The Dutch tenor and choral conductor, Wim van Gerven, was for many years, a member of the Nederlands Kamerkoor while it was under the direction of Felix de Nobel. In 1959, he founded the Schola Cantorum Amsterdam (SCA) as the Gregorian Chant Choir for the University of Amsterdam’s Roman Catholic student community, and was its conductor. From 1963 to 1967 Gerven gave musical direction to both the Gregorian Chant Choir and the choir performing the new rite. He left the Schola after an unfortunate internal dispute at the end of 1993. He died on November 1, 2008
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.
Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally twelve modes. Typical melodic features include characteristic ambituses, intervallic patterns relative to a referential mode final, incipits and cadences, the use of reciting tones at a particular distance from the final, around which the other notes of the melody revolve, and a vocabulary of musical motifs woven together through a process called centonization to create families of related chants. The scale patterns are organized against a background pattern formed of conjunct and disjunct tetrachords, producing a larger pitch system called the gamut. The chants can be sung by using six-note patterns called hexachords. Gregorian melodies are traditionally written using neumes, an early form of musical notation from which the modern four-line and five-line staff developed.[1] Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as organum, were an early stage in the development of Western polyphony.
Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by choirs of men and boys in churches, or by women and men of religious orders in their chapels. It is the music of the Roman Rite, performed in the Mass and the monastic Office. Although Gregorian chant supplanted or marginalized the other indigenous plainchant traditions of the Christian West to become the official music of the Christian liturgy, Ambrosian chant still continues in use in Milan, and there are musicologists exploring both that and the Mozarabic chant of Christian Spain. Although Gregorian chant is no longer obligatory, the Roman Catholic Church still officially considers it the music most suitable for worship. During the 20th century, Gregorian chant underwent a musicological and popular resurgence. (by wikipedia)
And this is a real wonderful example of this type of music … Listen, enjoy …
Personnel:
Schola Cantorum Of Amsterdam Students conducted by Wim van Gerven
Tracklist:
Dominica Quarta Adventus (The Fourth Sunday Of Advent):
01. Introitus: “Rorate” 2.46
02. Offertorium: “Ave Maria” 2.16
03. Communio: “Ecce Virgo” 0.54
In Nativitate Domini (Christmas Eve):
04. Hymnus: “Jesu Redemptor Omnium” 3.22
Sabbato Sancto (Easter Saturday):
05. Alleluia: “Confitemini” 1.56
Dominica Resurrectionis (Easter Sunday):
06. Invitatorium: “Surrexit Dominus” 7.03
07. Alleluia: “Pascha Nostrum” 2.00
08. Sequentia: “Victimae Paschali” 1.43
In Ascensione Domini (Ascension Day):
09. Introitus: “Viri Galilaei” 3.14
10. Offertorium: “Ascendit Deus” 1.44
Dominica Pentecostes (Whit Sunday):
11. Alleluia: “Veni Sancte Spiritus” 2.03
12. Communio: “Factus Est” 0.52
Missa In Dominica Pentecostes:
13. Introitus: “Spiritus Domini” 3.23
14. Kyrie 1.59
15. Gloria 3.11
16. Alleluia: “Emitte Spiritum” 1.34
17. Alleluia: “Veni Sancte Spiritus” 1.58
18. Sequentia: “Veni Sancte Spiritus” 2.28
19. Offertorium: “Confirma Hoc” 1.40
20. Sanctus 1.21
21. Agnus Dei 1.18
22. Communio: “Factus Est” 1.05
Vespera In Dominica Pentecostes (Whit Sunday Vespers):
23. “Deus In Adjutorium” 0.40
24. Antiphon: “Dum Complerentur Dies” / Psalmus 109: “Dixit Dominus” 2.35
25. Antiphon: “Spiritus Domini Replevit” / Psalmus 110: “Confitebor” 2.51
26. Antiphon: “Replenti Sunt Omnes” / Psalmus 111: “Beatus Vir Qui Timet” 2.35
27. Antiphon: “Loquebantur Variis” / Psalmus 112: “Laudate Pueri” 2.58
28. Capitulum: “Cum Complerentur Dies” 0.30
29. Hymnus: “Veni Creator Spiritus” 3.22
30. Antiphon: “Hodie Completi Sunt Dies” / Magnificat 6.00
31. “Benedicamus Domino” 0.53
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