Gregorian Chant Hymns: another great resource


Gregorian Chant Hymns is a new website that promotes the learning of Gregorian Chant by making sheet music, recordings, translations, and instructions. There is a short guide to Gregorian Notation (those square notes) and to Latin pronunciation. Everything is available free of charge, in line with other great traditional music websites.

To give you an idea of the quality of the recordings provided, have a listen to this recording of my favourite Latin devotional hymn, the Adoro te devote [embedded mp3]:



The website is focussed on popular Gregorian chant hymns and hymns and devotional chants. There are plenty of resources out there for the ordinary and the propers, so this fills a niche and provides an opening for people to make a start with Gregorian Chant. In modern education-speak, it would perhaps be called a "pathway."

The initiative comes from the Schola Sanctae Scholasticae and they have used material with permission and encouragement from other devotees of chant - you know, places like St Cecilia's, Ryde, Pluscarden, Solesmes... as well as other online promoters of chant such as CMAA and the Society of St Bede.

The Schola Sanctae Scholasticae (Dr Candy Bartoldus, Clare Bowskill, Julia Jones, and Martina Jelinkova) have sung at Blackfen and Brighton and if I am undeservedly blessed again, they just might find their way to visiting another seaside town before too long.

Bara Brith has posted on initial responses to the new website, but also includes a useful list of her other favourite resources.

Gregorian Chant Hymns is the fruit of much labour and is a welcome contributor to the grass roots revival of Catholic music and devotion.

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