Gregorian Chants

No matter what our faith or walk of life, our belief in angels and longing for their protection binds all of humanity together. May the prayers changed here bring reassurance of the love of God in sending these guardians and messengers to His people.

Join the robust Gloriae Dei Cantores Men's Schola for this 24-part performance of The Chants of Mary. Taken from the various feasts honoring the Blessed Virgin, these Gregorian chants are crisply recorded and expertly performed, a fitting tribute to the Mother of God.

For over 150 years the monks at Solesmes have been in the forefront of recovering the lost treasures of Gregorian chant. This CD brings together widely used examples from "Tantum Ergo" to "Adoro Te," the service of compline to kyriales. Leading choices that date from the 10th to 17th centuries.

Comprised of an international community of priests, The Fraternity offers a stunning rendition of the timeless Requiem. Gregorian chants and polyphonic motets fill out the 20 track performance of this ancient, solemn, and prayerful work.

This a real answer to those who are trying to learn about Gregorian chant. The text is written and read beautifully (by a cultivated British voice). It is like attending a lecture at Solemes, with sound examples by the monks. 1 CD. 1 hour.

Would your congregation like to experiment with Gregorian chant? In this guide you'll be delightfully whisked through the basics: instruction on Latin; chant notation; and chant's history, development, and theology. Includes an accompanying 45-minute instructional CD with examples of each chant. 112 pages, softcover with CD. Paraclete.

Saulnier, who teaches at the abbey of Solesmes, opens up the world of Gregorian chant for both newcomer and veteran alike. Learn about its origins, the manner in which it is composed, its use of the Psalms and the divine office, how it compares to other forms of chant, plus important source manuscripts for further study. 144 pages, softcover. Paraclete.

Levy portrays the promulgation of an authoritative body of plainchant during the reign of Charlemagne by clearly plaining between actual evidence, hypotheses, and received ideas. How many traditions of oral chant existed before the tenth century? Among the variations noted in written chant, can one point to a single version as being older or more authentic than the others? What precursors might there have been to the notational system used in all the surviving manuscripts, where the notational system seems fully formed and mature? In answering questions that have long vexed many scholars of Gregorian chant's early history, Levy offers fresh explanations of such topics as the origin of Latin neumes, the shifting relationships between memory and early notations, and more.

This is Dom Hourlier's concept of Gregorian chant spirituality. His ideas, though conveyed with serenity, were sort of a protest against the iconoclasm, which in the wake of Vatican II was seeking to ban Gregorian chant from the liturgy for being obsolete and useless. Dom Hourlier's message is therefore as relevant now as when he first delivered it. It is an urgent call to preserve and transmit to future generations this splendid Catholic heritage.

This book is going to surprise you. Rembert Herbert locates the origins of chant, not in medieval monasticism as most would have it, but in the older wisdom of the Early Church fathers. If you have tried (and failed) to enter into the difficult, even alien scriptural commentaries of the fathers, this book will help. And once you are introduced to the mind (the "symbolic mind") and method of the fathers, you may read Scripture and sing chant very differently. This book offers help, advice, and reassurance to those who long to form a choir and worship with this challenging, rewarding music. The style of singing used in chant--so different from other Western music--is examined in detail, and the systematic explanations of chant notation will alleviate most singers' fear of square notes, neumes, the occasional dragging punctum, and other oddities. To these basics have been added twelve appendices that offer information ranging from a pronunciation guide for "church Latin" to several liturgies, complete with commentary, rubrics, and musical settings.