Gregorian Chant

Gregorian Chant is a tradition of song and hymn used in the Catholic Church.  The practice dates back to the 9^th and 10^th centuries in Western Europe.  Always without musical accompaniment, the structure of Gregorian Chant is very complicated.  Typically choirs of men and boys would sing the praises of the particular Holy day they were celebrating.

The entire passage is typically broken into 12 distinct modes.  Each mode has its own scales and structure, and the voices can be sung anywhere from the lowest octaves to the highest, often in the same mode.  Gregorian Chant has its own musical notations dating back to before the five lines of scale we are used to today.  It is mostly sung in Latin, but other Western languages have been used as well.

This CD features CantArte Regensburg, Hubert Velten, conductor, performing traditional and ancient songs of Christmas Advent, recorded in 1994.  The recording was made at Klosterkirche Adlersberg, Landkreis Regensburg.  Translated as the Church Of Our Lady in Adlersberg, it is a church of a former Dominican convent in Pettendorf, Bavaria, Germany.  The church’s location goes back to 1274.  The church is still used today for regular mass.

I must admit I like Gregorian Chant.  I have another of The Trappist Monks.  I may get a few more, but I don’t see the need to have more than 4 or 5.  I would go out of my way to get the earliest recordings of Gregorian Chant as I could with my next purchase.  It’s kind of like the English Cathedral Choirs, of which I have many and will continue to collect.  Both kinds of Christmas music have a long, long history of tradition and reverence.  Most of the English Cathedral Choirs also sing many hymns a cappella.

This is soothing and calming music meant to be enjoyed during the Advent and Christmas season in church.  It plays well at home too.

As much as the marketing and the cover artwork goes with these types of Christmas CDs, these are not guys standing around in a dark cellar with robes on chanting Latin.  At least with this group, CantArte Regensburg, all the pictures I can find on the internet show a group of well-dressed men in suits and ties.  I’ve been swayed before with Renaissance type CD covers that make me think the music is old but find out it’s from the 1990s or 2000s and beyond.  That’s okay, but if you’re going to go out and search for older Gregorian Chant, look out for the DDD on the back of the CD.  (More on that coming up).

I’m sure, just like with the English Cathedral Choirs, there is a lot of discipline to be learned to be able to achieve this kind of group harmony.  Unfortunately, I can’t find much history of this choir.  I’ve looked around, but I can’t find anything on Wiki or Discogs and they don’t have a website.

This CD was recorded in 1994 and released on LaserLight Digital through Delta Music Inc. in 1996.  The front cover of the CD shows a picture of a twin tower cathedral.  It is superimposed over a large mountainscape and is made to look like the cathedral is rising up out of the wilderness.  The word “Gregorian” appears near the bottom in green and the word “Jubilation!” in orange below.  The subtitle, Traditional and ancient songs of Christmas Advent appear below that.  The LaserLight Digital logo appears in the bottom right corner.

The back of the CD has the CD title in the same colors and fonts as on the front cover and appears near the top of the back cover.  A numerical track listing is below.  The tracks are divided into the weeks of Advent and each week headlines the tracks in it.  Typical copywrite notices appear on the right-hand side.

The back cover is where you typically see the letters AAD, ADD, or in this CD’s case, it would be DDD.  I’ve seen the DDD on the backs of other CantArte Regensburg CDs.  The letters stand for Analog and Digital.  DDD means that the original recording was done with digital technology.  Right away you know this came after 1985, and probably somewhere in the 1990s or beyond.  When it comes to looking for old traditional Christmas reissues, if I see AAD, I know I’m getting something that was originally recorded before 1985.  And if it’s an album that was originally released in the 1950s, I know I’m on the right track.

When it comes to CDs like this one, I don’t mind DDD at all.  I know that the sound will be great and with music like this, it’s not so important to get old music.  This is CantArte Regensburg’s first CD.

The front cover opens along a single fold-out, but the inside is just a list of other LaserLight Christmas CDs.  It fills both sides of the paper.  Bummer.

The back of the CD cover is light purple and contains no words or graphics.  A copywrite notice for LaserLight Digital rests at the bottom.

I’m not going to describe all 22 modes here.  I’m not even sure what I’m listening to.  I don’t speak Latin.  All the song titles are in Latin, so I don’t understand them either.

As I said earlier, the songs are divided into the 4 weeks of Advent and the last group are the hymns sung during the Highfeast of Christ’s Birth, 25^th December.  9 songs are dedicated to Christmas Day.

If you like this kind of meditative music, I can highly recommend this CD.  I didn’t go out of my way to look for this one, I just happened upon it and it turned out to be pretty good.  The Trappist Monks one is also very good.  I think any Gregorian Chant CD is going to sound good.

This would be a great CD to put on in the background if you belong to a prayer group.  It is reverent and certainly not as distracting as traditional Christmas music.  This would also be great for a yoga workout during the Holidays, if you wanted to keep your yoga music festive.

Every moderate to large Christmas music collection should contain at least one Gregorian Chant CD.  Why?  I don’t know.  It’s different.  It’s still Christmas music.  In fact, it’s some of the most Sacred, reverent Christmas music you can possibly have.  Sometimes, you may wish you had a Christmas CD like this.

Look for this one.  I know it to be excellent.

I give this CD :

*****