... and I'm going! Woo-hoo!!! Or should I say, "Laus Deo!"
"To push forward progress in Catholic music in America, the Church Music Association is putting together the largest and most elaborate teaching conference on chant and polyphony in the United States since the Second Vatican Council."
"The Sacred Music Colloquium will take place at Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, June 16-22, 2008. Participants include some 250 singers drawn from a nationwide invitation to novices and experienced singers from all walks of life. The 17-member faculty is made up of some of the most experienced teachers and conductors in the country."
"Chant and polyphony are the two forms of music specifically named by the Second Vatican Council as music appropriate to the Roman Rite. Gregorian chant is experiencing a huge revival, not only in popular culture but in Catholic worship as well. Recent initiatives from the Vatican and a change in the musical ethos of parishes have given new energy to the cause of making chant part of the lives of Catholics. Training here is essential, and this week-long program provides it on all levels."
The program is jam-packed, with scheduled lectures, singing and Mass every day from 7:15 AM to 9 PM, for five and a half days. This is sure to be an intense spiritual as well as musical experience. Very much looking forward to this Colloquim! There's a few spaces left, please contact [email protected] if you're interested.
Pope Benedict has been promoting Gregorian chant since he was elected pontiff, and it's really bearing fruit. Chant is earliest form of musical prayer in the Catholic church, going back 20 centuries! The ancestors of modern symbolic music notation (five lines, round notes) originated in the Gregorian chant notation developed by the monks (four lines, square notes) around 900 A.D.
Gregorian chant- good for your heart, good for your immortal soul.
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