Gregorian Chant

CD-review

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Eucharistie

Gregoriaans Abdijkoor Grimbergen o.l.v. Gereon van Boesschoten O. Praem.

N°Mod.IndexTrackTime
01 3 Hymnus Pange lingua 03:08
02 Responsorium Ego sum panis vitae 03:43
03 6 Antiphona O quam suavis est 01:38
04 2 Introitus Cibavit eos 02:54
05 7 Graduale Oculi omnium 03:04
06 7 Alleluia Caro mea 03:00
07 7 Sequentia Lauda Sion 06:41
08 4 Offertorium Sacerdotes Domini 01:33
09 6 Communio RealAudio FileQui manducat 00:48
10 8 Communio Hoc corpus 01:09
11 7 Communio Quotiescomque manducabitis 01:24
12 Responsorium Unus panis 04:33
13 5 Antiphona O sacrum convivium 01:37
14 Varia Adoremus in aeternum 02:49
15 Varia Adoro te 03:20
16 Varia Ave verum 01:18
17 Varia O salutaris hostia 01:06
18 Varia Homo quidam 02:33
19 Varia Jesu dulcis memoria 01:43
20 Varia O esca viatorum 01:22
21 Varia Tantum ergo 01:25
51:37

Review

This is the 6th CD by the Grimbergen Abbey Choir (or should that be Basilica Choir henceforth?), published by Eufoda (Davidsfonds). For this CD, the choir selected a number of chants from the proper for the Feast of the Holy Sacrament. The feast is a fairly recent addition to the ecclesiastical calendar, originating in 1246 in Liège (Belgium) and gaining popularity especially during the Counterreformation,during which processions with the Holy Sacrament became a powerful means of propaganda in the fight against secessionist Protestants.

On the CD, we find chants from the first Vespers, sung the night before the feast, the proper of Mass and the second Vespers, held on the evening of the feast. Later supplements to the liturgy feature chants such as Adoro te, Te Deum and Tantum ergo, the latter one no doubt remembered with nostalgia by many of us. One is immediately struck by the use of the Norbertine versions of these chants, differing in numerous passages from the Roma repertoire both in text and in melody. The Norbertine order also maintained a number of chants that were stricken from the record in Roman practice after the Second Vatican Council, such as the offertory Sacerdotes Domini.

The 20-member choir conducted by the charismatic father Gereon van Boesschoten has beautiful voices, and benefits from the fact that its members have had more than 20 years to blend in their voices into the choir sound, resulting in a nice and pleasing homogenous sound.

And because of these substantial advantages, I find it all the more disappointing that the choir still performs Gregorian chant according to the performance rules of the beginning of the century. Beautiful as that may sound, it is still a pity that they seem not to have heard of Cardine or his capital research into the repertoire: all notes have the same length, an almost mathematical average, with no expressive extras whatsoever on important notes or words. One would have hoped that by now, most singers are aware of the rhythmic subtleties hidden in the neumes and their importance for a right interpretation of the text.

But as we said, the feast of the Holy Sacrament was fairly recent addition, which means that many of its chants were composed at a time when the rhythmic characteristics had sunk into oblivion under polyphonic pressure. This means that in a number of cases, the choir could get away with a fairly ‘egalitarian’ musical approach. Yet the proper of Mass originated much earlier on, most of the chants featuring in manuscripts dating back to the late 900s, and therefore deserves much more rhythmical attention. In the introit Cibavit eos, for instance, there are a number of occasions (say the two last Alleluias) where we can hear the first note of the quilisma being stressed, whereas semiologists have long discovered that it is the last note of quilismas and scandici that need stressing. Or the gradual Oculi omnium, where every hint of musical build-up in Oculi is simply flattened out by making all the notes the same length. The same happens in the responsory Unus panis, where the solo part clearly demonstrates that this approach simply destroys the structure of the chant.

Fortunately, the recording features a number of sequences and hymns, genres that cope much better with a rhythmical interpretation because of the structure of the text. Yet here as well, the text is the problem for the choir, especially the word stress. Thus for instance in Lauda Sion, the passage 'in hymNIS et canticum' or 'et viNUM in sanguinem'.

But let us not be too negative; after all, Grimbergen is a really good choir. If only they were prepared to invest a few years’ time in the study of semiology, the Grimbergen Abbey Choir would no doubt become one of Flanders’ finest Gregorian choirs with a scientific background.

Willy Schuyesmans - November 2001
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