116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.—Vatican II, Sacrosanctum concilium (1963)
In 1833, a young priest of the diocese of Le Mans, Dom Prosper Guéranger, undertook the restoration of benedictine monastic life on the site of an old priory at Solesmes, after forty years of silence due to the French Revolution. He seized upon the restoration of Gregorian chant with enthusiasm and began by working on its execution, asking his monks to respect the primacy of the text in their singing: pronunciation, accentuation and phrasing, with an eye to guaranteeing its intelligibility, in the service of prayer.
The Abbaye de Solesmes in France is perhaps the best source of Gregorian chant information. Gregorian chant forms used in liturgy of the Mass, including Propers and Ordinary components, and the Divine Office are available on this site.
The abbey at Solesmes uses the OGG audio file format. Here on this site you can listen to the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God) Ordinary in the WAV audio file format compatible with Microsoft Windows Media Player and Apple QuickTime Player.
The Church Music Association of America is an organization dedicated to the advancement of musica sacra in keeping with the norms established by competent ecclesiastical authority.
The Sacred Music Colloquium XX will be this June 21-27, 2010 at Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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