The Pope, Plainchant,
and Peaceful Meditation
By Angela Mariani
B
Is the recent popularity of chant a reflection of Pope Benedict’s interest in historical
liturgical music or simply our society’s growing need to reduce feelings of stress?
1994, when Angel Records
released Chant, a CD featuring Gregorian chant sung by the monks of
Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain, the
recording caused a sensation by going to
the top of the charts. A plethora of
chant recordings followed in the next
couple of years, along with a host of
reviews, articles, and interviews offering
explanations for this anomalous event in
the pop music world. After a while, the
media buzz ended, but apparently the
audience for chant is still out there.
Early in 2008, Universal Music put
out a call for recordings of plainchant
with the intent of selecting one for a
recording project. At the last moment –
in fact, on the day of the deadline for
submissions – word of the competition
reached Father Karl Wallner of Heiligenkreuz Abbey, a Cistercian monastery
near Vienna, and he e-mailed Universal a
YouTube clip of the Heiligenkreuz
monks singing plainchant. To their
amazement, the monks’ video won the
competition, and in April of 2008 they
recorded Chant: Music for the Soul. Like
1994’s Chant, the Heiligenkreuz recording went straight to number one on both
the pop and classical music charts, and it
is still getting a great deal of attention, as
a quick YouTube search will show.
There is much discussion about the
reasons for the CD’s great popularity,
just as there was in 1994. This time,
however, some are heralding the recording’s success as evidence of a new surge
of interest in the music of the usus
antiquior of the Catholic Church, especially in light of Pope Benedict’s strong
advocacy of plainchant, and many hope
ACK IN
26
Spring 2009 Early Music America
that this might expand the listening audience for plainchant and early polyphony.
However, there are other factors at play.
The product description at Amazon.com for Chant: Music for the Soul
reads: “Chant is the most peaceful music
imaginable. Chant: Music for the Soul is the
ultimate in relaxation and stress relief –
the perfect antidote to our fast-moving
modern world. Chant has proven to
heal, calm, and also give strength; its
power is timeless and universal. Previous
albums of chant have sold in the tens of
Some are heralding
the success of Chant: Music
for the Soul as evidence of a
new surge of interest in
the music of the usus
antiquior of the Catholic
Church, especially in light of
Pope Benedict’s strong
advocacy of plainchant.
millions. Further fueling the huge general demand is Chant’s use in the smashhit computer game Halo – this is chant
for a new computer-gaming generation.”
What’s going on here? Is the renewed
interest in Gregorian chant the result of
a controversial revival of pre-Vatican II
liturgy, or is it actually a popular-culture
phenomenon fueled by the unlikely
combination of gamers and other listeners in search of stress-reducing “ambient” music? It would appear that the
answer is “all of the above,” and by
exploring these phenomena we may gain
insight into diverse but equally untapped
audiences for these early repertoires.
The church
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI decreed
that the pre-Vatican II 1962 Missal may
once again be used, under certain circumstances, for the Mass. This includes
the use of the Latin chant, which led to
speculation that we might see a resurgence in the use of plainchant in
Catholic liturgical contexts. Father
Columba Kelly, OSB, director of and
composer for the Saint Meinrad Gregorian Schola at Saint Meinrad Archabbey
in Indiana, suggests that “the Pope’s
interest and encouragement of chant will
have some effect in certain circles of
both the liturgical and the general musical world.” Fr. Columba quotes a speech
given by the Pope in 2006, in which the
pontiff stated that an “authentic updating of sacred music cannot occur except
in line with the great tradition of the
past, of Gregorian Chant, and of sacred
polyphony…. [I]n the musical field, as
well as that of other artistic forms, the
ecclesial community has always promoted and supported those who investigate
new expressive ways without rejecting
the past.”
However, Fr. Columba, who has himself composed a number of new chant
settings, also points out that “chant, as a
form of heightened, sung speech, is
attracting the attention of a number of
contemporary composers as they
attempt to break the bonds of ‘the
tyranny of the bar-line.’ Chant is ‘voice
friendly’ music that can be as easy and
simple as the Sanctus of Mass XVIII,
“The difficulty of bringing
chant back to the liturgy is
also related to the fact that
chant is not such an
important part of young
priests’ training today,
as it was before the
Second Vatican Council.”
– Katarina Livljanic’ , Dialogos
“The sound of plainchant
naturally creates a meditative
atmosphere. People crave
that when times are
increasingly frenetic.”
– Ruth Cunningham,
Anonymous 4
“The work it takes to achieve
a unity of intent in a line of
chant…creates a bond among
the singers – whether for
an afternoon or decades –
and a bond with the longdead makers and original
singers of these beautiful,
otherworldly melodies.”
– Susan Hellauer, ChantVillage,
Anonymous 4
“If the chant were to be used,
not only for its beauty but
also as a sign of the eternal
and unchanging, it might
serve as a means of unity.”
– Thomas Forrest Kelly,
Harvard University
and its more elaborate forms, as found
in the Gradual and Alleluia verses, will
be a model and inspiration for some
contemporary composers in developing
new vocalises for their songs.”
The idea of continuing new modes of
expression in Catholic music while “not
rejecting the past” sounds like an ideal
recipe for re-introducing some of the
Western world’s most beautiful music to
the liturgy. Clifton “Skip” West, of The
Suspicious Cheese Lords, told me of the
a cappella group’s recent “deeply moving”
experience of performing for the Pope.
“Pope Benedict XVI is the best proponent of this music that the Roman
Catholic Church has had since Pope
Saint Pius X,” West says. “We are seeing
an increase of young Catholics attending
both the Latin Masses of the Novus
Ordo (Vatican II) and the Tridentine. As
this yearning for a deeper connection to
ancient spiritual roots increases, there
comes a desire to hear the ancient music
not in concert, but in its actual context:
worship and adoration.”
However, the issue is complicated.
For many musicians, Pope Benedict’s
conservative views about church music,
while extremely “early music friendly,”
are difficult to separate from his deeply
conservative stance toward many other
issues facing the Roman Catholic
Church. Also, despite reassurances from
the Vatican that the old is not intended
to supplant the new, many who feel
strongly about the continuation of the
“new modes of expression” that have
flourished since Vatican II are concerned.
As far back as 1990, the pontiff (then
Cardinal Ratzinger) opined that our
“helplessness in the matter of how faith
can and should express itself in contemporary culture has become evident in the
bewildering conflict of cultural experiments and uncultured pragmatism in the
church.” Ratzinger placed church music
in a “middle ground” between the
“music of the masses,” which he
described as “popular music” (that is,
“measured by the amount of money it
can make”), and a “rationally constructed, artificial music” that he describes as
accessible only to a “small elite circle.”
He stated a concern that the church,
“living in this time, inevitably tries to
Katarina Livljanic’
participate in both opposing sides of the
contemporary cultural schizophrenia.”
The church must not surrender to modern culture, he said, because that culture
has “lost its religious foundation.” One
wonders what he must think of “chant
for a new computer-gaming generation.”
Liturgical logistics
There are also logistical matters to
consider. For many Catholic Church
musicians, the issue of re-introducing
Latin plainchant into the liturgy is anything but simple. Ben Williams is the
director of Liturgica.com, an online
resource for liturgical music, books,
devotional items, and information about
the history and development of liturgical
worship and music. In Williams’s view,
seen “through the lens of providing
content about the history and development of liturgical chant in east and west,
and of selling all forms of chant,” the
Pope’s encouragement is “very well
intended and helpful vis-à-vis reconnecting with historical liturgical worship
practices.”
Williams doubts, however, that it will
lead to widespread usage, for two reasons. “First, we are now two to three
generations downstream from Vatican II
and that means that the majority of
faithful who fill the pews don’t know
what [plainchant] is, aren’t familiar with
it, have not had it as part of their liturgical formation or worship experience.
One could argue that for many it is, in
fact, beautiful and peaceful music from a
historic ‘time gone by.’ On top of that,
they don’t know how to sing it, and the
probability of such a dramatic transformation taking place is very slim.
From left, Susan Hellauer and Ruth
Cunningham with Anonymous 4
Tom Kelly
“Second, incorporating plainchant, if
it is to be historically and liturgically
accurate, isn’t just a matter of replacing
one contemporary hymn with a Kyrie
for the coming Sunday Mass. The chant
provided the structure of a sung service,
and the liturgical reforms of Vatican II
changed much – and a good part of that
would have to be addressed.”
These purely practical reservations
are shared by musicians who specialize
in the performance of historical chant.
Katarina Livljanić, director of the
ensemble Dialogos and professor of
Medieval music at the Sorbonne in Paris,
suspects that “the liturgical usage of
chant, and especially of the other
Medieval liturgical repertoires, will probably not increase on a large scale.” As for
the current surge of interest in chant,
she is doubtful. “We have witnessed such
moments already in the 1990s, and I
don’t think that we are living in a period
of a particularly important new surge of
chant that is influencing the early music
domain.”
Livljanić also agrees with Williams’s
point regarding the lack of current
church musicians’ experience with the
repertoire: “The difficulty of bringing
chant back to the liturgy is also related to
the fact that chant is not such an important part of young priests’ training today,
as it was before the Second Vatican
Council. Many younger priests probably
would not be able to celebrate the Latin
Mass, including the corresponding plainchant, if their training does not change
in that respect. In some countries, like
France, the whole question is also very
heavily influenced by ideological currents related to usage of the Latin Mass,
which makes the musical implementation of this repertoire even more complicated.”
These complicated “ideological currents” are also confirmed by other scholars in the field of plainchant studies.
Thomas Forrest Kelly, Medieval music
scholar and professor in the music
department at Harvard University, suggests that the Pope’s encouragement
might perhaps lead to an increase in the
use of plainchant and the Latin Mass,
but “only among those who embrace
“Sadly, for the vast majority
of Roman Catholics, Gregorian
chant is not a living tradition,
but rather a beautiful
and pleasant historical
thing to be treasured.”
– Ben Williams, Liturgica.com
[the Pope’s] encouragement, and I’m
afraid they will associate the chant with a
retrospective, perhaps reactionary,
branch of the Roman Catholic Church.
The chant, of course, was there long
before the Council of Trent and long
before the Tridentine Mass. If the chant
were to be used, not only for its beauty
but also as a sign of the eternal and
unchanging, it might serve as a means of
unity – una voce dicentes (even though that
might misrepresent the nature of
the chant).”
Margot Fassler, Robert Tangeman
Professor of Music History at Yale University, is encouraged about the potential
for the recovery of the plainsong tradition and strongly hopes that “the chant
Ben Williams
and polyphonic musical traditions of the
Roman Catholic Church don’t get used
as political footballs. This music belongs
to everyone, in every state and every
country. The greatest things human
beings make in music and the arts are
common property. That being said, the
centrality of the plainsong traditions in
the Roman Catholic Church needs to be
recovered, in my view, and much of the
health of the study of music in secular
colleges and universities depends on
this. The two are interrelated: excellence
in one helps with excellence in the
other.”
The issue of excellence brings up
another question, eloquently expressed
by Katarina Livljanić: “Even if there
were more chant in the Mass today,
which kind of chant would it be? The
main tradition of chant performance in
today’s Catholic liturgy is based on modern chant books and musically often
quite influenced by the 19th-century
restoration in Solesmes. If we think of
Medieval chant repertoires, tropes,
sequences, and early polyphony being
included more frequently in the liturgy
today, it would presuppose the existence
of a trained schola cantorum with professional singers and a solo cantor in such a
parish. It is a beautiful scenario, but will
many parishes have the resources and
the interest to do it? In the best case,
some parts of the Gregorian Mass ordinary may be included, sung by the congregation, but that repertoire is quite far
from the solo or schola (often rather virtuoso) chants for the proper.”
It remains to be seen whether most
parish churches will have the resources
Continued on page 62
Early Music America Spring 2009
29
The Pope, Plainchant, and Peaceful Meditation
RUF ASW
Continued from page 29
SUPERIO – the great bass in c
Küng Blockflöten
8200 Schaffhausen
Switzerland
www.kueng-blockfloeten.ch
Please check our website for any
information about our business
contacts in the USA.
ZZZNXHQJEORFNÀRHWHQFK
Küng recorders Switzerland
62
Spring 2009 Early Music America
to educate their church musicians in his- general, spiritual, musical, and religious
torically informed performance of Gre- motivations. Perhaps singing in a langorian chant; however, there is evidence guage other than one’s own – preferably
that church musicians are genuinely
a ‘dead’ or ceremonial language – allows
interested in learning. Fr. Columba says
people to express feelings of universal
that at Saint Meinrad’s, he has had “choir brotherhood and love without subscripdirectors from different faith communi- tion to a particular dogma. In any case,
ties take my two-week courses on the
the work it takes to achieve a unity of
singing and analysis of Gregorian chant intent in a line of chant, without using
in both Latin and English. They reprethe Solesmes method of longs, shorts,
sent Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopalian, and ictus as a guide, creates a bond
and Baptist congregations.”
among the singers – whether for an
It may be that this is a place where
afternoon or decades – and a bond with
historical performthe long-dead makance practitioners are
ers
and original
“The fall of Communism
also able to make a
singers
of these
has fostered resurgences
worthwhile contribubeautiful, otherof Byzantine singing in
tion in terms of
worldly melodies.”
Albania,
Bulgaria, Romania,
both teaching and
Susan Hellauer’s
and Serbia. In post-Soviet
performing. Parishes
observation about
with the resources to
the “mix of general,
Russia a whole spectrum
hire an alreadyspiritual,
musical,
of sacred musical
extant chant choir
and
religious
motivapractices are flourishing.”
may jump at the
tions” of the partici– Alexander Lingas,
opportunity, and it is
pants in her chant
Cappella Romana
up to early music
camps points to the
performers to make
other factor in the
sure these parishes know we exist. It is
resurgence of interest in Western plainalso possible to reach out to local parish- chant: the extraordinary popularity of
es to find out if their church musicians
sacred chant from all kinds of different
are interested in learning more about
world traditions. Ben Williams of Liturplainchant performance.
gica.com agrees. “I think you’d be surSusan Hellauer, of the internationally prised to learn where chant is often
acclaimed Medieval music group Anony- played – during yoga classes, as backmous 4, has started ChantVillage, a
ground music in dentists’ offices, etc.”
series of chant camps designed to teach
In terms of sales numbers, however,
musicians the basics of chant performWilliams has observed that Eastern
ance. “For people who come to chant
chant still outsells Gregorian chant.
camp,” says Hellauer, “there’s a mix of
“If you look at the sales data from
Alexander Lingas with Cappella Romana
Liturgica.com over the past two years,
you’ll see some dramatic numbers. Just
under 2.5 percent of the liturgical chant
CDs we sell are ‘Western chant,’ i.e. Gregorian, Mozarabic, Cistercian, Ambrosian, etc.” The rest is Eastern, with
Byzantine chant garnering by far the
highest sales numbers. Williams gives
two reasons for this: “The first is that
Eastern liturgical music is still a living
tradition; people are being raised on it,
liturgically formed on it, learning to sing
it – i.e., it is part of their person. Sadly,
for the vast majority of Roman Catholics, Gregorian chant is not a living tradition, but rather a beautiful and pleasant
historical thing to be treasured. Second,
there continues to be a high level of
Protestants joining the Orthodox
churches and that means they have to
learn the music – both to sing it and to
make it part of themselves. Couple that
with the fact that it’s a living tradition,
and you have the makings for the big
differences in the sales numbers.”
Alexander Lingas, director of Cappella Romana, suggests that there are additional factors contributing to the popularity of Eastern Orthodox Chant: “in
the Christian East, I would say the fall of
Communism, widespread interest in traditional forms of art, and a desire for
spiritual authenticity. One other symptom is the spectacular revival of Orthodox monasticism – and Orthodox
monks spend a lot of time singing.”
Lingas notes also that the remarkable
revival of interest in the traditional chant
repertories of the Christian East is not a
new phenomenon but has been going on
now for around 25 years. “Byzantine
chant is widely taught in Greek conservatories and is making a comeback in
Orthodox communities located in the
West (including those for whom it is not
an ancestral tradition). The fall of Communism has fostered resurgences of
Byzantine singing in Albania, Bulgaria,
Romania, and Serbia. In post-Soviet Russia a whole spectrum of sacred musical
practices are flourishing, including ‘early
music’ revivals of ancient Slavic chant
repertories, more recent polyphonic
compositions, and even new adaptations
of contemporary Byzantine chant.
Similar things are going on in Finland.”
The connections between world
Early Music
at Oberlin
l
l
l
l
Bachelor of Music
Master of Music in performance
on historical instruments
Artist Diploma
Double-degree program leading
to both the Bachelor of Arts and
Bachelor of Music
OBERLIN
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music
A tradition of excellence
David Breitman
program department chair, fortepiano,
courses in historical performance
James David Christie
organ, organ literature, history and design
Michael Lynn
recorder, baroque flute, ensembles
Marilyn McDonald
baroque violin, ensembles
Catharina Meints
viola da gamba, baroque cello, ensembles
Alison Melville
recorder, ensembles
Steven Plank
musicology, Collegium Musicum
The Oberlin
Conservatory of Music
at Oberlin College
Office of Admissions
39 West College Street
Oberlin, Ohio 44074
440 -775- 8413
www.oberlin.edu
Kathie Lynne Stewart
baroque flute
Webb Wiggins
harpsichord, continuo,
harpsichord literature, ensembles
Michael Manderen
Director of Admissions
David H. Stull
Dean of the Conservatory
Early Music America Spring 2009
63
The Pope, Plainchant, and Peaceful Meditation
BqpmmpÖt!Gjsf!Ñ!Uif!Dmfwfmboe!Cbsprvf!Psdiftusb
Kfboofuuf!Tpssfmm-!Nvtjd!Ejsfdups
ÓMfe! cz! b! csjmmjbou! nvtjd! ejsfdups! boe! ibsqtjdipsejtu-! Kfboofuuf!
Tpssfmm-!uif!fotfncmf!fyveft!tuzmjti!fofshz///b!cmfoe!pg!tdipmbstijq!
boe!wjtdfsbm!joufotjuz/Ô!Hsbnpqipof
Dibuibn!Cbsprvf
ÓDibuibn!Cbsprvf!jt!pof!pg!uif!nptu!tqfdubdvmbsmz!hjgufe!
boe!joopwbujwf!pg!bmm!uif!hspvqt!jo!uijt!Bnfsjdbo!xbwf!pg!ubmfou/Ô!
DE!Opx
Fnjmz!wbo!Fwfsb-!tpqsbop
Ób!wjwje!boe!upvdijoh!qpsusbju///!Uif!qfsgpsnbodft-!cz!Nt/!Wbo!
Fwfsb!boe!b!àfyjcmf!cboe!pg!tjohfst!boe!jotusvnfoubmjtut-!bsf!
qpmjtife!boe!spcvtu/Ô!UIF!OFX!ZPSL!UJNFT
Fotfncmf!Dpsvoe
Tufqifo!Tnjui-!Bsujtujd!Ejsfdups
ÓUif!fotfncmfÖt!cmfoe!xbt!rvjuf!cfbvujgvm///DpsvoeÖt!wpjdft!\xfsf^!bt!
tfevdujwf!tjohmz!bt!uifz!xfsf!jo!vojtpo/Ô!Uif!Xbtijohupo!Qptu
TQFDJBM!QSPKFDU;!
music and chant are also noted by
able on CD, and for some listeners have
Anonymous 4 member Ruth Cunningprovided a link back to Western chant
ham. “I think over the last 10 years or so, through the connection with meditation.
there has definitely been more interest in “The sound of plainchant naturally crespirituality,” she says. “I teach workshops ates a meditative atmosphere,” says Cunon music and healing, and I am finding
ningham. “People crave that when times
that people who are not necessarily con- are increasingly frenetic. I have been told
nected to any institutional religion are
by some Anonymous 4 fans that they
looking for ways to connect to the
use our CDs to settle down at the end of
divine. Chanting is a wonderful way to
the day or to help them get to sleep. I
do this – both listening and participating.” was at a monastery recently and a numShe also draws a
ber of the guests
connection between
(who were not Caththe popularity of
olic) were there sim“Gregorian chant is
sacred chant and
ply
to be part of the
appealing because it speaks
other practices, such
daily
cycle of plainto the heart, is incredibly
as yoga. The Hindu
chant. You can be
expressive and intuitive.
tradition of the
moved by it no matThis is the ancient ‘soul
devotional call-andter what culture you
music,’ spirit and heart of
response chant
are from. Certainly,
known as kirtan has
once people find one
Western music, and it
become strongly
connects us with the milieu form of chanting, I
associated with yoga
think they begin to
of our cultural forebears.”
communities in the
seek out others,
– Skip West, The Suspicious
West, helped along
especially with so
Cheese Lords
by the success of a
much world music
number of Westernreadily available.”
born kirtan musiHellauer agrees.
cians, such as Krishna Das. “Yoga has
“The ChantVillage project itself was
become wildly popular recently,” Cunborn out of my joining the U.S. tour of
ningham says, “and as a result many peo- the Spirit of Fès festival in 2006. Singers
ple who do yoga have gotten involved in of religious music in the Hindu, Islamic,
Sanskrit chanting. I teach using both
Jewish, and Christian traditions joined
Sanskrit chants and simple modal
together in a concert for peace, and it
melodies similar to plainchant. I also cre- was truly an inspiring experience for me.
ate improvisatory plainchant during
Music joins us together, and the chants,
workshops, concerts, and liturgies and
the sacred melodies of these traditions,
am hoping that this will be a new trend
were like an adhesive for us. We kept
of sorts.”
seeing and hearing the common threads,
Other types of sacred chant, such as rather than the differences…. Dogma
Tibetan Buddhist, are also widely availdivides, but music unites.”
Pqfsb!Bufmjfs
Np{bsuÖt!Epo!Hjpwbooj;!Gfcsvbsz.Nbsdi!3121!
Nbstibmm!Qzolptlj!boe!Kfboofuuf![johh!
Dp.Bsujtujd!Ejsfdupst
ÓUif!bunptqifsf!pg!uif!qfsjpe!dbnf!up!mjgf!xjui!nbswfmpvt!mjhiuoftt!
boe!johfojpvt!gbtdjobujpoÔ!Btbij!Tijncvo-!Uplzp-!Kbqbo
Full roster and audio clips at:
www.Jwentworth.com
10 Fiske Place, Suite 530 • Mt. Vernon, NY 10550
914.667.0707 • 301.277.8205
64
Spring 2009 Early Music America
The Suspicious Cheese Lords
Lessons for the future
What are we, as early music practitioners and advocates, to take away from
all of this? It would seem clear that
despite the beauty of the music contained in Chant: Music of the Soul, its commercial success is partly due to a masterpiece of marketing on the part of Universal. If we, as early music performers,
want to take advantage of the wave generated by the CD’s popularity, it is crucial
that we take into account the way in
which it was marketed – not as liturgical
music but as an expression of a basically
ecumenical spirituality, a sound-world in
which the listener might find a moment
of peace and equanimity while the world
spins off into chaos around him or her.
This may not be the reason why an early
music scholar or practitioner buys a
chant CD, but it is the reason for many
members of the listening public. It may,
for all we know, be part of the reason
why some younger churchgoers, free of
all pre-Vatican II associations and uninterested in the associated political issues,
are attracted to the idea of bringing the
sound of Gregorian chant to their home
churches. As Skip West points out,
“Gregorian chant is appealing because it
speaks to the heart, is incredibly expressive and intuitive. This is the ancient
‘soul music,’ spirit and heart of Western
music, and it connects us with the milieu
of our cultural forebears.”
If chant is indeed the spirit and heart
of Western music, perhaps we early
music performers are a little too worried
about the prospect that we might
become aural wallpaper. I’m not convinced that this sort of value-reduction
is inevitable, nor do I think it is always
possible to define the value put on a
work of art. In fact, people who use any
kind of music for personal or spiritual
regeneration often express the feeling
that these are the CDs they most deeply
cherish.
If, as Ruth Cunningham says, Anonymous 4’s fans sometimes “use our CDs
to settle down at the end of the day or
to help them get to sleep,” it is perhaps
not for us to decide that this has less
meaning than the assessment of a listener who gives us feedback about artistry
and scholarship. If a piece of music,
sacred or secular, “touches the whole
person,” as Pope Benedict once said of
early Catholic church music, then are we
to quibble about how that person is
touched?
We have a huge potential audience
searching for something, but they won’t
know we can provide that something
unless we tell them. I’m not suggesting
that all of our CD promos should sound
like Amazon’s description of the Heiligenkreuz CD, but I am proposing that
we hop out of the box and consider
alternate ways to market ourselves.
Applying to world music concert series,
sending promo CDs to arts reviewers at
magazines specializing in yoga and meditation, linking our websites to others that
may appear unrelated – all of these
strategies may draw readers to whom our
music will appeal. Perhaps we might go
to the local Catholic parish and ask if
they would be interested in a chant choir.
By asking ourselves what our listeners
are looking for – in church or outside of
it – and then thinking of creative ways to
alert them to our existence, we can perhaps expand our audience by opening
the door to a very new world of very
old music.
Guntram Wolf
Modern and historic wind instruments
North American contact:
Henry Skolnick Imports
7477 Hoover Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63117
(314) 302-1078
[email protected]
www.guntramwolf.de

Angela Mariani, a vocalist with the Medieval
ensemble Altramar, is a faculty member at
Texas Tech University and host of the nationally syndicated early music program Harmonia.
Further Resources
Fr. Columba has endeavored to “bring to life
both the original Latin chants and new chant
settings in English” with two CDs: Gregorian
Chant for Advent & Christmas and Gregorian
Chant for Lent & Easter (available through
Abbey Press at www.abbeypress.com).
The Suspicious Cheese Lords can be found at
www.cheeselords.org/history.html.
Cardinal Ratzinger’s 1990 “Music and Faith”
speech was given at the third Brixner Initiative
Musik und Kirche symposium. The English
translation quoted here is printed in its
entirety in the liner notes to the CD Musik
und Glaube: Biblische Vorgaben für die
Kirchenmusik (ORF: Edition Alte Musik,
2008).
Susan Hellauer’s ChantVillage can be found
at www.chantvillage.com.
Cappella Romana can be found at
www.cappellaromana.org.
More information on Ruth Cunningham’s
music and healing workshops can be found
at www.ruthcunningham.com.
Leslie Ross
bass and tenor curtals
at A-440Hz and A-466Hz
baroque bassoon after Scherer at A-415Hz
baroque bassoon after Eichentopf
at original pitch, A-415Hz and A-392Hz
classical bassoon after H. Grenser
classical bassoon after Bühner & Keller
romantic bassoon after S.G. Wiesner
Reedmaking Tools - Restoration & Repair
Enquire about a selection of bocals for curtals,
historical bassoons and modern bassoons
131 ESSEX STREET, 6TH FLOOR - NYC, NY - 10002
TEL (212) 260 9344
E-MAIL [email protected]
WEB PAGE http://mysite.verizon.net/ross.bassoon
Bassoons
Early Music America Spring 2009
65