NEW YORK GREGORIAN CHANT PROJECT
The NEW YORK GREGORIAN CHANT PROJECT invites you!
The Latin chants of the medieval monasteries are a treasure for all humanity. Choir singers, students, and music lovers of all backgrounds are invited to join us to learn and perform a wide selection of beautiful and engaging Gregorian chants. This ancient, contemplative, deeply spiritual music is a perfect complement to our busy lives.
New singers are welcome to check us out by attending a few of our rehearsals. We'd love you to join the Chant Project choir for the long term! Our goal is to develop a world-class ensemble, and we are looking for motivated, responsive, committed singers who are ready to fall in love with bringing this ancient, contemplative, deeply spiritual music to life.
TRAINING and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
We will teach you how to read the 12-century "square" music notation, and how to pronounce the Latin texts — both are easier than you might expect! We’ll also teach you the correct accentuation and rhythm of sung Latin and introduce the first-millennium staff-less neumes, the earliest extensive musical notation of Western civilization. As well, we will teach you the elements of style, and go over exercises to sharpen your choral skills, such as sight-reading, ear training, and voice building. Through all of this we make a determined effort to perfect the Latin "tonic accents" ("tonic" means tone) which bring the language to life but are generally wrongly placed or overlooked in most recordings and choral performances.
BUILDING the CHANT PROJECT CHOIR
The goal of the choir is to sing a wide repertoire of Gregorian chant at a high level of interpretation and insight, and to foster in our singers a deep love of this music and knowledge of its history and the liturgical tradition in which it arose.
We are gradually working towards developing a monastic style choir of 35 women's/high voices and 20+ men's/low voices. With a choir of that size, the chant will "ring" like the voices of monks and nuns in a monastery, even during very gentle passages. All of this is with an eye to singing in public events and recordings.
To join the Chant Project choir, you need a good ear, choir singing experience (but not necessarily experience with chant), and the ability to focus deeply and follow instructions (!). And, of course, you must participate consistently. We use the Liber cantualis book for basic repertoire plus booklets specially prepared for our rehearsals. Singers are responsible for the costs of these materials. Rehearsals are held most Sunday afternoons, 2:30-4:30pm, at St. John’s-in-the-Village Church (11th St. at Waverly Place, Manhattan), seconds from 7th Ave. and the subway stations at 14th St.
Please email us in advance to sign up to visit a rehearsal: ChantProject@stjvny.org
SCHOLA / STUDY GROUP
We ask all singers to begin by joining our main Chant Project choir, in order to become proficient with the notation and stylistic elements needed to interpret this repertoire with a high level of skill.
For those with a substantial training in music (such as piano/instrumental or voice lessons, or college-level music studies) and good sight-singing and vocal skills, we are developing an auditioned ensemble of singers — our Schola/Study Group — which rehearses on Monday evenings. These singers have the responsibility of performing the most virtuosic chants and studying their musical, liturgical, and historical backgrounds. Schola singers also lead certain segments of our main Chant Choir rehearsals. This is experience that will keep you challenged and motivated, and which you may also find to be a valuable type of professional development.
Eventually, we intend to establish a separate “mixed voice” group that will sing renaissance polyphony and modern compositions — in four or more parts — that are related to the Gregorian chants that we are we are working on.
We have a place for everyone — we invite you to join us!
LED by LAWRENCE HARRIS
Lawrence Harris has been a visiting professor of Gregorian chant at the Catholic University of America, Washington, and Duquesne University, Pittsburgh. He has led chant seminars with many choirs and organizations including the Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians.
These opportunities to sing Gregorian chant and to receive a high level of instruction are open to students, singers from church and community choirs, and members of the public — all of whom are welcome to join in us in studying and singing this ancient, deeply spiritual music which is a treasure for all humanity.
WE APPRECIATE YOUR HELP IN PUBLICIZING THIS NEW CHOIR!
Please tell your musical friends and colleagues about the New York Gregorian Chant Project and invite them to visit a rehearsal or attend one of our public events. We especially encourage you to spread the word on social media, and to invite young people and students for whom this might be a wonderful new musical horizon.
For more information…
Lawrence Harris is happy to answer your questions. You can reach him by email at ChantProject@stjvny.org
(If you prefer a phone conversation, please email us your phone number.)
ABOUT MEDIEVAL CHANT
If you were wondering about the origins of medieval chant, its roots go back to the earliest centuries of Christianity. But the biggest era of development was the 7th through 9th centuries, especially in the Frankish empire of Charlemagne where the core repertoire and most masterful compositions of Gregorian chant emerged.
By the time of the construction of the great Gothic cathedrals of the 12th century and onwards, the high art of the Carolingian chant was in decline and chanting was going out of fashion, replaced to a large extent by various types of part-singing down through the centuries — though new chants continued to be composed and monasteries, in particular, held on to some traditions of chanting their daily prayers.
In the nineteenth century there was great interest in restoring the medieval chant melodies, which had been corrupted by sloppy book publishers and other influences. Much of the research for this renewal took place at the Abbey of St.-Pierre de Solesmes, in France. And in the 1960s, a Solesmes monk-musicologist and his students published research which "decoded" the meaning of a multitude of medieval musical signs (called "neumes"), which has given modern singers much more insight into the expressive nuances of interpretation of medieval chant. Research and debate about performance practices continue to this day.
“Open House Rehearsals” for new and prospective singers
Please contact us for rehearsal dates: ChantProject@stjvny.org
Rehearsals are held most Sundays at St. John’s-in-the-Village Church,
11th St. at Waverly Place, Manhattan, seconds from 7th Ave. and the subway stations at 14th St.
Enter through right-hand door at 224 Waverly Place, in the short block between 7th Avenue and 11th Street.
Please aim to arrive at 2:15pm so we are all set to start singing at 2:30 sharp!
We will need your contact info when you arrive but there are no other strings attached. Just keep an open mind and roll with it! Join in singing to the extent you feel comfortable.
Please come and chat with the Director about your visit during our refreshment period at 4:30pm
You are welcome to stay for our polyphony/part-singing session which continues until 5:30pm.
PLAINSONG SUNG DAILY AT ST JOHN’S
In addition to the activities of the New York Gregorian Chant Project, Fr Graeme Napier, the Rector of St John’s, would like you to know that Evensong is sung to plainsong on weekdays at St. John's at 4.30pm. At present we invite singers from across the city to gather and sing 4.30pm Evensong on Thursday afternoons (on Monday and Wednesday also if there were enough interest). During rehearsals taking place immediately before the service (at 3:45pm), the Rector teaches the music to be sung that day — mainly psalms in English to plainsong tones, also a Latin antiphon. The service is live-streamed on St John’s YouTube channel. If interested contact the Rector. There is also on-going instruction in this kind of plainsong: workshops with Thomas Wilson and the Rector.