Customer Reviews

Grunt: Pigorian Chant from Snouto Domoinko de Silo

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I received this book/CD combo as a gift. The giver requested that I listen and read immediately. Howl! From start to finish, I laughed! The chant (grunt) is authentic, and true to Gregorian modes. The musicians are first rate, though I am not sure how they recorded this without laughing!

Basically, what Boynton and her cohorts have done, is spoof the ever-so-popular "Chant" recordings. It details the day in the lives of some barn animals. The humor is subtle, and it would almost be worth it to learn Latin all over again. After studying the Chant form for a semester in college, I am sure that I find the humor funnier than the average non-music major. Still, it is a great parody that everyone should hear at least once.

My Mother first shared this with me and it is one of the most cleverly funny things I have ever experienced. I belong to a medieval reinactment group (SCA) and I really love putting it on as background at meetings and seeing if anyone catches on. It works both as normal music (if you arn't paying attention it sounds just like regular chant), and as a fabulous IN JOKE.

I think you have to have a certain kind of twisted humor to really enjoy it though... and don't buy it if you don't enjoy chant. You'll get bored otherwise... but I love it and hope to share it with many others.

As others have noted, this book gets most of its humor value from the parody of the current trendy "Gregorian Chant for new age yuppies" albums, but the underlying concept is fun for anybody who knows a little Latin, grew up Catholic, or just likes erudite barnyard animals. And, unlike the P.D.Q. Bach works, no real knowledge of classical music is needed to appreciate much of the humor here. The real prize in this package is not the book, but the CD. This is good-quality music done by real musicians, who don't let the humorous content of the chant distract them from their skills. The text, where the pigs sing Pig Latin while the other animals sing Latin, is full of Latin translations of English idiom, and the snide comments of the chickens, delivered by angelic, ethereal female voices, win out-loud laughter from everyone for whom I've played the disc

If you weren't paying attention to the words, you'd think you were listening to a true Chant CD. The music is beautiful, but from the text, you know that they don't take themselves too seriously. It's a hoot! two hooves up!

Anyone with a classical degree, proficiency in early American schoolyard slang, a musical heritage and a sense of humor will revel in this work of breadth and brilliance. Highly recommended to the overeducated eccentric. The CD should be played as background music at your next party. Those who notice and comment are to be cultivated as friends worthy of greater interest.

This is one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. If you just listen to the music, you'd be fooled into thinking this is real Gregorian chant. But if you listen carefully or if you take a peek at the lyrics in the illustrated booklet, you're in for a real treat! This is wonderful satire of the Gregorian chanting phenomenon. Would make a great gift for Latin scholars!

This is Gregorian chant done in Pig Latin. The text is light-hearted. It is funny in parts, a spoof as it were, but done with full respect both to the musical form and to the language. The conceit does grow thin before the end of the work, but the music itself is good enough to warrant it being a full-length piece. (The music is good enough, that is, provided that you appreciate the chant form. If you need a beat or at least a meter in your music, than don't bother with GRUNT. Have a chuckle at the idea of doing a monastic-style chant in Pig Latin, then move on without ordering this CD.)

Grunt is an absolutely delightful sendup of the various popular "Chant" CDs. Boynton skewers the superficially spiritual with deadly aim, and tosses in some great sounding chant at the same time. She manages to do this without being in the least offensive (and this from someone who learned her first Latin chant more that 40 years ago -and still sings in the choir.) The polyphony of the chickens is not to be missed. Gopher baroque, Sandra! Don't let the turkeys get you down!

Hilarious spoof of Gregorian Chant. If you are a music history buff, this is a must for your collection.

There's no denying that this is clever, well-written material. But our toddler, who loves the other Boynton book/CD combos, can't really get into it. What's more, unlike the other discs, this one is somewhat annoying as background music.

Serious chant aficionados may disagree, but I think it's best to plan on sitting still and listening to this with the words in front of you to really appreciate it. But you probably won't need more than one or two listenings before it gets tiring. The concept is clever, and the execution is very good, but the joke wears thin pretty quickly.

Parents should also be aware that this isn't really like the other Boynton material (such as "Philadelphia Chickens" and "Rhinoceros Tap"), and it's not really music for kids. They might learn to enjoy it (and maybe they should), but it's definitely not in the same vein as those other more simple and tuneful works.