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Liturgical (vernacular) chant resources

Jane mentioned Priory Press in a recent comment. Priory Press has notated the official English texts of the Sacramentary for Sundays and Holydays. They have a notated Lectionary, organ accompaniments for chants and recordings in the works as well. See their catalogue.

This also reminds me to mention Nicholas-Maria Publishers’ Cantus Project, something I have intended to do for a while.

From the website:

The Cantus Project is a collaborative effort of a group of Catholic Church musicians toward the adaptation of Latin Gregorian chant to the English vernacular. Well into their fourth year of work, the group draws upon texts that are an integral part of the Liturgy, such as the Introit, Offertory, Communion chants, and certain hymn texts, as found in the Graduale Simplex (1973 Vatican edition).

On her blog, Jane mentioned that her chant professor has some issues with Bill Ford’s Englishing of the Graduale Simplex adaptation in his By Flowing Waters volume. I have noticed that Dr. Ford has modified the original melodies to suit the English.

The Cantus Project’s priorities are different: “Of primary importance will be the vigilant preservation, without modification, of the character and melodic integrity of the original chant.” Put another way, they seek to shoehorn the English somehow into the original melody—a far more difficult task, especially if they also seek to retain the substance of the original Latin texts. However, it seems that the Cantus Project is nearing completion, so the results will be of great interest.

Posted 06.09.2003
by Aristotle Esguerra
2 comments.
Filed under: Anglican and English-language chant; Liturgical Music on Paper.

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2 Comments

Dear readers:

I have noted a tendency among adapters of chant either to tamper with the melody of the chant in order to fit the words, or strictly to follow the chant to the exclusion of the natural pace and cadence of English. I have come to the conclusion that neither approach is successful.

In the course of examining chant adaptations that have been successful, and in making my own adaptations, I have found that application of the rules below have been more successful.

1. Insofar as is possible, the chant melody of the original is to be preserved. Examination of variants of the basic chant melody are to be considered in this preservation.

2. Insofar as is possible, the pace and cadence of the English text is to be preserved.

3. Where a strict application of Rule 1 would mean a violation of Rule 2, the chant melody will be adjusted to the minimum necessary to avoid such violation, and whenever possible, use of the melodic variations mentioned in Rule 1 are to be preferred to a rewriting of the melody.

While the above is a bit tendentious, I find that it does work in adaptations of slavic chant.


Bernard Brandt
06.09.2004 @ 2:37 pm #

After seeing the couple of examples on their website, I am very excited about the prospect of a completed work.


Paul Rex
06.10.2004 @ 10:35 pm #

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