Founded by
Dr Mary Berry, CBE
Autumn 2011 Newsletter
The latest newsletter is now available for download on the Newsletters page.
Associates Weekend at Douai Abbey, 16-18 September 2011
What a wonderful weekend we had! The community at Douai Abbey couldn’t have been more welcoming, the setting was lovely – and we made some beautiful music. What more can you ask for?
The brothers at Douai Abbey use English chant as a regular part of their monastic life, so our weekend wove in and around their normal practice. The weekend began a little earlier than usual on Friday with a rehearsal for the Requiem Mass, which we celebrated at 4 pm. We then joined the brothers for Vespers, having had some instruction from the music master, Father Alban.
The sound within the beautiful abbey church was wonderful – rich and full with lingering whispers reverberating around the space. This set us up nicely for a convivial supper before again joining the community for Compline. We were asked to observe the Great Silence from 10pm which gave the weekend a restful spirit, without interfering with the meeting of friends old and new.
There was a special surprise on Friday evening as Chris and Tina Hodgkinson turned up to introduce their twelve day old son Matthew to the associates. All congratulations to them (and lots of attention to Matthew!).
Saturday was full of interest. Philip Duffy, who was leading the weekend, and Peter Wilton, our principal cantor for the weekend, went with a group of singers to Oxford to support Brother/Father Lawrence Lew, from the Dominicans, at his ordination. Father Lawrence, some of you may remember, took many pictures of Mary Berry’s funeral which were shared via the Schola website.
Jeremy White, Schola Director, having rushed back from performing at Covent Garden on Friday, led us for an illuminating session on Saturday morning. Jeremy shared with us his knowledge and enthusiasm for the development of the chant as we worked our way through the music for Vespers and Sunday Mass. For example did you know that responsorial psalms, in which the cantor’s verses are interspersed with others singing a single (simple) memorised verse were designed to enable participation by the illiterate masses?
We had some free time after lunch, which many used for a walk in the grounds (dodging the showers) and exploring the church and the abbey bookshop.
Vespers went well, and we later led the community in Latin Compline. Feedback from some of the brothers was good, as they said it made them think about how they might possibly use Latin in parts of their regular worship in future.
Sunday morning saw an intensive rehearsal for Mass as we knew we would be ‘on show’ for a large congregation! In the end, it was a beautiful service with the Schola providing the propers and all joining in the ordinary chants.
A special treat came after mass when the Abbot gave us a tour of the new monastic library. The building is purpose built, very thoughtfully designed with all the necessary temperature and humidity controls (provided, to the cheers of the eco-warriors amongst us, by a large ground source heat pump system) and very striking. The collection holds a wide range of material, including theological and other books. Their great treasure is a recent illuminated volume of the collected writings of St Paul, of which only a handful were produced. Most interestingly, they are also archiving historical materials from other monastic communities where those valuable materials are in danger of being lost. The library is already proving a magnet to scholars – but the work of cataloguing the materials looks to be a real challenge.
Then it was time for all of the goodbyes – see you next time – as we joyfully departed after lunch. Many thanks to all those who worked so hard to organise and support the weekend – it went so smoothly it can be hard to see just how much work goes into these occasions.
Thanks to Terry Wolf for this account of the weekend.
Chant Workshops
"The chant should be given pride of place in liturgical services".
(Vat.Council II Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy No.116).
Why not arrange a day or more of chant for your group?
Further details available on the Workshops page.
