Chant news...

Many possibilities may come for our schola in the months to come. I think there may be broader appeal among the parishes in the diocese than I had originally thought. Today I had the opportunity to speak with the music director of one of the local parishes (who also has a blog). We have talked about a sort of collaboration. His choir has interest in learning more about chant, especially the nuts and bolts of reading the notation and learning more about singing it. Since they are already doing polyphony and are mostly strong note-readers, I am guessing the learning process will go more quickly. We have scheduled an initial mini-workshop for October, when I’ll give them a quick course in singing the chant, as always following Scott Turkington’s lead in the methodology.

I see a great opportunity in the diocese to gradually let more and more parts of the liturgy include Gregorian chant. Whether it is by having the schola sing the communion proper each week so that the parishioners get used to the sound of the chant, or by gradually teaching them chanted ordinaries, I think this growing interest will be shared by the parishioners as they learn more about it.