Rhetoric, Number, Measure, and Historicism
The beginnings of a response to mensuralism from the classic Solesmes point of view.
“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)
Charles Weaver is on the faculty of the Juilliard School, and serves as organist and director of music at St. Mary’s Church in Norwalk, Connecticut. His research interests include the history of music theory and the theory of plainchant rhythm. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and four children.—Read full biography (with photographs).
The beginnings of a response to mensuralism from the classic Solesmes point of view.
Every Gregorian melody is a precious gift, and every time we meet a melody again, we have a chance to consider some new aspect.
I recently appeared on Square Notes, the Sacred Music Podcast to discuss some of the basics of Dom Mocquereau’s system of Gregorian rhythm. It’s impossible to give a full treatment to such a complex topic in a mere forty minutes, but I touched on a lot of the foundational ideas, with especial emphasis on the […]
We should define our terms. What makes a syllable accented, and what makes an accent a tonic accent?
There’s nothing necessarily authentic about the “authentic” rhythm.
A brief historical survey of free rhythm in plainchant, as practiced from the modern monastic foundation of Solesmes (1833) to the present.
A few further thoughts on what ways of singing chant are “allowed.”
Ostrowski, wishing to avoid fussiness, may justifiably refuse this invitation. But to argue, as he has, that these signs and the prayerful and aesthetic movements they embody are “illicit” is just wildly off the mark.
What can medieval and renaissance music pedagogy offer to us now?
What happened to all that polyphony once Catholicism became illegal?
This can seem like a dry topic, but it actually often deals with practical issues faced by every choirmaster who wants to promote plainchant.
A look at Dom Pothier’s performance instructions for a communion antiphon reveals a great deal of complexity in this pre-Mocquereau interpretive approach.
This summer, there are several interesting graduate-level courses on offer at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York.
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