by Sister Mary Antonine Goodchild, O.P. What a wonderful find this is: an ideal textbook on chant for junior high, high school, or really any age. It is mercifully free of verbiage or exaggerated detail. It is short and completely clear on all aspects of learning to chant (notes, rhythm, Latin, style), and it contains a vast amount of the basic repertoire, in neumes and with English translations. It even has study questions! Many of us have wished that such a book would be written. It took Fr. Samuel Weber to point out that such a book already exists, and now, praise be to God, it is in print again. As the title says, it is the perfect text for Church and school. It came out in 1944 but it isn't in the slightest bit dated. This is priced for mass distribution.

Excerpt from Gregorian Chant for the Teacher, the Choir, and the School While it is, of course, proper to have the whole Mass sung according to the rite of the feast, this rule may be relaxed in the case of a new choir, and the easier settings learned first. When you start your new choir class, don't waste time in trying the voices of the boys. Get as many as you are able to handle easily, and start them all on the first exercises. Boys may be taken as soon as they are able to read. You will soon find out whether you have any one whose ear is deficient, by his not be ing able to follow the tune. You may have some boys who try to sing an octave below. These, and those whose ears seem to be defective, should be taken out of the main class and worked with separately for a time before you finally decide whether you will retain them or not. The choir should have a comfortable practice room one which is used for no other purpose. Besides the seats, coat and hat hooks, book closets, etc., you should have a blackboard and a grand or square piano, which should be always kept in good order. An upright piano is not suitable, because the teacher, when using it, must necessarily turn his back to the class. As Gregorian chant can be sung intelligently from its own notation only, don' t get editions of the chant books ln modern notation. If you do so, you will have to teach your singers to attach to the various signs meanings which do not belong to them; and when you come to the stu modern music, all this work will have to be undone. Don't send your new choir into the church before it is properly the work expected of it. The time required for the preliminary tra course, depend a great deal upon the quality of your raw material. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Richard L. Crocker offers in this book and its accompanying compact disc an introduction to the history and meaning of the Gregorian chant. He explains how Gregorian chant began, what functions and meanings it had over time, who heard it and where, and how it was composed, learned, written down and handed on. Crocker explains Gregorian chant and its functions within modern catholic liturgy as well as its position outside this liturgy, where the modern listener may hear it just as music. He describes the origins of the chant in the early Middle Ages, details its medieval development and use, and considers how it survived without, and later with, musical notation. The author probes the paradoxical position of the chant in monastic life -- serving as an expression of liturgical fellowship on the one hand and as the medium of solitary mystic ascent on the other. The book also includes a detailed commentary on each of twenty-six complete chants performed by the Orlando Consort and by the author on the accompanying compact disc. --From publisher's description.

Dicover the riches of Gregorian chant.