Corpus Christi Watershed recently released this Brand new publication: Gregorian chant Responsorial Psalms with organ accompaniment for the complete Year A Liturgical year.
Regarding the practice of organ accompaniment of Gregorian chant, there have been literally hundreds of articles written defending it, and hundreds of articles condemning the practice. However, Rev. Msgr. Leo P. Manzetti has written an article that is . . . well, let’s just say I’ve never read anything like it. (By the way, Corpus Christi Watershed has made Manzetti’s organ accompaniments to chant available at the Lalande Library.) Here is a sample of this extremely interesting article:
Would it not sound rather strange, for instance, were it laid down as an aphorism, as is done for the accompaniment of the Chant, that the high dignitaries of Church and State, who accompany their sovereign, be he Pope, King or President, are out of place and detract from his great dignity and supreme prerogatives; that, at all events, they are not to show a personal individuality, but should be mere mechanical robots? If, as Dom Desrocquettes of the Benedictine Order of Solesmes writes, “The Gregorian melodies, to be really themselves, must be heard without accompaniment” then any supreme sovereign, to be really himself, must never be accompanied. Obviously such a fantastic speculation is not sound in principle. On the contrary, the Pope shows to better advantage in the midst of his attendants.
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