Chant, or Shan't

As I go on I become more convinced of the suggestion that the normative musical form of Christian worship is, at least in Western Christendom, plainchant. 'Normative', of course, doesn't mean 'normal'; it does mean that it sets the standard for other forms of music used in worship. The crucial elements are the absence of clear rhythm and its single melodic line, which erode the sense of time and allow an alignment with the eternal nature of God. Plainchant is also unaccompanied song, and puts primacy on the human voice.

When I was at St Stephen's House the House Musicians always went into despair when whoever was responsible for leading Morning and Evening Prayer for the week chose to have the student body sing the canticles in Anglican Chant rather than plainchant. Anglican Chant, at least from the 18th century is a bit like plainchant's boorish cousin who wants to dominate all the conversation at the family gathering. It's also easier to sing because you can slur notes, wobble about and hide behind harmonies. Plainchant is supposed to be pure and sung in unison, and if you get it wrong it sounds awful. It's good training.

I'm not very good at it, but I want to try and at least remind the people of Swanvale Halt that such a thing as plainchant exists, so when we keep one of the big feast days on a day which isn't a Sunday I try to use one of the Office Hymns, which I sing as an introit so the people can pray with it. Last Tuesday was of course the Transfiguration so I introduced the mass in the morning with this hymn from the English Hymnal, sung to the melody Coelestis Gloriae. It took me ages to get my head around, mainly because I couldn't find an example of it to guide me anywhere online, but finally it clicked and after a lot of practice I was able to make my way through the whole thing pretty bearably. Unfortunately on the day I ended up on the wrong note to start the second stanza and went badly awry though I managed to get it back on the right track for the third.

The next time we do a bit of plainchant will be on Michaelmas Day at the end of September when I've set the Office Hymn, 'Christ the fair glory of the holy angels', as our communion hymn to the tune Iste Confessor which I already know as it's used for the office hymn at Candlemas, so we'll see how that works out. The choir are confident they can do it!