Gregorian Chant in the Duomo

“It’s supremely beautiful. It’s deeply spiritual,” said Scott McKee, 46, a member of the class of the Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell, Connecticut USA “There are people who listen to chant and are not Catholic, but they feel something in it that touches them.” Gregorian chant has been a part of the Catholic Church’s heritage for over a millennium, written in a Latin text with tones that rise and fall to a cadence formed before the ninth century.

The class at Holy Apostles is unique in that it trains future priests both how to chant and how to teach it to the laity. Students learn to conduct and compose.

Pope Benedict XVI in July of last year gave parishes the autonomy to decide whether to celebrate the Mass in Latin. The announcement paved the way for more priests to bring Latin back into the church.

The upshot has been an increased interest in chant today among the laity, especially youths, said Marguerite Mullée  Holy Apostles’ music director and professor of liturgical music who teaches the chant class.

“There is a hunger for it,” she said. “People realize that this is not a museum piece. This is a living art form.”

Mullée has taught chant at Holy Apostles for nine years now. She also leads chant seminars around the world and this week arrived in Barga with small group for a chant workshop.

The sound of her singing Gregorian chant could be heard in the Duomo this morning at the weekly mass.

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