English Chant

You will all be hearing a lot more chant around the liturgy at St. Bartholomew's, and I think it is important to point out a few things:

1) Chant melodies were originally written for the Latin texts of the early Church. Derived from Jewish and Greek songs, Gregorian Chant continued to evolve throughout the Middle Ages into the modern era.

2) That being said, singing chant to English text is a little more difficult. The Psalm Tone settings of the English Propers which is found in the Anglican Use Gradual make it easy by usually applying one note or neum per syllable in a phrase. However there is chant which is known as melismatic, which applies many notes per syllable. Because of this, the English language does not always have syllables that sound good within the word being sung for 12 different pitches.

So in conclusion, English chant has been mastered by some by shaping the syllables a bit differently and singing in a bright tone. This video of the Westminster Cathedral Choir singing the Psalms at Evensong is a wonderful example of how I would like all of us to work on singing chant in the liturgy. Please watch and enjoy!

Westminster Cathedral Psalms