Yes, very!! I spent three of my seminary years singing in a chant choir that practiced Gregorian chants multiple times a week throughout the school year and sang them in chapel at least once a week. During my last year at the Seminary I took a semester class in Gregorian chant (Solesmes style), learning Chironomy (conducting chant). I was first exposed to it in a Music Methods class in my third and fourth years of college (strong minor in music) before entering the Seminary. It is such a marvel with overlapping arcs of arsis and thesis of neumes, phrases, lines, stanzas and the entire chant and the stress between the natural emphases of the words contrasted with steady pulse of the chants. Our conductor was obsessive about honoring each element. The fifteen or so of us had to match our voices perfectly so that we sounded like one voice. We worked very hard.
Wow Peter... how did it feel to sing Plainsong? Do you agree it's different than singing music with meter? I love that you did this! You are always unfolding with new and fabulous info!
Singing and chanting are two completely different disciplines. People who are singers are unlikely to be able to chant, and people who chant are not likely to be good singers. This would probably be easier to talk about than to write about. Maybe we can find a time to talk about it sometime.
Yes, very!! I spent three of my seminary years singing in a chant choir that practiced Gregorian chants multiple times a week throughout the school year and sang them in chapel at least once a week. During my last year at the Seminary I took a semester class in Gregorian chant (Solesmes style), learning Chironomy (conducting chant). I was first exposed to it in a Music Methods class in my third and fourth years of college (strong minor in music) before entering the Seminary. It is such a marvel with overlapping arcs of arsis and thesis of neumes, phrases, lines, stanzas and the entire chant and the stress between the natural emphases of the words contrasted with steady pulse of the chants. Our conductor was obsessive about honoring each element. The fifteen or so of us had to match our voices perfectly so that we sounded like one voice. We worked very hard.
Wow Peter... how did it feel to sing Plainsong? Do you agree it's different than singing music with meter? I love that you did this! You are always unfolding with new and fabulous info!
Singing and chanting are two completely different disciplines. People who are singers are unlikely to be able to chant, and people who chant are not likely to be good singers. This would probably be easier to talk about than to write about. Maybe we can find a time to talk about it sometime.