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Just one chant (really, only one?)

Mary Jane Ballou asks the question:

If you could teach just one chant to a group, which one would it be?

I’m not talking about trained singers here, just interested folks. So the goal is accessibility and beauty.

Don’t over-think the answer; just give me what comes to mind. And I’ll be grateful.

Immediately what jumped to mind was the solemn Salve Regina. Now I know that there are people who nitpick about the variations in the melody between different communities. I have no bone to pick with them, nor do I prefer one over the others (at least at the time of this post). But I do know the melody supplied in the Liber Usualis well, and that’s the one I’m basing my choice on.

I also know that my choice is ambitious. But I believe in the people I teach it to, even though they may not believe in themselves at first.

Posted 01.23.2008
by Aristotle Esguerra
9 comments.
Filed under: Gregorian Chant; Music Education.

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9 Comments

But but but the problem is that this melody won’t be of much use to them. It is amazing but not well known and not commonly sung by the people. Don’t we want to give people something they might be able to sing with others at some later occasion? I’m thinking Ubi Caritas.


jeffrey
01.23.2008 @ 10:59 pm #

Ubi Caritas is an excellent choice as well.

The problem in such answering such a question is to limit oneself to only one chant - hence the parenthetical statement in my title. But I still stand by my choice because: I’m thinking past even the next generation, to when children’s children hopefully have more exposure to chant and this could even be classified as accessible; once acquired, the melody is hard to forget (at least in my experience) and may be used privately as well as publicly; it’s the first thing that came to my mind.

The joy in answering such a question is that whatever the answer, real life needn’t be constrained by the parameters of the question!


Aristotle A. Esguerra
01.24.2008 @ 12:12 am #

The Salve Regina would be a good choice, especially for Catholics involved with the Extraordinary Form… I think the Pater Noster would be a good place to start in a Novus Ordo parish.


Samuel J. Howard
01.24.2008 @ 2:45 am #

Adoro Te Devote


thomas
01.24.2008 @ 1:46 pm #

I’ll go with Sam: the Salve Regina.


dad29
01.24.2008 @ 2:27 pm #

This is my first visit to your site…and like it very much. My wife and I have been chanting away for nearly 20 years at our Latin Mass in Kansas City, MO…

…and our first choice would be the Te Deum. Especially given Summorum Pontificum.


CrustyCatholic
01.25.2008 @ 12:22 pm #

From a practical standpoint in terms of using it now or in the near future, I would think maybe the Gloria from the Missa de Angelis. Yes, it is not the simplest melody by any means, but it is certainly attainable. There are now about 6 parishes in our Diocese that are singing the Gloria exclusively in Latin at Masses on Sunday since the Cathedral began doing so last year. Ours is soon to follow, so I have been teaching this to my choir.


Chironomo
02.05.2008 @ 1:20 pm #

I recently discovered to my shock and horror that this blog had fallen out of my favorites. Now restored to its proper place, I will be back all the time. And yes, I do love the solemn tone Salve Regina. It was one of the first chants I ever heard (on a Vox recording of medieval music) and I learned it immediately. Of course, that meant I was “ruined” for modern church music purposes at the tender age of 12.


Mary Jane Ballou
02.07.2008 @ 8:20 am #

I’m fairly new to Gregorian chant. I had never taken an interest in it until last year, when I suddenly found myself directing for the first time a church choir. I’m a university student going to school in Hangzhou, China, and I literally walked in to church one day to find I was the new choir director (it’s a longer story than that but…)

What immediately comes to mind is Ave Maris Stella. Both the words and the melody I find quite moving.


Ben Stockermans
03.14.2008 @ 5:51 pm #

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