ModernGeek

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while, I've had tones of stuff to do.

I'm totally exhausted right now, and quite frankly have absolutely no idea why I'm blogging instead of going to bed. But, there you go. Now, the reason I'm exhausted is because I sang Gregorian Chant yesterday from 12-5 , and all day today(and I mean ALL day), at a Gregorian Chant workshop, at my parish. Now, let me share some of my knowledge that I gained and give a short explanation of what this "Gregorian Chant" stuff is.

Wikipedia says "Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church." Gregorian chant was(and still is)the traditional music for the Catholic Mass. It was developed around the 7th century, and was most usually sung by men and boys in mass, and monks and nuns within their respective religious orders. Chant is not written in modern notation, instead using square notes that look lke this.

The most unique thing about it is that it is unmetered, having no bar lines, or stricts rhythmes, and that instead of reading particular notes you read only the pattern of half steps, whole steps, seconds, thirds, fourths, etc. So, it can start on any note. Although this may seem strange to you, it's really very logical once you think about it. So, for the past day and a half I have been learning and singing Chant. Yes, I learned it reading those square notes(called neums), and yes, I actually understand them. The pieces range from simple to incredibly complicated, but even learning one piece is unbelievably rewarding. There are more chants then could be learned in several lifetimes, and to this day Gregorian Chant is the largest body of music in the world.

Now, the Catholic Church was taken over around 1970 by ridiculous, phony, stupid(the list could go on forever), so called "contemporary Catholic liturgical music"(Examples, Gather us In, mass of Creation, Soon and very soon, One bread one body), and Chant was almost forgotten. But, recently chant's been making a comeback, and chant workshops such as the one I went to today are being set up.

Okay, so after singing yesterday and all day today all 60 singers sang at the 5PM mass this Saturday night. Now, before I go on, let me say, that at my parish the people who attend the 5PM mass are the people who, really, hate mass, and just want to get in there, and get out again as quickly as possible, so that they can say they went to mass.(Attending mass is required of Catholics). And, the 5PM mass is usually the teeny-bopper mass, with guitars, drums, and all the rest of it. So, this night you had 60 extreme traditional Catholics, packed into a space with the barely Catholic crowd, singing traditional music, instead of the usual teeny-bopper music. It makes a very interesting atmosphere.

Now, if you've read all this to the end, then you can be proud, because you now know more then the average parish Catholic!*smiles*

And now... I'm going to go collapse on my bed. Did I mention that singing Chant is really draining?

-Moderngeek

EDIT: Click HERE to see a video of the workshop.