Thursday, October 05, 2006

Some music links

Here's a really wonderful site: the Saint Cecilia Schola Cantorum of St. Michaels Catholic Church in Auburn, Alabama. It seems to be sort of a blog, with tons of great links to articles about chant and other kinds of sacred music.

For instance, the most recent (September 26) entry is this:
Singers are very fortunate the Orlando Di Lasso took time out to write 25 or so duets designed for training singers in sight reading and technique. They are also very beautiful, and even useful for liturgical purposes. Their texts are all liturgical. They assist in helping singers master the ability to blend, navigate a wide range, be precise in rhythm, and develop interpretive capacity.

The site that offered 7 of them is difficult to navigate, so the St. Cecilia Schola is pleased to make this packet available for download.


Isn't that great?

And here's something else, found linked on the above website: a page titled All Masses of the Liturgical Year. Each linked page contains two links for each of the propers for each week of the year - one to an audio file and one to an image file. So, for instance, you can go to this page, labeled the "Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time," amd there are links to mp3 audio files and .gif images scores (in Gregorian notation) of the Introit, the Gradual, the Alleluia, the Offertory, and the Communion anthem for the day - plus the scriptural source for each. All in Latin, BTW. So you can read along with the score while you listen to the music.

A warning: the mp3s aren't always of the first quality. The pieces are, they say, sung by "Saint Benedict's Monks" in Brazil, and there's lots of background noise (papers rustling, coughing, etc.). Still, the music is quite beautiful, and it's a treat to be able to follow along with the score. A good way to learn to read the music, too.

The Ordinary of the Mass can be found here.

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