I just wanted to write a quick entry to note that the sacred music workshop, featuring training in reading and singing Gregorian chant and singing both chant and polyphony for Mass, was a success.  Around 25 full attendees, plus a few who could only come for part of the time, received expert instruction from Fr. Robert Skeris in unison and legato singing, reading "square notes" (the neumes of Gregorian chant), and receiving tips for introducing (or re-introducting) Gregorian chant in the average parish.

Each participant received a copy of Gregorian Chant Master Class by Theodore Marier, which was a gift that will keep on giving... it includes a CD that demonstrates the examples given in the book for reading the different types of neumes and markings in chant, which makes it easy for one to continue to study reading and singing chant in the comfort of their own home.  Once we walked through some examples of marking the rhythm of the chant in the pieces we were singing for Mass, identifying groups of two and three pulses (as all chant is made up of), the mysterious square notes started to make more sense.  Though some of us may not have sung "do re mi" since gradeschool, we found it came in handy in reading chant, as the notes marked in chant are relative to a movable "do" or "fa" (the two clefs used in chant)... in other words there is no set starting note for a piece of Gregorian chant.  The choir/schola director or cantor chooses a pitch in a comfortable range and the rest of the piece is based on that.

Time flew by... we only had time to learn one polyphonic motet, but it was a classic: Palestrina's Sicut Cervus.  What a beautiful Communion piece! 

I will have pics and videos to post in the (hopefully) near future... so more later!