines. With enough people, you could alternate lines, say verses of a psalm, between men and women.
A small chant book I’d recommend for beginners is the Liber Cantualis, which you can get from Paraclete Press. It has some several Mass ordinaries, a number of other simple pieces that can be used around the liturgical year, plus a setting of Compline.
Are you planning on using chant notation, or modern notation? Chant notation can pose a few difficulties for those who already read modern notation, but it’s worth it in the long run. There was a book by Theodore Marier, the late, eminent chant teacher, called “Gregorian Chant Practicum”. It may still be available from Catholic University Press. There’s also a new Marier book/CD from Regina Laudis Abbey called “Gregorian Chant Master Class”. I don’t have it yet, but anything by Marier would be excellent.
Also, having a supportive, or at least sympathetic, priest, is essential.
One last thought here, particularly for you folks that felt obligated that “3-4 voices per part” means three to four voices total.
I was thinking for voice part. Then you have several men and women who can blend and you can start to also work on some of the easier latin motets.
Enough with the teasing. It’s Lent.
I conduct a chant choir at Bond Chapel, the University of Chicago, every Sunday. It is part of the 11:00 am mass for Calvert House, the Catholic Campus Ministry.
The chapel is full every Sunday.
We use Graduale Simplex, with occasioanal pieces from Graduale Romanum.
Sometimes I find a responsorial psalm refrain from Worship II or III, and we chant the verses from the lectionary to a simple tone.
I also use “By Flowing Waters.” I only use the refrains from there. We chant the psalms from the Grail Text if it is in English.
for example, during Lent I am using a latin refrain from Graduale Simplex, but the psalm verses are in English from the Grail text.
I would love to help if you have any questions.
Our parish has a small schola that sings a “latin chant” Mass once a month; we’ve been singing for several years now. We usually do only Mass XVIII because it’s what is available in the OCP Music Issue that’s in the pews. The schola is only 8 voices or so, and we do the ordinary in chant, some polyphone for prelude and offertory, traditional hymns for opening/closing/communion, and an English setting of the Psalm of the day set to the Dominican psalm tones. It’s fairly well received.
I think it’s best to start out simply and grow rather than be really ambitious from the start. As for who you get to sing, we have limited rehearsal time for our group so we are a bit picky.
I usually post the music we do on my blog; our next Sunday to sing is 3/21.
Eric, for sheet music you might want to check with Foxes Music on Lee Highway in Falls Church. They have just about everything there.