Album Notes

For some fifteen years now, the interest for gregorian chant has picked up again like never before.
Originally, gregorian chant was the chant used by the Church in its liturgy.
In the 1970s, the liturgical reform lead to its progressive abandon.
In the 1990s, records by the monks of Silos granted gregorian chant with a new wave of popularity, closely linked with the New Age mouvement and the aspirations of a humanity in need of a new spirituality.
More recently, the rehabilitation of ancient liturgy by Pope Benedict XVI prompted a renewed interest for the chant proper to this liturgy and a new demand for gregorian chant within the liturgical framework.
While abundant, the discography is also partial and limited to the repertoire associated with a few major feasts. There was a need for an integral series that would present in a systematic manner the full gregorian repertoire, from the first Sunday of Advent to the last Sunday of Pentacostes, without any missing or faulty link, all of it according to the traditional liturgical sequence. So that the chant corresponding to the liturgical atmosphere of the time should be available all year round.
The first volume of 2 CDs of this collection was published in 1999. the tenth volume is being published in the autumn of 2008.
The interpreting is neat and dynamic, recorded by the Schola Bellarmina under the direction of Abbé Bernard Lorber.
Volumes 1 to 7 explore the round of Sundays and feasts. Each one of them contains 2 records.
Volume 8 (3 CDs) presents the whole series of Kyriale and Credo, the proper of mass.
Finally, the feasts of the saints figure in volumes 9 and 10.
In all, 22 CDs, a hundred of masses and offices, 550 tracks, 24 h of listening.