The Magic of Gregorian Chant: Post-Concert Musings

Master Chorus Eastside presented a highly successful Masterworks concert a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been musing about one aspect of it ever since: the impact that our opening Gregorian chant had on the audience--and the singers.  We began with an ancient Te Deum, a long and lovely 4^th-century plainchant that seems to spin out forever in time and space.

We entered the main floor silently from all sides, encircled the audience, and simply began, in unison, without accompaniment.  About two-thirds of the way through we added continuous, cascading, bell-like peals from the piano along with a low drone and chimes from the organ.  Occasionally a few of the singers were ever so slightly out of sync, and yet that didn’t seem to interfere; rather, it suggested faint, reverberant echoes in a great cathedral.

I think I received more comments about that chant, both from audience members and singers, than almost any other piece on the program.

Legend says that the Te Deum chant was spontaneously composed and sung in alternation by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine at Augustine’s baptism in the year 387 A.D.

This implies mystery, divine inspiration, ecstatic utterance, and isn’t the only legend to so suggest.  There are many chants with accompanying stories that evoke the same idea.

And who or what is to say them nay?  There is something in chant that often captures people’s imaginations, lifts them out of themselves, speaks to them in a way that transcends the intellect.  Perhaps it is chant’s austerity; it is bare, unadorned, in its purest form stripped of harmony, a spare intertwining of melody and text.  Perhaps it is the many words that are sung on the same pitch, redolent of eternity. Perhaps it is the plainchant melodies; they tend to float upward in spacious arcs and then settle back down to their starting pitch, as if coming "home."  And perhaps it is plainsong's basic essence: sung prayer.  Whether one believes or not, it can feed the soul in some undefined way.

 Is this a commentary on our secular, scientific, post-Industrial Revolution society?  Maybe.  Our culture is bombarded with fast-paced  images, information, commercials, entertainment, all of which address only the here and now.  It can be difficult to find moments of quiet and contemplation.

So take a few more plainsong moments and refresh your soul.

Dr. Linda Gingrich

Artistic director and conductor

Master Chorus Eastside