# Gregorian Chants



## Tony Vella (Aug 25, 2010)

Hello, this is my first post on this forum - my attempted move from newsgroups.

I am finally ready to start working on the favorite part of my CD collection: Gregorian Chants and I was wondering if I could get some recommendations from more experienced members. I would like to buy some five or six recordings and I don't particularly want to waste money on mistakes. I therefore thank one and all in advance for all help.


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## StlukesguildOhio (Dec 25, 2006)

Are you focused upon Gregorian chants... or have you listened to a broader array of medieval music? I ask this because the Gregorian Chant or Plainchant is a very specific musical form, where composers of the medieval era... such as Perotin and Leonin share much in common with such chants... but also build upon it... and break away in some ways... bringing in the element of polyphony or multiple lines of melody

Leonin:











Perotin:











And taken even further...

Desprez:











Johannes Ockeghem:






Guillaume Dufay:











Carlo Gesualdo:






And one look to even earlier chant... such the Byzantine:






For Plainchant of Gregorian Chant you might look at the following recordings:










The Anonymous 4 are consistently outstanding... and bring a marvelous sound of female voices to plainchant.










Naxos is a good place to begin exploring early music in general. They have many marvelous recordings at a budget price.










This has long been one of the essential recordings of Gregorian Chant.










Sequentia is another group that specializes in early music that you will rarely go wrong with.










Forget the stupid marketing: Chant Wars! Dialogos vs Sequentia This is an excellent selection of plainchant by two very good groups specializing in the genre.

Beyond this... I would look especially at the groups specializing in early music who have a very solid reputation:

Sequentia
Paul Hillier and the Hillier Ensemble
Gothic Voices
The Anonymous 4
Jordi Savall
Sister Marie Keyrouz
Brabant Ensemble
Micrologus Ensemble
La Venexiana
The Sixteen
The Tavener Consort
The Tallis Scholars


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## Verbum (Jun 21, 2017)

Hello, this project is dedicated to the church-singing medieval culture. We present a "living textbook" on the choral notation of the Gregorian chant. The project is divided into separate lessons on the principle of simple to complex. You can become our subscribers, trustees and just kind visitors. 
Welcome. 
Respectfully.
https://verbumchanting.wixsite.com/main


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Try the Machaut mass with gregorian graduals by Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, directed by Mary Berry (as long as you don't mind oxbridge vowels)

Try all the gregorian recordings that Marcel Pérès made with Ensemble Organum: Chant de la cathédrale d'Auxerre, Chants de l'église Milanaise, the graduel d'Eléonore d'Aquintaine, the Messe du jour de Noel. ( I _think_ these are all gregorian!)

Listen to everything you can find sung by the people from Einsiedeln.


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