Customer Reviews

A Beginner's Guide To Reading Gregorian Chant Notation

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I received a copy of this book during a summer choir school led by Noel Jones, the author. As a longtime church musician and choral director, I had tried to learn chant notation from books before. But, it never clicked. This book is by far the most user-friendly book on chant I have encountered. I know I will refer to it often in the future as I continue to introduce others to this beautiful form of sacred music.

[It's a pleasure to have permission to reprint this review from the AGO Magazine.]

Haig Mardirosian
July 2009
The American Organist, the official journal of the American Guild of Organists

This wonderful little book is the chant-equivalent of Dick and Jane. With as few as one word on a page (and one neume), it takes us back to the root of learning to read (this notation) from the ground up. Beyond that, what can one possibly say? It is a primer and a refreshing way to reduce an idiom carrying with it a mysterious theoretical and stylistic aura to the fundamental, even primal musical language that it is.

Jones does not pontificate about chant. He avoids sentences and paragraphs wherever possible. His preferred style of written communication is something between a word and a bullet list. How can one argue with the minimalist reduction of what is, to most, an indecipherable old craft to a series of statements such as "Staff covers just the range of the human voice" or "There are only two clef signs"?

Where content is minimal, so the book's design and layout are also simple and striking. While the printer wastes no ink, the typefaces recall the stroke of the medieval copyist's pen. It is a lovely, simple treasure to behold.

In a scant 71 pages, most of which contain a single large illustration and one or two words, the code is broken. And once that happens, chant is as easy as "See Spot run. Run Spot, run!"



Reprinted with permission.

This book is too simple. It is useless for anyone who is really interested in learning how to sing Gregorian chant.