Put on your red shoes and chant the blues...That's what David Bowie should say.
I'm working on a translation project: old hymns from the Liber Hymnarius. A friend pointed out to me that these hymns are not all ancient; some were written for this book, which is published by the Solesmes Abbey in France. Apparently there is a lot of controversy in chant, and in fact many scholars have done an apparent volte-face, as has Solesmes itself, in the way the chants are sung. There was a school of thought in the early 20th century that held that each note should be sung with a more or less equal emphasis and length. But now they've revised that opinion and everybody pretty much concurs that important syllables--important based on meaning--should be lengthened. Even Solesmes, which arranged for the 20th c. school to be promulgated by the Vatican, has switched over.
Stay tuned to this bat-channel for updates. Meanwhile, I invite you to consider that most of the hymns I've looked at so far take a fairly dim view of the way human beings run the world without the special grace given by Jesus Christ. "This world, headed for destruction"--that's the way they talked in the 10th century. Food for thought as we go about our busy days either a. with our eyes on the prize or b. relying on our own powers.
I'm working on a translation project: old hymns from the Liber Hymnarius. A friend pointed out to me that these hymns are not all ancient; some were written for this book, which is published by the Solesmes Abbey in France. Apparently there is a lot of controversy in chant, and in fact many scholars have done an apparent volte-face, as has Solesmes itself, in the way the chants are sung. There was a school of thought in the early 20th century that held that each note should be sung with a more or less equal emphasis and length. But now they've revised that opinion and everybody pretty much concurs that important syllables--important based on meaning--should be lengthened. Even Solesmes, which arranged for the 20th c. school to be promulgated by the Vatican, has switched over.
Stay tuned to this bat-channel for updates. Meanwhile, I invite you to consider that most of the hymns I've looked at so far take a fairly dim view of the way human beings run the world without the special grace given by Jesus Christ. "This world, headed for destruction"--that's the way they talked in the 10th century. Food for thought as we go about our busy days either a. with our eyes on the prize or b. relying on our own powers.
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