Plainchant Resources
The RSCM Guide to Plainchant, ed. John Rowlands-Pritchard.
Dr Mary Berry, who died in 2008, was a leading plainchant expert. Her seminal work on plainsong, Plainchant for everyone, has been revised and updated by John Rowlands-Pritchard, who studied with Dr Berry and is himself a leading practitioner of plainchant.
The updated material has been re-set with an improved and clearer layout, and John has added an extensive anthology of plainchant, some in liturgical context, that singers and choir directors will find invaluable. The RSCM Guide to Plainchant is available through our webshop now. RSCM order number: G0038. Price: £9.95 (discounts available for RSCM members).
Explore further online
A wealth of chant material and information is now available online. It is now possible to consult books formerly only to be found in academic libraries, and moreover to see and turn online the pages of manuscripts carrying the earliest chant notations.
Where to hear the chant
Among British Abbeys and Cathedrals using the chant regularly are:
Ampleforth Abbey, North Yorkshire Y062 4EN
Belmont Abbey, Herefordshire HR2 9RZ
Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, West Yorkshire WF14 OBW
The Community of St Mary the Virgin, Wantage, Oxon OX12 9DJ
Downside Abbey, Bath BA3 4RJ
Pluscarden Abbey, Scotland IV30 3UA
Quarr Abbey, Isle of Wight P033 4ES
St Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde, Isle of Wight P033 1LH
St Hugh’s Charterhouse, Horsham RH13 8EB
St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough GU14 7NQ
Westminster Cathedral, London SW1P 1QW
St Peter’s Abbey, Solesmes, France is monastic centre famous for chant research, scholarship, and performance from the early 19th century to the present. They publish the Chant books of the Catholic Church, and also sell the series Paléographie Musicale, facsimiles of important early manuscripts of chant from the 9th century onwards.
Downloads
You can download chants for the Order of the Mass here.
Click here to downloads complete chant service books in Latin and in English
Click here from Professor William Renwick’s resources, containing full text and music of all the services of the office for all Sundays, Week-days, Feasts and Fasts of the Year and Saints Days.
Chant manuscripts online
Codices Electronici Sangallenses: a virtual presentation of one of the oldest and most significant manuscript libraries in the world.
A Gradual of about AD 930 from Notre Dame de Laon, the notation of which forms part of the Graduate Triplex, and of Cardine’s Gregorian Semiology.
Three 13th and 14th century chant manuscripts, including The Poissy Antiphonal, a Dominican manuscript with a complete annual cycle of chants for the Divine Office (Temporal, Sanctoral and Commons) and a hymnal.
Academic Chant Research Sites
Associations
Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge
Mary Berry’s own organisation, continuing since her death under the leadership of Jeremy White. Merged with the Gregorian Association in 2018.
Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society
The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, founded in 1888, exists to promote the performance and study of liturgical chant and medieval polyphony.
Opus Anglicanum
Chant workshops led by John Rowlands-Pritchard.
Gregorian Institute of Canada
The Gregorian Institute of Canada undertakes research and education to promote the study and performance of Gregorian and other western chant repertoires in Canada.
