Video • “Counting Gregorian Chant” … according to Dom Mocquereau’s Method
The example chosen is the strenuous offertory (“Jubiláte Déo”) for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.
Dom Mocquereau
“Solesmes Method” • Where was it developed?
Father Ralph March wrote: “If any single man could deserve the title father of the renewed chant it would be Dom Joseph Pothier.”
Who Can Guess This Melody? • (Rorate Mass)
… from the “Roman Gradual” (1912) edited by Max Springer, a famous Gregorianist of the Beuron school.
Gregorian Rhythm Wars • “On the Nuance Theory of Plainchant”
A brief historical survey of free rhythm in plainchant, as practiced from the modern monastic foundation of Solesmes (1833) to the present.
PDF Download • Mocquereau on Trochee Trouble
This can seem like a dry topic, but it actually often deals with practical issues faced by every choirmaster who wants to promote plainchant.
PDF Download • Professionally-Scanned “Graduale Romanum” (Schwann, 1908) • 1,129 pages!
This is the “pure” Vatican Edition—technically the only version of the rhythm allowed by Church documents!
“I’ll be back next year … but with my entire choir!”
“The symposium exceeded all of my expectations.” — Pediatrician, Choirmaster, and Mother of Six Children
“Chant Rhythm Wars” • Dueling Lectures!
Ostrowski Vs. Weaver: Solesmes Rhythm, Gregorian Semiology, Dom Mocquereau, Dom Pothier, Mensuralism, and more!
Photograph • Dom André Mocquereau (d. 1930)
Dom Mocquereau, prior to becoming a monk, was a soldier in the Franco-Prussian War.
Our Daily Prayer • Sacred Music Symposium 2022
“My God, my Father, and my All, I am ready and willing to accept from Thy hands this day…”
A Curious Rhythmic Detail in Tomorrow’s Jubilus
Occasionally the Solesmes rhythmic markings are surprising, as in one of tomorrow’s alleluias. Can we make sense of this?
Gregorian Chant • “Its True & Authentic Rhythm”
For this coming Sunday (Passion Sunday), there’s only one “MMV” singers must observe—and I placed a little arrow above it.
Seriously? • Bishop of Lexington Insists the Dominican Rite Never Existed (!)
These problematic assertions by Bishop Stowe will have to be withdrawn at some point.
The Responsa ad dubia and the Solesmes Chant Restoration
The early history of Solesmes plainchant research provides a historical parallel for responding to current Vatican liturgical rules.
“Slanty Wampus” Doesn’t Count
From one of my composition teachers…