ChantHacks Episode 5, Part 1
For a chant that’s so short, we’re gonna need two hacks!
Peace and welcome to ChantHacks, where we discuss Gregorian chant and Classical Polyphony, and how to get you singing it WELL, sooner rather than later.
As I said in Episode 4 on The Clivis, I have another Organum Novi Mundi for you. The Episode 2 ONM was the Marian Antiphon for [01:00] Lent, Ave Regina Coelorum. As with the Ave Regina Coelorum (and all my ONM for that matter), the Hack is the harmony, or the harmonization of the Chant, to make it a little sweeter for modern ears.
In this episode I have an ONM of the Regina Caeli for Eastertide. Seasonally, the Church sings this until Pentecost Sunday (uh, actually until the Saturday afternoon after Pentecost). That will be until June 3rd this year, so, if I get this out soon, you’ll have 2-3 weeks to sing it before we switch over to the Salve Regina.
Now, for such a simple chant, there’s a lot of stuff packed into it which is good for teaching. I’m going to leave [02:00] that for the next ChantHacks. So the Regina Caeli ChantHacks will have a Part 2. For this episode, I’d like to concentrate on the Organum Novi Mundo of the Regina Caeli.
Now, a few musicians, especially those who attend the Anglican Ordinariate (those are the Anglican and Episcopal congregation who, with their minister, chose to join the Catholic Church), have compared the ONM to Anglican Chant. Anglican Chant is, primarily, a harmonized singing of the psalms. I say primarily, because there are also harmonized English antiphons and hymns that some people put under the heading of Anglican Chant. I’ll probably do a separate ChantHacks later on about my [03:00] ONM psalm tones so I won’t dwell on the differences between my stuff and Anglican Chant today.
Suffice it to say that, unlike Anglican Chant which follows what is considered to be a natural English speaking rhythm, my organum, whether of a Mass proper, antiphon, hymn, psalm tone, etc, follows the rhythmic teaching of Dom Mocquereau as in the Old Solesmes Method.
So, is my Organum is like Anglican Chant? The answer is YES, in so far as it’s chanted homophony. (If you don’t know what that means, re-listen to Episode 2 of ChantHacks.) Being homophonic, yes, ONM is like Anglican Chant but, NO, it’s different [04:00] rhythmically.
Does ONM have to follow the rhythm of Old Solesmes? I suppose not; but I wrote my ONMs with the Old Solesmes Method in mind, so I consider the rhythm as part of the composition. It’s how I heard it in my mind as I was writing it. I suppose you can sing it with whatever rhythm you want; but it wouldn’t be how I conceived it. I hope you do it with the Old Solesmes rhythm.
Another thing about ONM is that I try to write the lines accompanying the melody (the Chant) as independent melodies themselves. I consider my Organums to be simultaneous melodies, whether I’ve written something in 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 parts. [06:00] Whether I succeed or not, I don’t know; I’ll let you be the judge.
My Organum also has a sort of part song or choral folksong sound to it. Let me know in the comments if you think the same or not.
Here’s the Organum Novi Mundi of the simple Regina Caeli. Oh, before that, I should sing you the chant on it’s own, monodically.[sing Regina Caeli]
I wrote the Regina Caeli ONM the Sunday afternoon after we sang the ONM of Ave Regina Coelorum for the first time, back in 2001. So both[07:00] Organums are over 20 years old.)
This performance [of the Regina Caeli ONM] is by Paula DeWit and Bella Voce, plus some of the members of Offertorium. (Offertorium is the choir which sings on many of the videos on my Youtube and Rumble channels.) We recorded it, in workshop, August of 2017. I hope you enjoy it… [REGINA CAELI (ONM) sung]
[08:00] CHECK THE LINK IN THE DESCRIPTION FOR THE PDF OF THE ORGANUM NOVI MUNDI OF THE SIMPLE REGINA CAELI.
I hope you find it useful for your parish, Domus Mariae, or other singing group, even your family.
Please consider supporting us at LifeFunder.com/Mdonnellymusic. Although people are having problems making donations here, I hope we can get this ironed out with WePay and LifeFunder quickly, SO you can help us keep these podcasts going AND give me time to compose.[09:00]
If you’d like to commission a work for a special Mass or occasion, or have me come and work with your choir for a weekend, please contact me at mark@vocalart.org.
THE NEXT ChantHacks (Episode 6) will be Regina Caeli, Part 2, the Epizema and the Mora Vocis; and it’s not about a lung disease and your voice dying (that would be Emphysema and Mors Vocis).
Until then... I’m Mark Emerson Donnelly... GOD BLESS! [10:00]
