Podatus

Podatus

While Elvis, Beach Boys and Beatles were the craze of the music world, I was in seminary learning Gregorian Chant. My wife is amazed when I don't recognize music from the 60’ and 70’s. I keep telling people that during those years I was locked up in a religious institution and forbidden to listen to radio or TV. My music world was an all male choir singing medieval psalmody.

The seminary curriculum consisted of a steady diet of Aristotelian philosophy, Thomastic theology and Church history. If that didn't mess with your brain, we had a weekly gathering in the Aula Maxima for music lessons. Our text was the Liber Usualis, the official Gregorian Chant book that weighed about three pounds. Here we learned to sing music of the Middle Ages.

Gregorian chant is an acquired taste. Although beautiful in a haunting kind of way, it is a far cry from today’s music. Chant is almost always sung without instrumentation. The singers are usually male (female in a convent). The notation and rhythm are unique. The musical notes are exotic: podatus, podatus subpunctus, virga, climacus and quilisma to name a few.

By now you may be asking why I am writing about this stuff. Well, I am not sure except to say that of all my seminary training the words that stand out in my mind  are “podatus subpunctus.” You know how you get a tune in your head and can't get rid of it. Well, fifty years of this phrase imbedded in my brain is ready for release.

Whatever the music style, the Bible encourages us to sing unto the Lord: “ Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, all the world! Sing to the Lord and praise him! Proclaim everyday the good news that He has saved us.”

Alleluia!