Abstract
First Lecture: In Hungary, since the 1960s there has been a movement to restore liturgical music by means of small parochial scholas, supported by a programme of musical publications and study retreats. Vernacular texts and simplified melodies have aided wide participation, providing stepping stones to a fuller use of the more complex chants in the choir books. The starting point for these groups has usually been the Divine Office (rather than the Mass), but for sung Masses in smaller churches, a flexible musical structure has been developed which incorporates Latin chant, vernacular chants with congregational refrains, folk hymns, and choral motets; and a Hymnal has been published to aid this form of sung celebration. Keys to the success of this movement include the re-appropriation of elements from local pre-Tridentine tradition, the combination of Latin with vernacular chant, a flexible approach to chant performance, and the development of a chant notation accessible to non-specialists.
Second Lecture: Following a historical preamble, the second lecture presents the rationale, genesis, and compositional methodology of the Graduale Hungaricum — a collection of simple chant Propers for the use of smaller churches — and proposes a Latin/English adaptation of this resource, to be called the Graduale Parvum.
Note: These lectures were given at the London Oratory School on Monday 1 June 2009, at a ‘Colloquium on the Possibilities for Chant at Mass and Other Occasions’, sponsored by the Society of St Catherine of Siena and the London Oratory School.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
László Dobszay
See article ‘Perspectives on Organic Development’ (p. 130, above).