Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the 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 Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of the Old Roman chant and Gallican chant.
Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally 12 modes. Typical melodic features include a characteristic ambitus, and also characteristic 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. 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 men and women 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. (wikipedia)
Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about Los Mejores (I guess this album is a low budget project), but I do know that they interpret this music really excellently.
I’m always surprised at how intense these songs can be… and although I am an agnostic, this music still touches me … incredible.
And I have to think of the film “The Name Of The Rose” by Umberto Eco …
Personnel:
Los Mejores (vocals)
Taken from the movie “The Name Of The Rose”:
Tracklist:
CD 1:
01. Liturgia Verbi (1) 6.11
02. Liturgia Verbi (2) 8.09
03. In I. Nocturno 14.12
04. In II. Nocturno 12.47
05. In III. Nocturno 13.56
CD 2:
01. Benedictus Ignis 12.12
02. Procession Cum Cero 7.22
03. Preaeconium Paschale 8.03
04. In I. Nocturno 14.48
05. In II. Nocturno 11.34
Since 1986 musicians from USA, UK and Germany play Irish, Scottish & English folk in line-ups from duo to quintet and accompany Irish dancers at their Irish Folk Nights.
In 1972, the blind jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, who owes part of his fame to his ability to play several saxophones at the same time, released his album “Blacknuss”. Almost two decades later, drummer Martin Jonsson and Conny C. Lindström borrowed this title for a jam session at Stockholm’s Fasching jazz club – unaware of the consequences this event would have for everyone involved and the entire Swedish soul/jazz scene.
Emil Viklický (born 23 November 1948) is a Czech jazz pianist and composer.
Viklický’s work has gained him a number of awards. These include second prize in the 1985 Monaco jazz composition competition (for “Cacharel”), the 1991 Film and Television Association prize for music for animated film, second prize at the 1994 Marimolin contemporary music competition in Boston (for “Tristana”), a 1996 Prague award for electroacoustic music (for “Paradise Park”), a 1996 Czech Music Fund prize for use of folk music in art music, and first prize in a 2000 international composition competition in Prague (for the opera Phaedra).(wikipedia)
John Robert “Joe” Cocker OBE (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles, such as “Feelin’ Alright?” and “Unchain My Heart”, were recordings of songs written by other song writers, though he composed a number of songs for most of his albums as well, often in conjunction with songwriting partner Chris Stainton.
The rock band BBM was a short-lived British supergroup.
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 by Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals), later joined by John Deacon (bass).
The only thing I know is that this orchestra recorded several albums of this kind under the direction of Gary Tesca (real name: Henk Ruseler) with music from Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston
Colosseum are an English jazz rock band, mixing blues, rock and jazz-based improvisation. Colin Larkin wrote that “the commercial acceptance of jazz rock in the UK” was mainly due to the band. Between 1975 and 1978 a separate band Colosseum II existed playing progressive rock.
One of the best jazz singers of her generation, Dee Dee Bridgewater (born May 27, 1950) had to move to France to find herself. She performed in Michigan during the ’60s and toured the Soviet Union in 1969 with the University of Illinois Big Band.
The official website:
Robin Leonard Trower (born 9 March 1945) is an English rock guitarist who achieved success with Procol Harum throughout 1967–1971, and then again as the bandleader of his own power trio known as the Robin Trower Band.
Tracklist:
ManyFantasticColors 