Views from the Choir Loft

What’s new with the age old chant?

Veronica Brandt · July 13, 2013 ·

REGORIO HAS A WIKI. You can find it over at gregoriochant.org. It has links to the official page, the web interfaces, even our own video tutorials! It promises to be the central place for all those quirky tips and tricks that come up on the mailing lists too. And if you want to check out the mailing lists, the links are at gregoriochant.org.

What is a wiki? The word “wiki” comes from a hawaiian word for quick. It has come to describe a webpage where people can collaborate easily, editing as they go. The idea relies on a bunch of people working together. It is exciting to see people from all over the world on the gregorio mailing lists. The open source software is helping communities everywhere communicate the music of the Church.

The latest development is a new idea for notating the old squiggly neumes known as semiology. The work is in it’s infancy, but you can see the first concepts taking shape here. The picture here shows one sort. There are several types, take Aaron Mack’s photos from Benevento Cathedral for another example. Now, I am not a semiology sort or person, but the idea of little squiggles instead of the four lines has some appeal, especially dealing with choir members who don’t read music. Perhaps pointing psalms with squiggly neumes might be easier for the musically illiterate.

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.

Could Pope St. Pius X Sing?

“On 12 March 1908, the complete publication of the Roman Gradual was issued by the Vatican Press. On that very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. A witness of the audience says that Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement pro aliquibus locis—it was the Introit of the new Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.” (Catholic Choirmaster, February 1915)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Julius Bas Accompaniment

A very prolific harmonizer of Gregorian chant in the early 20th century was Mr. Julius Bas. He often uses a very strange technique, wherein he employs rests to eliminate the Alto, Tenor, and Bass voices. Consider what he did with “Lumen ad revelationem” here:

* JPEG • Lumen ad revelationem

It seems quite lazy, and I’ve never seen anyone else use such a technique, although Dr. Peter Wagner often switched to parallel octaves when he ran out of ideas… (Yuck!)

—Jeff Ostrowski

Hitting wrong notes

Fr. Valentine Young, OFM, used to say: “The organist can play 1,000 correct notes and one wrong note—and the only thing people will care about is the wrong note.” Last Sunday I hit some wrong notes, and felt bad. Then I remembered a story about Rudolf Serkin and started to chuckle. Charles Rosen (or was it Leon Fleisher?) told the story of Serkin playing a Beethoven Sonata in front of a large audience. The theme is all in octaves; but Serkin hit some wrong notes, and played parallel 7ths instead. This so unnerved him that every time the theme returned, he played the entire thing in parallel 7ths! We must remember that even the greatest hit wrong notes. Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus, Edwin Fischer, Sviatoslav Richter, Egon Petri—they all hit wrong notes, which we can hear on recordings. (Josef Hofmann was an exception, but he was super-human so he doesn’t count!)

—Jeff Ostrowski