May 26, 2011 marked the 100th anniversary of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, upon which occasion His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI issued a statement declaring Gregorian chant to be the "supreme model of sacred music".
While the notion of chant as being the "supreme model" for sacred music has deep implications in a Church striving to re-establish its identity, it also has implications for the very performance of chant, particularly in the context of the Florida Schola Cantorum.
Gregorian chant has always been the very backbone of the Florida Schola Cantorum's approach to sacred polyphony. It is not merely a side-act; it is the main attraction--a passion of which we are quite proud. To immerse oneself in the performance of chant is to go the heart of music, leaving behind rigid modern notions of tonality and rhythm and bringing forth music from whence the ancients believed it to derive its origins: the soul.
Indeed, recalling that Gregorian chant is fundamentally an oral tradition liberates one from the sense that music is merely notes--or, in our case neumes--on a page and leads us elsewhere, to the words of the prayers which are, ultimately, the whole reason the music exists, as well as to the poetic ebb and flow of those words. The music can not exist independently of the words as mere melody. The words benefit from a profound dimension of expression which the chant lends to them. As such, the performance of chant is both a profound expression of prayer and a powerful illustration of music in its most fundamental and pure nature.
More on Pope Benedict's statement on chant:
http://calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=07b05703-bc85-40f0-8f8f-34a2341a1b80
