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Source (Dutch only): Jonge dominicanen veroveren YouTube met gregoriaans
Similar coverage here (Dutch only):
Monniken starten YouTubekanaal met gregoriaans
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Young Dominicans conquer YouTube with Gregorian chant
Philippe Keulemans - Published on Friday 31 January 2020 - 11:58 a.m.
The Dutch Dominican Stefan Ansinger and his Swiss confrere Alexandre Frezzato have their own channel OPChant with Gregorian music on YouTube.
The young Dominicans Stefan Ansinger and Alexandre Frezzato, who study in Swiss Fribourg, started a project on the Dominican tradition in Gregorian chant at the end of last year. On their own YouTube channel they launched a music library in order to get the tradition of Gregorian chant better to be known. Every week a new song is posted. Alexandre Frezzato c.p.: "Gregorian chant is a form of non-polyphonic liturgical singing, sung in Latin and sometimes in Greek, a cappella i.e. without instrumental accompaniment. The songs were mainly developed in the 9th and 10th centuries in Western and Central Europe."
The two Dominicans started their project three months ago. In the meantime, their channel already has 11,000 subscribers [currently 14,500]. A first impulse came after an article on Lifesitenews. But the real breakthrough of their YouTube channel OPChant (Order of the Preachers Chant) came thanks to a report on 25 January 2020 on Radio Vatican.
Legend attributes its invention to Pope Gregory I, but scholars believe it
to be a Carolingian synthesis of Roman and Gallic song.
Stefan Ansinger o.p.: "There are very few systematic sources for Gregorian chant in our Dominican tradition. There are some videos of brothers from France, the USA or England. But as far as we know there is no systematic repertoire of Gregorian chants anywhere. That's why we started to do this. The Dominicans have a tradition of their own, dating back to the 13th century. The first Constitutions of the Order stressed that the liturgy had to be performed with special attention to the posture of the body and not be too long-winded, because there had to be time left for study and preaching. The Dominican chants often have the same texts as the Roman rite, but have melodic variations. Some communities hardly sing Gregorian chant and some brothers do not even know this heritage."
After three months, the YouTube channel OPChant has 11,000 subscribers
from dozens of countries on all continents.
The Swiss Dominican Alexandre Frezzato says that with their project they are also bridging the gap between the generations: "Our older brothers know this musical tradition but are usually not so familiar with the new media. There are few orders with such a musical richness. The internet is worldwide and immediately accessible. The YouTube channel has only existed for a month and we have already received reactions from France, the Netherlands, England, Croatia, Lithuania, Denmark, Ireland and Romania. We also travel to churches of Dominican monastic communities or of others and thereby get them acquainted with the historical heritage."
Stefan Ansinger o.p.: "I think the beauty of the YT channel is that it presents a tradition of the order in a really simple way: camera, microphone, tripod, some sheet music and a nice voice. In a casual way we try to make a nice recording of sung texts that are part of our Christian revelation. Most Gregorian lyrics are literally from Holy Scripture and it is the Gregorian chant that follows these lyrics and not the other way around. Gregorian chant perfectly embodies what our Constitutions mean by a solemn (solemniter) and austere (sobrieter) liturgy. So we sing the texts that have been -and still are- prescribed throughout the centuries as appropriate for the liturgy. The austere character lies in the soberness of Dominican Gregorian chant as such."
Source: Dominicans
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Similar coverage here (Dutch only):
Monniken starten YouTubekanaal met gregoriaans
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