Schola Cantus Angelorum is hosting the 6th annual Sacred Liturgy Conference in Salem, OR on June 27 through 30. This year, guest speakers will include Bishop Athanasius Schneider from Astana, Kazakhstan; Rev. Cassian Folsom, OSB from Norcia, Italy; and Bishop James D. Conley from Lincoln, NE. Last year in Medford, Raymond Cardinal Burke was among the celebrants, and Kathy attended.
A coworker of mine is excited about the drone he got for Christmas and has already been using it over his neighborhood and, as of this weekend, around Lake Tahoe. In Northern Nevada, there is an abundance of great places to capture footage with drones. Most of the local news stations use them, as do police departments, farmers, and even Amazon (above). The military has been using much larger drones for decades.
But as you may have guessed, this post is not about those drones. New Liturgical Movement features an article by David Clayton called "Using Drone Warfare In The Battlefield Of Sacred Music." A drone in this instance is a single note sung along with a chant, which Clayton says is especially useful in churches that do not have the best acoustics because of carpeting or other architectural issues. I had never heard of this concept before.
Clayton argues:
I have seen the drone used in both Gregorian and Byzantine chant to powerful effect. I suggest that this is something that could be used more, especially in modern churches which are not designed with an acoustic that naturally produces a harmonic resonance. In my opinion, chant requires that faint suggestion of harmony that such a resonance lends to it, as one might hear in a Gothic abbey, for example, in order to have full effect as sacred music.
After discussing how the concept of a drone relates to mathematics and proportion, Clayton offers the following video as an example of how it sounds in a chant.
Clayton concludes with a great idea on how droning can help when the music was selected and played by adherents of the "Spirit of Vatican II":
[I]f I ever find myself trapped in the pews in a Mass that has missalette music I create a little chant-like micro-environment around me by trying to improvise an ison to the hymns and ditties. I aim to make it as deep and reverberating as I possibly can - we are talking Russian-basso-profundo levels of reverberation here. It seems to pull it in the right direction at least.
Kathy has alerted me to the existence of the Saint Sebastian Gregorian Schola from Akron, Ohio. She explains how she "met" their director, Jeffrey Quick, who has already done us a great favor:
I downloaded a copy of Isaac's "Manducaverunt," from CPDL, which we will be singing at [St. Thomas Aquinas Cathedral, Reno] on Feb. 4 and at [Holy Spirit Mission, New Washoe City] for Quinquagesima (which is the correct Communio for that day).
There was not a reduction of the choral score, so on impulse, I contacted the editor of the piece [Mr. Quick] and asked him if he had one. Although he said he was really busy, he took the time to set up the piece with the reduction - very kind of him. He was interested in our choir and asked if we were really going to sing the piece for Quinquagesima; very excited when I told him we were. He would like a recording of it but that isn't going to happen. Too hard to record at HSM anyway and the cathedral is impossible with all the ambient noise.
Anyway, he was interested about our being an independent choir and he sent me a link to his schola's Facebook page. There is some interesting stuff there. Please take a look when you have time.
Always good to acknowledge our fellow chant singers!
8 AM at St. Rose of Lima. If the propers look familiar, they should; they're from the 2nd Sunday on OT. You can leave the SMH home, but bring your Adoremus.
Sorry for the lack of posts lately; like most of us, I've been sick.
4: 15 PM at the Cathedral. Hopefully the lights will stay on this time; the power went out throughout downtown Reno on December 31st (Holy Family) at the 5 PM Mass while Kathy was singing the Responsorial Psalm. She, Karon, and I formed the Impromptu A Cappella Cell Phone Light Trio (our answer to the Electric Light Orchestra?). Here's what the outage looked like from the choir loft:
Of course, the celebrant had to be Fr. Tom Hamilton, who needs more light than usual; that's Deacon Joe Bell delivering the homily (he worked the darkness into it). Someone found a high-powered flashlight to help Fr. Tom.
