§2. Television is to be used only:

                    1)  To watch the news so as to keep up with national and international events;

                    2)  To watch debates, panels, and round table discussions on church, political, historical, economic or similar topics;

                    3)  To follow extraordinary ecclesia or scientific events;

                    4)  To watch scientific or cultural programs and classical music performances, but not theater or similar performances (opera, zarzuela, operettas, ballets, etc...) nor festivals of popular music;

                    5)  To watch five sports events a year, unless there is an extraordinary world sporting tournament (Olympic Games, Soccer World Cup, etc...) in which case they can view six events during the course of it.

§ Radio is to be used as an alternative to television, following the same norms.

§ Our religious are absolutely forbidden to have radios, televisions or similar instruments in their rooms or offices.

[I watch fewer than six movies a year! I think the ban on opera and theatre are cos they try to discourage 'sentimentality'.  There's also an emphasis on gender stuff - being masculine. I wonder if the women are banned from watching opera and ballets too? Probably.]

http://www.rosaryworkout.com

From Cathnews:
"It was probably only a matter of time before an enterprising Catholic combined one of the greatest prayers, the Rosary, with physical exercise. The Rosary Workout advertises itself as a unique program to care for the body and soul together, blending Rosary prayer and meditation with the most modern principles of exercise science.
"The site is the brainchild of a "devout Catholic" and exercise fanatic, Peggy Bowes. The site is not a site for the casual visitor searching for information, it is the front-office for the author's products. http://www.rosaryworkout.com"

I tried ordering but the site (US one) claimed my address didn't match the address on my credit card. They don't seem to have set it up right to receive overseas orders. I sent a message. So frustratedly waiting for a reply. 

Nicholas Rynne, 27, has been in the Good Shepherd Seminary, Sydney, for the past 3 and a half years and recently completed the Juventutem Gregorian chant workshops taught by David Molloy.

“I love the music,” Rynne says. “Chant encapsulates the artistic/aesthetic and spiritual traditions of the Catholic Church and I wanted to learn more about it.”

He’d first studied Gregorian chant at a workshop given by Tony Vaughan in Brisbane several years ago. “Then I joined the Schola Cantorum of Brisbane, directed by Vaughan, and we sang at various religious services. When I joined the seminary in Sydney, in 2006, I became a member of the Seminary Schola and was keen to sing as much chant as I could, especially since the Second Vatican Council had asked that chant be given ‘pride of place’ in the Church's liturgy.

“I am excitedly anticipating the Mass at St Mary's Cathedral during World Youth Day for the dedication of the new altar when seminarians from Melbourne's Corpus Christi Seminary and Sydney's Seminary of the Good Shepherd will be singing all of the chant.

“This means we will chant for the reception of the Holy Father; the procession to the sanctuary; the antiphon and psalm when the relics are deposited in the new altar; the antiphon and psalm for the anointing, incensing and lighting of the new altar; and during communion and at the end of Mass.”

Rynne says he attended the Juventutem workshops because he wanted to learn how to read the medieval notation and review the “Sol-fa” system.

“An important thing I learnt was the use of tempo and phrasing (called the ‘arsis’ and ‘thesis’). A big problem is that many people perform chant slowly and without any dynamics – there’s no undulation in the sound. Consequently, many people think all Gregorian chant is depressing and dull. But the music is alive and full of subtle nuance if it is read and performed properly.

“When I sing Gregorian chant I feel it’s a deeply aesthetically and spiritually pleasing exercise.”

Rynne said he would like to further his chant studies by doing more work on the “Sol-fa” system, and learning the Gregorian “modes”.

“I’m being sent to a new seminary after World Youth Day - the Pontifical North American College in Rome, so I am hoping the Schola at the College practises a bit of chant and that there might be opportunities for further study in Rome.”

It was freezing in the church hall but we embraced the penance of the austere conditions, which are similar to those of Carthusian monks living on snowy mountainsides in stone buildings with no heating. Teacher David Molloy said stuff which I chiselled onto a solid block of ice.

HISTORY
+The monks used to learn 152 psalms in their first year in a monastery. They memorised everything.
+The dates marked on chant songs only indicate when the first manuscript evidence of the song was found. Chants are much older than those dates – they go back to the 5^th century.
+The Ornate chants - offertories, alleluias and graduals – were much more elaborate so they were written down first.
+The Ordinary chants - Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Gloria – had unchanging words and were written down last.

There was a backlash against chant in the 1500s because there were too many voices singing and the text couldn’t be understood and it went on too long. In 1562–63 the Council of Trent banned many chant sequences and had others edited and simplified.

In 1904, Pope Pius X asked the Solesmes monks how long it would take them to restore chant to its glory days and they said “50 years”. He insisted it had to be done in five years so everyone could start singing it. So Dom Mocquereau published the Graduale Romanun in 1908. He added signs to indicate rhythm (an ictus) and this was controversial and the Old School of Solesmes got a bad name because of this.

+Dom Mocquereau (1849–1930) and Dom Gajard (1885-1972) were heart-felt musicians and did the Old School of chant which David prefers.

Dom Cardine (1905-1988) developed the New School of chant which had a very scientific approach but he didn’t make any recordings.

 CHANT TIPS
+Chant is “soft singing” but support the breath with the diaphram.
+Strongest sound is the first line. Full sound at the beginning.
+Whenever you sing the word “Christe”, soften the “e” – don’t make it into a big operatic moment.
+Arsis and thesis. Beginning of a phrase is an arsis. Thesis = a gradual softening, fading away.
+U can have three arses in a row, then three theses. (It’s the only time u can say arses in church without getting into trouble.)
+An ictus is like a bar line.
+A liquescent is a reminder to clearly pronounce a Latin consonant. There’s never a liquescent in a melisma because melismas are always sung on a vowel.
+It’s important to pronounce consonants clearly so u can understand the text.
+There are formulas for lots of notes together – you get to recognise the set formulas. Many chants use long sections of established tunes and just change them a little bit, up or down.

You can use computer software programs [such as Chant Scribe or GregEdit] to churn out ancient notation that monks had done by hand with quills.

We sang Ubi Caritas and then David played a version of it from Durufle Meese “Cum Jublis” Op. 11 by Maurice Durufle. “This new interpretation shows chant is not unchanging. We can regard chant as our folk music and can build on that to make modern compositions.”

BOOKS TO BUY
David gave us four pages of suitable chant books. “If you just get one book, get the Parish Book of Chant by the Church Music Association of America, $US14 from the www.musicasacra.com site.”
The most complete collection of chants is the Liber usualis, which contains the chants in the 1980s for the Tridentine Mass and the most commonly used Office chants. David had got a free copy in the 1980s from a seminary which had been using it as a doorstop.
+ “If your parish priest isn’t keen on Latin, get By Flowing Waters by Paul Ford, in singable English.
“This presents its own dilemma in that the English translations have never been ‘‘approved’’.
“We can sing Gregorian chant in church or ‘some other suitable song’ – problem is, the other ‘suitable song’ might have inappropriate words,” David pointed out.

+For Homework, we have to practise the Introit of the Christmas Midnight Mass on page 113 of the Square Notes text book.

Then R gave us glossy pamphlets celebrating the life of the Blessed Miguel Pro (martyred 1927).

This was the last class until WYD starts.