LMS Oxford Pilgrimage 2009

The first Mass of the academic year was yesterday; it was the Latin Mass Society's annual pilgrimage to Oxford, in honour of the Catholic Martyrs of Oxford. This was the occasion for a splendid Solemn Mass in Blackfriars, and a very impressive procession through the streets of Oxford to the site of the martyrdoms of 1589. So addition to singing at the Mass, we sang the Great Litany, the Te Deum, and other things, on the procession, and finally accompanied Benediction.



Below is the choir loft at Blackfriars, with our polyphony group singing Byrd's Four-Part Mass.


Here is the Introit, Kyrie and Gloria.


The Gradual and Alleluia.


The Offertory and a polyphonic motet.

Welcome

This is the website of the Oxford Gregorian Chant Society, the Schola Abelis. The Society exists to sing Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphony to the highest possible standards in the setting for which this music was composed: the traditional liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church.

This term we are singing in a Catholic Hall and in three Catholic parish churches around Oxford, and an historic Catholic house, Milton Manor, whose private chapel dates from before Catholic churches could be built openly. The Masses are organised in association with the Latin Mass Society.

The OGCS consists of an all-male schola for the singing of the chant and a mixed choir for the polyphony. Membership is by audition but all are encouraged to have a go. Few people coming to Oxford have significant previous experience of singing Gregorian Chant, in particular, so we don't expect you to have!

As well as singing at seven Masses in the course of the term we have a day with Mr Philip Duffy, an associate of the Schola Gregoriana who was Director of Music at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral for thirty years. He has done a number of workshops at Oxford in recent years.

Our student singers are paid a stipend of £15 per Mass (with associated practices). Membership is also open to non-students and to people of all faiths.

Contact us to join: oxfordgregorianchant@googlemail.com

President: Richard Craddock, Somerville
Secretary: Paul Kolb, Queen's
Treasurer: Andrew Crawford, Blackfriars
Senior Member: Dr Joseph Shaw, St Benet's Hall

Term Card, Michaelmas 2009

Practices are every Wednesday, 8.15, Queen's College

2nd Wk Sat 24th Oct
Pilgrimage in honour of the Oxford Martyrs
Blackfriars 11am followed by procesion and benediction.

4th Wk Mon 2nd Nov
All Souls (requiem) Oratory 12.15

4th Wk Fri 6th
Votive of the Sacred Heart (First Friday), SS Gregory & Augustine 6pm

5th Wk Sat 14th
Master Class with Philip Duffy

6th Wk Sat 21st
Presentation of BVM, 11am St Anthony of Padua, Headington.

7th Wk Sat 28th
Requiem 11am Milton Manor, Didcot

8th Wk Fri 4th Dec
St Peter Chrysologus (First Friday) SS Gregory & Augustine 6pm

Bartolucci on the Solesmes Chant revival

There is a fascinating interview with Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci, Maestro Emeritus of the Sistine Chapel, admirer, friend and collaborator of Benedict XVI on Rorate Caeli. The whole interview is worth reading; it mainly deals with the liturgical reform following Vatican II, which Mgr Bartolucci witnessed as an exceptionally well-informed and well connected individual. There is a section on the chant which deserves particular attention on this blog.

Maestro, what role does music play in this process?

It has an incredibly important role for many reasons. The affected “Cecilianism” to which certainly Perosi was no stranger, with its tones that were so mild and enticing to the ear had introduced a new romantic sentimentalism, which had nothing to do, for instance, with the eloquent and solid physicality of Palestrina. Some extravagant deteriorations introduced by Solesmes had cultivated a subdued gregorianism, which also was the fruit of a pseudo-restauring passion for the Medieval ages, which were so popular in the nineteenth century.

The idea of an opportunity to recuperate the archeological vein, both in music and liturgy, of a past, from which the so called “oxen centuries” (seculi bui) of the Council of Trent separated it ….. in short an archeology which has nothing at all to do with Tradition and which wishes to restore something which maybe never existed, is a bit similar to certain churches restored in the “pseudoromantic” style of Viollet-le-Duc.

What does it mean, Monsignore, when in the musical field you attack Solesmes?

This means that the Gregorian chant is modal, not tonal and not rhythmical, it has nothing to do with “one, two, three, one, two, three”. We should not despise the way people sung in our cathedrals and replace it with a pseudo-monastic and affected murmuring. A song from the Middle Ages is not interpreted with theories of today, but one should go about it as it was then. Moreover the Gregorian chant of another historical time could also be sung by the people, sung using the force with which our people expressed their faith. Solesmes never understood this, but we should recognize the learned and large philological work executed on the old manuscripts.

What is this 'subdued gregorianism' he condemns? It is the theory you will find set out in pre-conciliar school texts as well as scholarly books, developed by the monk of Solesmes Dom Mocquereau,which attempted to interpret the chant in terms of groups of two and three notes. This interpretation is still indicated in the standard Solesmes editions of chant by small vertical lines, the ictus, which gives the 'up' beat of a group. The shoe-horning and distortion of the chant this required is remarkable, and it has been rejected in academic circles and with most chant practitioners as well.

Solesmes is credited with the revival of chant, which (they claimed) had fallen into decay after Trent, by a massive project of manuscript research and the creation of new editions, and theories of interpretation to go with them. However Bartolucci seems to be claiming that the stilted interpretation they ended up giving the chant was part of the reason for its downfall, and in its rejection of the then-current practice in favour of a historical reconstruction is guilty of the 'archaeologism' condemned by Pope Pius X.

It should be noted that the new wave of Chant revival uses a more fluid approach to interpretation, with a greater respect for the text being sung. Bartolucci seems to be demanding also something more virile and forceful, in contrast to 'pseudo-monastic and affected murmuring'.

Corpus Christi video clips

Here they are at last. I've been having some trouble with Gloria TV but my persistence has been rewarded.

Introit Cibavit eos, sung by all.


The Gradual and Alleluia, sang by a smaller group of cantors. We also (all) sang the Sequence, but the camcorder couldn't cope with the sound of the organ which accompanied it.


The Offertory, Sacerdotes Domini, sung by the cantors.


The Communion, sung by all, in alternation with the verses of Psalm 22.


The Introit and Communion verses are, in fact, antiphons for psalsm, although the psalms are usually not sung any longer. It is still possible to sing them, however, and at communion there is usually time. The correct psalm (in the correct psalm-tone) for each Introit and Communion is given in a book 'Versus Psalmorum et Canticorum' (1962) which can be downloaded for free from the Church Music Association of America here, and bought hard copy (2008 reprint) from them via Lulu here.

The custom of singing the psalm with the communion verse seems an admirable one to me, and it has long been followed in Oxford; it is also done commonly at St Bede's Clapham Park and at the St Catherine's Trust Summer School - and no doubt other places as well.

Corpus Christi and Termly Dinner

Corpus Christi at the Oxford Oratory was our last Mass of term, and of the academic year. The Oratory church is the largest at which we sing, and Masses on Holy Days can attract a congregation of a hundred. As has become the custom, this was the occasion of some First Holy Communions. Mass was celebrated by Fr Jerome Bertram Cong Orat.

After Mass we had our Termly Dinner, which I suppose can be at lunchtime, at the Old Parsonage, just over the road from the Oratory.

Video clips to follow. More photos of the Mass here.

First Friday of June

This was Whit Friday, the Friday after the Feast of the Ascension (Whitsun). It was an Ember Day. Here is the Greater and Lesser Alleluia, and the Sequence. The Sequence and the second of the two Alleluias are the same as for Whitsun; they are repeated every day of the Octave until Sunday (which is Trinity Sunday).

The two Alleluias are sung by our cantors, but the full schola sings the Sequence.