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Views from the Choir Loft

The modern armchair chant scribes

Veronica Brandt · February 14, 2015

Medieval writing desk N THE BEGINNING, PEOPLE LEARNT Gregorian chant by ear. Later it was transcribed into marks on vellum, painstakingly copied by hand. Then the printing press made paper copies which could be distributed far and wide. Now we have liquid crystal displays interpreting little packets of bits into images of sheet music and lasers fixing little particles of black to sheets of paper in the same images from the comfort of our own homes.

Medieval scribes used quill, ink and a scraper. Today a scattered group of musical technicians (or technical musicians) use GregoBase.

What is GregoBase?

GregoBase is a database of Gregorian Chant, arranged so that you (yes, you!) can log in and proof read the transcriptions and either make corrections or add corrections to the “Please fix” list for other gabc technicians to fix.

There are thousands of scores in the database already, with more being added. Books being transcribed range from the 1908 Vatican Graduale Romanum to the much more recent three volume Antiphonale Monasticum from Solesmes. The Liber Usualis is well covered.

Each score can be downloaded in several formats to suit every desktop publishing requirement. Most also come with a scan of the source page so proof reading can be accomplished even if you don’t have your own copy of the book.

Scores are indexed by first letter (or Incipit), by usage (Introit, Gradual, Varia, etc.) or by source book. There is also a tag system which will allow browsing by feasts and seasons.

Even my mother is using this. You can use this too! Enjoy GregoBase!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorio Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • Gorgeous Book

If there is a more beautiful book than Abbat Pothier’s 1888 Processionale Monasticum, I don’t know what it might be. This gorgeous tome was today added to the Saint John Lalande Online Library. I wish I owned a physical copy.

—Jeff Ostrowski
Sound Familiar?

1 June 1579: “The chapter passes a rule that anyone ascending to the new organ without official permission shall be fined a month’s pay.”

26 October 1579: “The altar boys remain always separate and distinct from choirboys—the one group learning only plainchant and assisting at the altar, the other living with the chapel-master and studying counterpoint and polyphony as well. Father Francisco Guerrero postpones his departure for Rome and instead spends the entire year in Seville making ready for the trip. In the meantime he neglects his choirboys. On 16 November, after considerable complaint against their unruliness and ignorance, he engages an assistant, Bartolomé Farfán.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

When you consider that the greatest hymns ever written—the plainchant hymns—are pushing the age of eight hundred and that the noble chorale hymn tunes of Bach date from the early eighteenth century, then what is the significance of the word “old” applied to “Mother at Thy Feet Is Kneeling”? Most of the old St. Basil hymns date from the Victorian era, particularly the 1870s and 1880s.

— Paul Hume (1956)

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