Catholic liturgical music is serious, solemn, transcendent, but Catholic musicians are never more fun and inspiring than when they are talking about what they love most. This is what happens at sacred music events around the world: the social and intellectual are critically important elements. The musicians (and music enthusiasts) at the Chant Café, a project of the
Church Music Association of America, bring that sense of life and love to the digital world. As St. Augustine said, "Cantare amantis est."
Among the contributors:
Also past contributors:
Jeffrey Tucker, writer, editor, entrepreneur, musician |
archiveNick Gale (1975-2015), organist, choral director, for 13 years Master of the Music at the Cathedral of St. George in Southwark |
archiveBen, schola director and organ student |
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e-mail:
contact@chantcafe.com
Definitely not organum, this wood be some form of simple fauxbourdon/faburden, schematic, originally mostly improvised, harmonisation of chant with parallel 6-3 chords, with 8-5 at the cadences…
wood = would, silly phone…
I thought you were right the first time.
I believe the term that would apply here is "parallel organum," which predates other forms.
This is not parallel organum, since there is a "progression" at the cadence. It is faburden, in which the middle voice keeps the chant melody, the top voice sings in parallel fourths, and the bottom voice begins and ends a fifth below the chant, but otherwise moves in parallel thirds with it. It is a technique of improvisation that seems to have originated in England.
While proper terminology is important ( and in the category of "use it or lose it," I'd forgotten about fauxbourdon), I think an important item, again, to take away from this post is the flexibility of chant and proto-polyphonic music when it comes to functional Church music. That last idea ( functional music) was featured in an OCP article… We regularly "dress up" the Simple English Propers with drones and parallel organum. The fauxbourdon is another technical trick I may use this fall when our choir resumes!
It is very beautiful indeed!