by Sister Mary Antonine Goodchild, O.P. What a wonderful find this is: an ideal textbook on chant for junior high, high school, or really any age. It is mercifully free of verbiage or exaggerated detail. It is short and completely clear on all aspects of learning to chant (notes, rhythm, Latin, style), and it contains a vast amount of the basic repertoire, in neumes and with English translations. It even has study questions! Many of us have wished that such a book would be written. It took Fr. Samuel Weber to point out that such a book already exists, and now, praise be to God, it is in print again. As the title says, it is the perfect text for Church and school. It came out in 1944 but it isn't in the slightest bit dated. This is priced for mass distribution.

A simple and friendly guide to reading chant notation, the easiest guide in print to make help you learn to read Gregorian Chant fast. We do this by printing out the notes and signs as big as they were back in medieval days. Big notes are easier to read and remember. And when you open the Parish Book of Chant or the Liber Usualis you'll be able to read the notes. In Gregorian Chant notes are arranged like a train....each note or grouping has a clear purpose and when connected to its neighbors makes up a melody. Join the new schola at your church or school and find yourself confident and comfortable reading Gregorian Chant. Reviews: This was a great refresher, it's been years since I sang chant and this brought it all back to me fast! Our schola appreciates how effective this book is, seeing these big notes makes it so much easier to recognize them in today's small printed pages that we usually find in churches.

Richard L. Crocker offers in this book and its accompanying compact disc an introduction to the history and meaning of the Gregorian chant. He explains how Gregorian chant began, what functions and meanings it had over time, who heard it and where, and how it was composed, learned, written down and handed on. Crocker explains Gregorian chant and its functions within modern catholic liturgy as well as its position outside this liturgy, where the modern listener may hear it just as music. He describes the origins of the chant in the early Middle Ages, details its medieval development and use, and considers how it survived without, and later with, musical notation. The author probes the paradoxical position of the chant in monastic life -- serving as an expression of liturgical fellowship on the one hand and as the medium of solitary mystic ascent on the other. The book also includes a detailed commentary on each of twenty-six complete chants performed by the Orlando Consort and by the author on the accompanying compact disc. --From publisher's description.