Events

For the fifth consecutive year the “Trento Musicantica” International Festival is offering a major course on Christian liturgical chant. The seminar takes its name from the motto of Laurence Feininger: “Zelus domus tuae comedit me” (“The zeal for [the Lord’s] house consumes me”, from Psalms 69:10, and in John 2,16-17). The course appears to be the first of its kind in Europe dedicated to a comprehensive overview of liturgical chant, with consideration to the role of the organ in its interaction with the voices. We’ll explore development of chant from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries: five centuries of liturgical experience excluded from the Church’s repertoire and almost completely absent from musicological reflection.

The multifold instances of liturgical chant in Latin, which for centuries were performed in the churches alongside polyphonic singing, were replaced entirely in the early twentieth century by the new monodic chant of the 'Gregorian restoration', after centuries of the apparent decline of chant. Historical evidence now tells us that this conception of Christian chant needs to be revised. The knowledge of these musical forms brings not only the pleasure of unexpected discoveries, but also shows liturgical chant to be a vast and heretofore little known and seldom exploited repertoire. This collection of works is now increasingly accessible to scholars, appealing to performers and audiences alike, and in many instances suitable even for non-professional singers.  

This priceless heritage of beauty and culture deserves to be rediscovered, and the original sound of prayer restored to life within the Catholic liturgy.

The seminar will bring new research, study, and especially expanded performance possibilities to a long neglected repertoire of great beauty and historical importance, taking advantage of the presence in Trento of one of the largest libraries of liturgical sources in the world, the Laurence Feininger Music Library.