Monday, November 12, 2007

Gregorian Chant workshop

We went to a two day workshop on gregorian chant, led expertly by Scott Turkington, at Saint John the Beloved in Mclean. There were 100 people at the workshop, with the knowledge of chant generally far above our own; nevertheless, we had a great time and learned a good deal. It was also a good opportunity to make connections with future friends. I'll be posting more on this later and also on questions about parish liturgy and ecclesiology which arose or gained more prominence.

How to effectively broaden and deepen the liturgical practice in one's parish is a difficult matter and, I think, there are lots of ways to get off track if one loses patience and charity.

Even if one is in a parish where latin is rare or non-existant, it seems to me that gregorian chant is excellent voice training for the choir and, for that matter, for anyone wanting to improve their vocal skills. That's the track I'm probably going to take, concentrating on the Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Pater Noster using versions in the Liber Cantualis. And just for variety, the beautiful hymn, Adoro Te Devote. There are some useful midi files here and some mp3 files here. More advanced material is at Musica Sacra.

No comments: