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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Aug 12, 2009 11:58:17 GMT
I am surprised that the St Colman's Society do not employing either the Maynooth based all female Schola Gregoriana or the Belfast based male Schola Gregoriana.
Chant rather than polyphony is, according to Sacrosanctum Concilium, is to be the norm for Masses. And unlike the Lassus squallers, these groups know how to chant.
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Post by molagga on Aug 28, 2009 8:17:04 GMT
Here is article 116 of Sacrosanctum Concilium:
116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.
But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Art. 30.
And, here we have ST. Pope Pius X in the Motu Proprio Tra le sollecitudini of 1904:
II. The different kinds of sacred music 3. These qualities are to be found, in the highest degree, in Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity.
On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the suprememodel for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down thefollowing rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.
The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone.
Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gregorian Chant by the people, so that the faithful may again take a more active part in the ecclesiastical offices, as was the case in ancient times.
4. The above-mentioned qualities are also possessed in an excellent degree by Classic Polyphony, especially of the Roman School, which reached its greatest perfection in the fifteenth century, owing to the works of Pierluigi da Palestrina, and continued subsequently to produce compositions of excellent quality from a liturgical and musical standpoint. Classic Polyphony agrees admirably with Gregorian Chant, the supreme model of all sacred music, and hence it has been found worthy of a place side by side with Gregorian Chant, in the more solemn functions of the Church, such as those of the Pontifical Chapel. This, too, must therefore be restored largely in ecclesiastical functions, especially in the more important basilicas, in cathedrals, and in the churches and chapels of seminaries and other ecclesiastical institutions in which the necessary means are usually not lacking.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Sept 9, 2009 14:06:18 GMT
Welcome back, Molagga,
We have an extreme paucity of Gregorian Chant in this country and it seems best that we should encourage this rather than polyphony.
And if you want to encourage polyphony, why not get a devotional choir rather than a performing choir? Loose the Lassus Squallers. They are a secular choir whose only contribution is to bring their own 'rent-a-crowd' with them.
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