Society of Saint Gregory

Just a general reminder: The next SSG composers group meeting is at Ware Carmelite convent on Saturday Nov 17th. Usual routine (as described in the composers section of the SSG website), but note that, as I need precise numbers, can anyone who wishes to go please let me know (t.e.muir@hotmail.co.uk)...

Two different messages: (1) Next composers group meeting will be on Oct 13, 2007 (NOT Sept 29th as originally advertised) at Stanbrook Abbey, near Worcester. Further details and directions will come up shortly on the composers section of the SSG website. Otherwise contact me here. All welcome. Ideal...

Here are a few useful tips I observed at our last composers meeting in Leicester. (1) Two pieces showed the technique of alternation between contrasting passages of block harmony and simple contrapuntal polyphony. Note how, when you use linear counterpoint, this encourages you to use interesting sus...

Mass promotion of plainchant today poses a number of structural difficulties, mainly revolving around what sort of plainchant you wish to promote. When Plainsong for Schools was published it followed the then controversial Mocquereau variety of rhythm as distinct from that promoted by Pothier throug...

There are literally hundreds of O Salutaris settings from pre Vatican II days, although only a tiny proportion of them are plainchant. To get some idea of the scope try the following publications: ed. A.E. Tozer: Complete Benediction Manual (1898) and its more commonly known revision by J. Hasberry ...

Reminder Want to share your composing/arranging skills and see what others are doing? Then come to the next SSG composers meeting on June 23rd in Leicester. Details and directions on the composers section of the SSG website. Anyone can come. However, if you have not already done so, it would help to...

Many thanks, Reginald, for the correction. I had forgotten that Sacrosanctum Consilium had referred to the organic growth in the liturgy. However, I am also fairly certain that Alcuin Reid discusses liturgical change from the earliest Christian times to the present day in terms of organic growth, an...

The article is most interesting; both in what is says and what it leaves unstated. Try these ideas out for starters: (1) The emergence of scholarly liturgical study as an academic discipline in the late C19th (parce the work of Daniel Rock and Prosper Gueranger) meant that specialist experts - rathe...

The Anglicans seem much more determined about training organists in my part of Lancashire. The monthly magazine of the Preston Organists Association has about half a dozen salaried posts for organists in local churches some of which offer to pay for putative organists to receive tuition. This weeken...

I note that some people are calling for the composition of more new high quality pieces of music for the liturgy. If so, why not come along to meetings of the SSG composers group, where compositional techniques and new creative ideas are freely discussed and exchanged? For further details as to meet...

Here is the reply so many of you have been dreading! Many thanks for drawing my attention to the fact that many people do not object to hymns per se, but to their use as the only form of music at Mass. Nevertheless, it should be noted that GIRM seems to prohibit their use at the entrance, offertory ...

Personally I am broadly in favour of recessional hymns. Without them the service can often end with a whimper - although there are occasions when perhaps something quieter or more reflective is needed at the end. Thus where I am, during Lent our parish priest has instituted a full sung version of th...

Just a quick reminder of the composers group meeting at Salford Cathedral this Saturday (March 3rd) starting at 10.30 am for 11.00. Composers, arrangers and authors of texts of all types most welcome. For further details and travel directions, see the 'composers' section of the SSG website. A possib...

I feel that a degree of separateness is inevitable if the proper is to be sung, which is what the bishops have decided in the new GIRM. Unless we adopt some very simple system of chanting the proper, I doubt if we can ever teach congregations the two hundred or so pieces of music they would need to...

Small correction to the Responsorial Psalm text I cited in my last message.

The response should read:

'The Lord is compassion and love'; followed by 'slow to anger and rich in mercy'.

Thomas Muir