Chanting the Psalms
by Melanie Bettinelli on January 15, 2012
I don’t listen to the Divine Office podcast very often; but I have the app on my phone and sometimes when I can’t find a chunk of time to sit and pray I can at least listen to the office on the go. The other night, for example, my sister put on Evening Prayer while I was coking dinner. Although I only heard about 80% of it because of interrupting kids, still it was very nice to be able to pray while I worked.
But this morning it was a special treat. I played the podcast on my phone as I got myself and the children dressed for Mass and was very pleasantly surprised to hear them chanting the psalms instead of the usual recitation. This is how the psalms are meant to be heard! I’m guessing that they only do it for Sunday’s office because I’ve never heard it before; but perhaps someday they may move to chanting all the hours? I can hope.
Daria has been writing about chanting the psalms over at her blog. As I told her, I’ve been wanting to learn to chant the psalms for a long time; but I don’t read music and don’t think I’m likely to learn anytime soon. I know musical people tell me it’s not that hard to learn to read chant notation; but I just don’t think it’s something I’m going to be able to pick up. The beauty of chant is suppose d to be that you don’t have to be musically trained in order to learn it. I think I could learn the chants by ear if I heard them often enough. So here’s hoping that more resources become available for people like me .
Comments
Well, I can read music, and it’s still easier to learn chant by ear. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be very much plainchant available that is audio of one, very clearly enunciating cantor. It’s all scholas, and while they sound lovely, I frequently can’t even distinguish one word from another.
What I end up doing is picking a bit of chant out on the piano, and that works okay as a voice substitute. Not great. I’ve got the Salve Regina and Our Father down, as well as most of the music for Compline in Ordinary Time. But to be honest, I have no idea if I really sound right, I have trouble with music that runs off an F clef versus a C clef, and I tend to drift around on the scale.
Posted by GeekLady on 01/15/12 at 06:51 PM
I’ve seen some videos for Latin plainchant of various prayers by a guy in Italy. I’ve linked to them int he past. I’ll look them up for you and repost them.
I have the Regina Caeli and Parce Domine in Latin. I want more of those too.
But it would also be a great service if someone were to record a bunch of plainchant for those of us who want to learn to chant the psalms in English not Latin.
Posted by Melanie Bettinelli on 01/15/12 at 08:03 PM
Hello. I’d love to hear chant too! (clearly enunciated). Thanks.
Posted by susan on 01/16/12 at 06:52 AM
I was just wishing last week that there was a way I could listen to Morning Prayer. I didn’t know about this app. Thanks!!!
Posted by Katherine on 01/16/12 at 06:56 AM