5-17-12 BACK UP ON THE SEAWALL - SEVEN GREGORIAN CHANTS POSTED
Posted by Vincente E. Woodward on Thursday, May 17, 2012
Finished week up by Faria.
It went unbelievably fast.
So, it was a matter of whether to come in out of the cold, or see if I could get another week on the seawall.
Won't know for sure until tomorrow at 9 a.m.
All has been relatively quiet on the coast.
Not really a lot to talk about during the past several days.
A few more whales, many more dolphins, and pelicans and other birds for days.
One huge flock was floating all night right off shore from the wall.
You always wonder whether the birds can bed down out at sea.
Well, the answer is, yes, they can, and yes, they do.
And it is just really so weird to see.
One wonders how many fish are swimming below as the little birds disappear one by one.
It amazes me that most, if not all of them, even make it through the night.
Well, at any rate, after moving back onto the wall yesterday afternoon, I sat down and recorded more Gregorian chants while the waves pounded on the wall right below my feet.
It is really a beautiful sight to behold in front of you as you work out the numerous intricate details of performance and recording.
I created a new page, titled PLAINCHANT.
The reason why this exact name is because it is a more generic name.
When people hear chant they tend to automatically think of Western Plainchant, which they will believe is "Gregorian" chant, whether it is or is not.
The chant tradition is as ancient as temples and caves themselves.
Many of the melodies which are heard can be thousands of years old, passed from one region and religion and civilization to another by means of oral transmission.
For example, Pliny the Elder wrote of the earliest "Christians" as singing hymns to Christ "as unto a God".
The very melodies which were being used to sing those hymns in the earliest gatherings could have very easily been some which were transmitted orally until the writing of the neumes.
How strange it seems to me that you could be singing the same song/s that Pliny heard and made reference to in his report.
It was not until about the 1200's that anyone got really serious about reducing the oral tradition into a written form.
That form became known as "Neumes".
Most of the chants which were written down during the 1200's would be written in Neumes.
The Byzantine form of the neumes was used for 650 years.
This makes if far older and longer lasting than our modern musical notation.
One must remember that there are numerous different types of chants and ages of different types of chants, and different types of religions and peoples.
It is an ancient and very widespread tradition, throughout all of recorded history.
I have recorded these seven as representative of the Western Plainchant tradition, which most people would probably think of as European, in contrast to, for example, Babylonian chant, or Persian chant.
Most people probably think of chant as being tedious and rather melancholy, and ridiculously redundant.
Well, a listen to these seven songs should dispel that notion right away.
We also tend to think of these persons as being more musically primitive than us.
Again, listen.
Are we degenerating?
or regenerating?
Because I have used my precious few minutes uploading the songs I do not have time to say any more, and must, once again, leave.
vw
5-17-12
2:15 p.m. pst
Ventura, California
It went unbelievably fast.
So, it was a matter of whether to come in out of the cold, or see if I could get another week on the seawall.
Won't know for sure until tomorrow at 9 a.m.
All has been relatively quiet on the coast.
Not really a lot to talk about during the past several days.
A few more whales, many more dolphins, and pelicans and other birds for days.
One huge flock was floating all night right off shore from the wall.
You always wonder whether the birds can bed down out at sea.
Well, the answer is, yes, they can, and yes, they do.
And it is just really so weird to see.
One wonders how many fish are swimming below as the little birds disappear one by one.
It amazes me that most, if not all of them, even make it through the night.
Well, at any rate, after moving back onto the wall yesterday afternoon, I sat down and recorded more Gregorian chants while the waves pounded on the wall right below my feet.
It is really a beautiful sight to behold in front of you as you work out the numerous intricate details of performance and recording.
I created a new page, titled PLAINCHANT.
The reason why this exact name is because it is a more generic name.
When people hear chant they tend to automatically think of Western Plainchant, which they will believe is "Gregorian" chant, whether it is or is not.
The chant tradition is as ancient as temples and caves themselves.
Many of the melodies which are heard can be thousands of years old, passed from one region and religion and civilization to another by means of oral transmission.
For example, Pliny the Elder wrote of the earliest "Christians" as singing hymns to Christ "as unto a God".
The very melodies which were being used to sing those hymns in the earliest gatherings could have very easily been some which were transmitted orally until the writing of the neumes.
How strange it seems to me that you could be singing the same song/s that Pliny heard and made reference to in his report.
It was not until about the 1200's that anyone got really serious about reducing the oral tradition into a written form.
That form became known as "Neumes".
Most of the chants which were written down during the 1200's would be written in Neumes.
The Byzantine form of the neumes was used for 650 years.
This makes if far older and longer lasting than our modern musical notation.
One must remember that there are numerous different types of chants and ages of different types of chants, and different types of religions and peoples.
It is an ancient and very widespread tradition, throughout all of recorded history.
I have recorded these seven as representative of the Western Plainchant tradition, which most people would probably think of as European, in contrast to, for example, Babylonian chant, or Persian chant.
Most people probably think of chant as being tedious and rather melancholy, and ridiculously redundant.
Well, a listen to these seven songs should dispel that notion right away.
We also tend to think of these persons as being more musically primitive than us.
Again, listen.
Are we degenerating?
or regenerating?
Because I have used my precious few minutes uploading the songs I do not have time to say any more, and must, once again, leave.
vw
5-17-12
2:15 p.m. pst
Ventura, California
