Saturday practice and lunch

Today we had a session with our professional coach, Mr Adrian Taylor, in preparation for Candlemass. Our practice was followed by lunch in the Senior Member's house.

Chant pdfs

The Church Music Association of America have been scanning and making available free to the public an increasing number of extremely useful chant books and one-off bits and pieces. They aren't set out all that clearly on their website (scroll down and look on the right sidebar) so here they are. No doubt there will be more as time goes on. They are all pdf files, many of them extremely large.

• Chant Resources

  • A Dictionary of the Psalter (Britt, 1928)
  • American Gradual (English in Modern notes)
  • Antiphonale (1912)
  • Antiphonarium (1923)
  • Chants Abreges (1926), Graduals and Alleluias
  • Chants of the Church (Latin/English 1953)
  • Dominican Liturgical Books
  • Graduale Romanum 1908
  • Graduale Romanum 1961 (with nav links)
  • Graduale Romanum, Ratisbon (1871)
  • Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (Britt, 1922)
  • Index of the 1974 Graduale
  • Kyriale (Solesmes edition)
  • Kyriale (Vatican Edition)
  • Kyriale Brevis
  • Kyriale Brevis (Incipits only)
  • Liber Brevior (1954)
  • Liber Usualis (1961)
  • Offertory Verses (printable booklet)
  • Ordinary Chants (Latin, English)
  • Ordo Processionum (Franciscan 1925)
  • Pange Lingua, Old Hymns with English Translations, Intro. by Adrian Fortescu (1916)
  • Parish Book of Chant (CMAA)
  • Passion: St. John
  • Passion: St. Luke
  • Passion: St. Mark
  • Passion: St. Matthew
  • Processionarium (Dominican 1913)
  • Propers of the Church year set to tones (1962 Missal)
  • Propers of the Mass by Fr. Rossini
  • Proprium de Tempore (Propers)
  • Psalm Tone Sheet
  • Story of Redemption in Chant (children)
  • Sung Liturgy of Holy Week (1923)
  • Versus Psalmorum et Canticorum
  • Vesperale Romanum (1913)

Term Card Hillary term 2009

As usual we will meet on Wednesdays at 8.15 in Oriel (in the Music Room: please ask at the lodge).

Our events this term:

3rd Week, Monday
2nd Feb (6pm): Candlemas
in the Church of SS Gregory and Augustine


5th Week, Saturday
21st Feb (11.30am), Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary
in the private chapel of Milton Manor House


7th Week, Friday
6th March (6pm), First Friday (Ferial Mass of Lent)
in SS Gregory and Augustine


Our venues this term:

SS Gregory & Augustine, 322 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 7NS

Milton Manor, near Abingdon, OX14 EN

Map of Scholas

Establised by Musica Sacra of the USA. This isn't the first time I've tried to add our schola; let's hope it works this time!

Zoom in and out with your mouse wheel (or the little buttons bottom right); move the map by 'dragging'.

Final Mass of Michaelmas Term and termly dinner

Our final Mass of term took place in SS Gregory and Augustine, which is undergoing some very positive renovations. The regular traditional Mass on First Fridays fell, this December, on the Feast of St Birinus, a feast unique to the Archdiocese of Birmingham. St Birinus brought the faith to Oxfordshire, basing himself in Dorchester on Thames, which was accordingly the seat of his diocese. Below is a medieval stained glass window showing St Birinus receiving his commission from Pope Honorius I, in Dorchester Abbey, which once housed his shrine. (At the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was an Abbey of canons regular, but it was saved by the residents of Dorchester to serve as a parish church.)

A ten-strong schola sang the Mass to a very pleasing standard and repaired afterwards, in company with the serving term, to a splendid termly dinner in the house of the Senior Member.

Sacred Music in Rome: 'mediocrity and paralysis'

Given the emphasis on culture of the present Pope, and the emphasis on Gregorian Chant of the Second Vatican Council, it is truly shocking to read such things from the respected Italian journalist Sandro Magister. It is reported and commented on by Fr John Zulhsdorf.

It is particularly interesting to hear that the Sistine Chapel Choir have earned the nickname the 'Sistine Screamers'. Oxford's Chant Schola may not be so far behind the centre of the Catholic world in the restoration of liturgical music.

Magdalen College Mass

It was a great honour for the Schola to sing at this important Mass, which was widely anticipated and reported in the blogs and the press (see The Times). Magdalen College's own tradition of choral excellence was something to live up to!

The Mass went extremely well, under the direction of our professional coach, Mr Adrian Taylor. I managed to capture only part of the singing, but here is the 'Libera nos', sung before the blessing of the cataphalque, sung by a small part of the schola. The cantor in this instance was the excellent Mr John Simmonds, who joined us for the occasion.