Wednesday, November 4, 2015

"My favorite form of music..."

I was raking yesterday, listening to music on my I-pod, when I recalled what my father George A. Borgman had mentioned to me several times over the years. He told me that his favorite form of music was Gregorian chant!

Why did these memories come to mind while raking, well, I happened to be listening to the album, Benedictine Monks of Fontgombault Abbey which was of Gregorian chants.

It was rather surprising that my father was a closet fan of the religious Gregorian chant especially since he was a consummate jazz fan and writer about jazz, ragtime and big band music. I knew that my father studied music and had a degree in musicology and that he would frequently listen to Classical music but I hadn't ever heard him listening to Gregorian chant.

I assume that he discovered Gregorian chant while he was studying music at university. Gregorian chant was developed during the early Middle Ages to recite the Latin liturgy. It was sung in unison in a single vocal line. 

This form of religious music received its name from Pope Gregory I who was head of the Church from 590 to 604. It was during Gregory's reign when this musical form was collected and codified.

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