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Chant Psalms While You Work! [Anglican chant]
Liturgy: Praxis & Pistis ^ | 7/25/2004 | Brother Quotidian

Posted on 11/17/2004 7:59:10 AM PST by sionnsar

Chant Psalms While You Work!

With apologies to Larry Morey, I've had the following ditty running through my head the past couple of weeks:

Just chant psalms while you work
Lala La, la la la la.
Put on that grin and start right in
to chant psalms loud and long
Just chant a merry tune
Lala La la la la la.
Just do your best
and take a rest
and chant your self a psalm.

When there's too much to do
Don't let it bother you,
forget your troubles,
Try to be
just like a chanting chick-a-dee

And chant psalms while you work
Lala La, la la la la.
Come on get smart,
tune up and start
to chant psalms while you work


This adaptation of the ditty from Snow White applies to me recently on three counts ...

First of all, I've had Anglican chant on my mind a lot since I posted the last blog entry. Since May, I have been giving a group of low-church Protestants who up till then had never chanted a single syllable a crash course in singing the Psalms using Anglican chant. This has required me to distill the technique to very simple instructions, to select (or compose) simple, melodic chants (usually double-chants), to sing them to the class, and to encourage them to sing with me, to teach them how Psalms are to be pointed for chanting so they can understand the pointing marks, and then to follow me as we chant through Psalms and the canticles of the Prayer Book.

The project has given me tremendous encouragement, for it validates what I had suspected all along: that Anglican chant is peculiarly suitable for congregational use precisely because it is so quickly learned and easily remembered. After only about 10 sessions (mostly the "follow along while I sing" kind), the class can now pick up a pointed Psalm or canticle and sing it to any of the eight chants we've learned. Last night, I gave them the pointed text for the Benedictus from the 1928 Morning Prayer service, with no music, and chanted the first line to one of the chants we had learned a couple of weeks ago, asking them to join in with me on the second line and to continue through the canticle if they could. All of them joined right in, and we sailed right through to the end without a bobble. I was ecstatic. These are ordinary Christians with absolutely no experience of chant in their Christian pasts. If they can pick this up as quickly as they have, anyone can.

Along with this involvement with chant, I've found myself engaged by a couple of correspondents who have asked just the right questions to get me to answering them. One is a young woman of Jamaican origin, living in London, reared in a Pentecostal Baptist communion. She candidly acknowledges that the practice of chant -- so foreign to her cradle faith – has always held a kind of fascination for her, one she has never been able to explore. Another correspondent is a Presbyterian law student who hopes to resurrect the practice among his PCA brethren (and, I’m sure, the sistern too). I’m not surprised to find him hinting that it is probably going to be an uphill battle, particularly when I find it to be so among those who are supposed to be the home of Anglican chant.

Second, my second daughter’s wedding to my godson is now only two weeks off, and our household is in full tilt wedding mode. As I find myself presiding over everyone who’s making this event happen, I also find my plate threatening to run over on the floor.

Third, in the midst of all this, a sudden mad-dash across the continent to take advantage of a cheapo air fare and the discovery of a business which purchases the contents of closed churches, monasteries and convents. It looks like a prime opportunity to acquire the altar vessels for the Anglican parish we are planting in our community.

Guess what is not getting much attention? You guessed it. This blog.

I am thinking a lot, and I’ve even begun writing, on the next blog entry, a defense of the practice of chanting the Psalms, cabbaging on to the work of William Law to the same end a quarter of a millennium ago.

Look for something on that [crossing fingers hopefully] in the week after the wedding (August 14).


TOPICS: Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: anglican; anglicanchant; chant
I hope the ping list wll forgive me or, better, provide feedback on this and like postings. I would like to reach beyond all the steady diet of gloom, doom, schism and scandal posted of late -- but need feedback on the preferences of the Traditional Anglican ping list.

I do not know what has happened with Brother Quotidian, but this is his most recent piece.

1 posted on 11/17/2004 7:59:11 AM PST by sionnsar
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To: ahadams2; LiteKeeper; granite; Grani; The Right Stuff; usurper; AZhardliner; newheart; ...

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail me if you want on or off this list.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com

2 posted on 11/17/2004 7:59:51 AM PST by sionnsar (NYT/Cbs: "It's fake but true!" | Iran Azadi | Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)
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To: sionnsar

The 1940 Hymnal has a page or two that gives sound advice on chanting.


3 posted on 11/17/2004 8:05:37 AM PST by RonF
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To: RonF
Yes, it does. Although in the larger order of things this is miniscule at best, I miss the chant in Morning Prayer and am raising the issue of reinstating it -- the difficulties being:
1) By the APCK canons we only have Morning Prayer when we do not have a priest present, and
2) The percentage of our congregation who would know it is very small.
4 posted on 11/17/2004 8:12:11 AM PST by sionnsar (NYT/Cbs: "It's fake but true!" | Iran Azadi | Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)
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To: sionnsar

Yes, Virginia, there is a Chanta Claus.


5 posted on 11/17/2004 8:25:32 AM PST by jigsaw (God Bless Our Troops.)
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To: jigsaw

You owe me a new keyboard!! LOL.


6 posted on 11/17/2004 8:28:37 AM PST by sionnsar (NYT/Cbs: "It's fake but true!" | Iran Azadi | Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)
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To: sionnsar
Maybe Chanta will bring you one!   :-)
7 posted on 11/17/2004 8:37:06 AM PST by jigsaw (God Bless Our Troops.)
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To: sionnsar
1) By the APCK canons we only have Morning Prayer when we do not have a priest present, and
2) The percentage of our congregation who would know it is very small.

Two solutions: (1) chant may be used in the Eucharist for the Psalm (between OT and NT readings).
(2) the whole point of this article is that anybody can learn English chant. And believe me, anybody can. It is as logical as breathing in and out. It's even easier than Gregorian (and that's pretty easy). I like the 4 part English chant the best.

8 posted on 11/17/2004 9:35:42 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: sionnsar

Do you know of any available recordings of Anglican chanting (Psalms, canticles, etc.) and where one might purchase them? I would like very much to bring back this wonderful part of the liturgy even though our priest (bishop, actually) will not take part - he freely admits his voice is terrible.
I really miss the chanting from my childhood days as an Episcopalian. You know, when you begin to think about all the beautiful parts of the service that the revisionists threw out, it's quite a long list.


9 posted on 11/17/2004 10:25:22 AM PST by beelzepug (tag not to be removed under penalty of law except by consumer.)
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To: beelzepug; AnAmericanMother; sionnsar

In my parish we chant the psalm between the OT and NT readings on Sunday for Holy Eucharist. The choir does it in 4 parts. Since I'm in the choir, I'm not sure what exactly the congregation is doing, but I think they chant the "melody" (soprano part). We do distribute the chant notation in all 4 parts to the entire congregation.


10 posted on 11/17/2004 11:02:05 AM PST by RonF
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To: beelzepug
Here are some very nice Psalm settings from St. Paul's Cathedral. Some old and some relatively modern (e.g. Howells), some quite modern. I have heard their men-and-boys choir live at Evensong - they have a beautiful traditional "English Chant" sound.

Psalms from St. Paul's

11 posted on 11/17/2004 11:28:38 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: RonF
The sobersides are chanting the melody part.

The subversives in the congregation (like my family) are changing round the other 3 parts and annoying their neighbors. :-D

12 posted on 11/17/2004 11:29:59 AM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: AnAmericanMother

When I have gone to other parishes, I sing the bass part, if there is one, for all the hymns. My wife tries to discourage me, but I figure it's in there to be sung.


13 posted on 11/17/2004 12:09:13 PM PST by RonF
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To: RonF

If the parish didn't want you to sing the harmony parts, they'd have a melody-only hymnal in the pews, right? < g >


14 posted on 11/17/2004 12:11:56 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (. . . Ministrix of ye Chace (recess appointment), TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary . . .)
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To: beelzepug; All
Do you know of any available recordings of Anglican chanting (Psalms, canticles, etc.) and where one might purchase them? I would like very much to bring back this wonderful part of the liturgy even though our priest (bishop, actually) will not take part - he freely admits his voice is terrible.

Sadly, I do not. But if anyone reading this does and informs us, I would appreciate it!

My poor father suffered in the chants. Try as he might, even with training, he could not hold the note and would be quite some distance away by the end.

I really miss the chanting from my childhood days as an Episcopalian.

Me, too.

15 posted on 11/17/2004 8:09:11 PM PST by sionnsar (NYT/Cbs: "It's fake but true!" | Iran Azadi | Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)
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To: sionnsar; beelzepug

"Do you know of any available recordings of Anglican chanting (Psalms, canticles, etc.) and where one might purchase them?"

http://www.gothicrecords.com/anglicanchant.html

http://www.meathelmet.com/a/B00006GO6J/Psalms-of-David-Complete.html

http://www.ohscatalog.org/psalofdavcom.html

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/ChurchMusic/?ci=0198164246&view=usa


16 posted on 11/18/2004 9:46:58 PM PST by hiho hiho
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To: hiho hiho

Thanks very much!!!


17 posted on 11/19/2004 7:30:40 AM PST by sionnsar (NYT/Cbs: "It's fake but true!" | Iran Azadi | Traditional Anglicans: trad-anglican.faithweb.com)
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weekend bump

& bookmark


18 posted on 11/19/2004 2:26:06 PM PST by JockoManning
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To: sionnsar

ping


19 posted on 02/20/2007 9:44:25 AM PST by sionnsar (†trad-anglican.faithweb.com†|Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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