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What's the first Gregorian chant a choir should learn?Colleagues: About a week ago I made the request of what chants would work well for use in the rehearsal as a means of building phrasing and a sense of line. I found several excellent resources, the most beneficial being the chants found on the Choral Public Domain Library Thank you all for your responses. They were: -- Try "Adoro Te devote" (tune name) in many hymnals -I know it's in the Episcopal and Presbyterian - with several versions of the text , lilke maybe Humbly I adore Thee. David dmccorm(a)erols.com -- I would start with a hymn, like "Creator alme siderum," but there are lots. The hymns have short , syllabic melodies, and several text verses, thus you can learn the melody relatively quickly and nuance the text, which is very important in chant singing. We do a chant to open every concert, not because it's musically necessary, but because I feel it's necessary to expose my students to this vast repertoire. Best, Paul Meers American University of Beirut -- There are 3 (if I remember) relatively easy and pretty chants associated w/ Knut Nystedt's "Kyrie" from his THanksgiving Mass. It's a very powerful piece as well...could use it and kill 2 birds...hope this helps Chris Harris -- I've used K. Lee Scott's arrangement of "Gracious Spirit, Dwell With Me" for this purpose. It is based on the processional chant "Adoro te devote" (1697). The piece is technically easy, for 2-part mixed choir. You could write out the chant (without bar lines, of course) and copy it for the choir to read before turning to the Scott arrangement. It is set for organ accompaniment and published by Augsburg Publishing House (11-2198), and worked well for us. I'm sure there are many others, too. Good luck... Sincerely, George Berglund Director, Sanctuary Choir Golden Valley Lutheran Church 5501 Glenwood Avenue Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422 -- If you have not yet tried chant, you might start with one that is relatively syllabic. "Ut queant laxis" is most interesting. This hymn was the one from which Guido D'Arrezzo derived the solfa syllables. The first notes of each phrase make a rising scale, and Guido used the starting syllable for each line to arrive at "UT RE(sonare) MI(ra) FA(muli) SOL(ve) LA (biis?)" (no TI in the six-note scale of his day). It is not hard to learn (one verse anyway), and made an effective opener to our concert one December. Fred Ford East Brunswick, NJ -- Adoro Te... Try an Episcopal hymnal 1940.. If you can locate a Liber Usualis in the reference dept of your music library, that would contain much Gregorian chant... It might be in the old notation.. Pat Maimone Post Chapel, West Point -- the Hodie from A Ceremony of Carols is an actual chant, and my girls love to do the opening sequence from Sound of Music. the Liber Usualis is available through Music Mart Inc. mike reisig thousand oaks hs, ca -- One wonderful piece is Guido d'Arezzo's "Ut Queant Laxis"; it has proven as useful as is the solfegio system that came from it. The Julliard School of Music published quite a few chants edited by none other than Gustave Reese way back in 1965 and they are lots of fun to do. Norton's "Anthology of Medieval Music" (ed. by Richard H. Hoppin) has a great collection of Troubadour Vers among other things. On the technique you mentioned, check out Wilhelm Ehmann's "Choral Directing" published by Augsburg back in 1968; he has a whole chapter on the art of unison singing that is just full of fantastic ideas. Please let me know how things go. M. Gray -- I can't reccomend a specific chant, but there is a great article in this months Choral Journal that may be of some assistance. It gives tips on how to teach chant and reccomends literature sources. Good luck! Josh Viles Choral Conducting Student Western Washington University -- Your letter regarding chant music came to my attention through Choralist. If you would be so kind as to visit my web site: http://mustec.bgsu.edu/~wallace , you will find, "We Are One," with text, listed there. The piece is briefly described and graded in difficulty. It is based on "Dies Irae" and concerns the events of 9-11. Vocal ranges are included. A score and tape is available at your request. Simply click on the colored word, "choral" and the proper portion of my web site will appear. Thanks for your consideration. Wallace De Pue Composer -- The "pange lingua" has always worked well for me. --- George Hughes --- choralcat(a)earthlink.net -- "adoro te devote" should be found in the catholic liber usualis. great idea! that is my all-time favorite chant. good luck! Phil Micheal Director of Music Jefferson Ave. Presbyterian Church (A great place to be!) Detroit, Michigan church website: www.japc.org --end-- -- Garrett W. Lathe Director of Choral Activities Sartell High School 748 Seventh St. N Sartell, MN 56377 (320) 656-3712
Dr Gregory Hamilton on September 5, 2002 10:00pm
I think the easiest chant to learn is the "Ubi Caritas" (Where chairity abd lover are, there God is) The tune is sinple. repetitious and beautiful. I know that it is in many hymnals, I am familiar with it in the Worship III RC hymnal. Dr. Gregory Hamilton
on March 13, 2003 10:00pm
The two that I think work well due to their melodic and repetitive nature are "Ave verum corpus" and "Attende Domine". You can find these and others in the Liber Cantualis published by Solemnes. Anna
on July 23, 2003 10:00pm
try Haec dies .... the song is beatuful but its for mwn only so u'll have to inprovise and turn it into a SATB thing people will love it good Luck kedria
on March 9, 2004 10:00pm
Attende Domine (the Lent prose) is terrific for this. The Mode V is easy for intonation purposes and there is just enough repetition to make it accessible but a little challenging The two succesive fourths in the antiphon are also fun to sing. It provides experience in accenting against the ictus. Also, it is less familiar (and more authentically Gregorian) than Adoro te. Singers could carry over bad habits from singing the latter as an accomanied hymn.
on December 28, 2004 10:00pm
Having been a director of music at a Catholic church for 11 years, I led more than a few chants. Here are some of my favorite chants, mainly because they are beautiful melodies: Victimae pascali laudes Ubi caritas Veni creator spiritus Puer natus in Bethlehem |
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