Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Godspeed!” (9 Oct 2023)
“It is all too easy to be lured away from a common-sense interpretation of the oldest sources by the siren song of beautiful, polished performances according to some other style.” —Patrick Williams
Vollaerts Revisited
“The time is ripe to reconsider the contributions of Fr. Jan Vollaerts to Gregorian musicology.” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Nuances of Nuances” (28 Sep 2023)
“Reading deliberate ‘nuances’ into normal variations in handwriting is a solution in search of a problem.” —Patrick Williams
Active Participation or Not?
“Somehow, an amplified soloist drowning out everyone else is deemed ‘active participation,’ but a choir of thirty voices singing polyphony is not.” —Patrick Williams
Concerning Alterations to the Vatican Edition
“I cannot imagine any justification for making such an alteration and still claiming that one’s edition corresponds to the Vaticana.” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Mocquereau on Trial” (16 Sep 2023)
“The burden of proof is on the one who persists in ignoring the evidence.” —Patrick Williams
Report from St. Louis Chant Workshop with Marcel Pérès
“I would characterize the sound as heavy and visceral in contrast to the soaring and ethereal aesthetic of the Solesmes style of chant.” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Check the Date!” (19 Aug 2023)
“The oldest rhythmic sources are reliable. Study them for yourself and don’t take my word for anything!” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Offertory • “Exaltabo te Domine”
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Ash Wednesday
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Patrick’s Fifth Reply to Jeff” (24 July 2023)
“Now all you have to do is connect the dots for yourself.” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Tradition, Beauty, and Musicality” (16 July 2023)
“How delightful it would be to hear chants sung beautifully in a style that hasn’t been recorded hundreds of times already!” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Williams Responds to Weaver” (12 July 2023)
“What is to be gained from outdated scholarship and an anachronistic aesthetic that cannot be better accomplished by a return to the oldest sources?” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “Patrick’s Fourth Reply to Jeff” (4 July 2023)
“It is disingenuous and ludicrous to inject the notion of hallucination and magic into the historical narrative.” —Patrick Williams
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • Video: “Introduction to Mensuralism” (28 June 2023)
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video has to be worth at least 1.8 million words.” —Dr. James McQuivey
“Text-Informed Performance Practice in Chant”
“The older responsorial method is more in accord with a right understanding of this text.” —Patrick Williams