Tribute to Saint Gregory: Part Two

Last night I was visiting my library (when I wasn't dancing to the zydeco sounds of C J Chenier at Wolf Trap). I came across three recommendations for teaching oneself or others to sing plainchant.

The first is an audio cassette with songsheet produced by Fr Joseph Fessio, entitled How Catholics Can Sing. Fessio gives the listener an historical overview of liturgical music and church documentation, and a brief singing lesson from the Ordinary of the Mass. It is available for $5.95 from Our Father's House in Seattle (phone 206.725.0461).

The second is a book and audio cassette entitled Minimum Repetroire of Plain Chant, also available for $12.00 from Our Father's House. It contains the contents of a musical collection officially known as Jubilate Deo, which was originally disseminated by Pope Paul VI in 1974 to all the Catholic bishops of the world, and contains what His Holiness determined to be, as the title suggests, the minimum repetroire of sacred chant that all Catholics should know. The book is quite a bargain, with modern musical notation, English translations, and historical backgrounds of such hymns and chants as Te Deum, Veni Creator, Ubi Caritas, Regina Caeli, Adoro Te Devote, Tantum Ergo, and the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin. The forty-minute tape is of an unaccompanied female voice -- and a lovely one at that.

The third recommendation is a three-cassette series entitled Singing the Psalms: How to Chant in the Christian Contemplative Tradition. Episcopal priestess Rev Cynthia Bourgeault gives an excellent demonstration of vernacular plainchant, showing how the psalms can be sung in either simple or solemn tones. The tape collection includes a 27-page "mini-psalter" to accompany the audio lessons. I am currently going through this series, and find it quite illuminating. It is available for $24.95 from its producer, Sounds True of Boulder CO. It is also available here in DC at the bookstore of the Washington National Cathedral.

(Note Bene: At this writing, the website for Our Father's House is not fully interactive, while it is under reconstruction. A phone call or mail order is recommended, along with requesting a catalog. The author of MWBH is not compensated in any way for the endorsement of the aforementioned products, and makes them known as a service to the reader, for educational and religious purposes only.)