I just got done hiking back from the north end of the campus where we had today’s Gregorian Chant rehearsal. Last year I was in Wilko Brouwer’s polyphony choir group and was incredibly impressed with his teaching style.
This year Wilko is leading my chant group. One of the things he brings is an incredible sense of humor and lightness in his approach. He’s always coming up with different ways to look at how we sing the music. For instance, today we practiced a section as if we were 20 years old, then 40, then 60. The idea was to realize that your emphasis in singing changes as you age, and Chant has been publicized a bit as “old guys’ music”. Which isn’t at all true – it can be as vibrant and lively as any modern music.
At least spiritually. We don’t want to turn this into a performance here.
The neat thing about Wilko’s approach is that we may not immediately understand everything he’s teaching, but over the course of time it starts to become integrated into what we’re doing – and the enlightenment then comes from within. It’s a bit hard to explain, but quite remarkable.
I’m continuing to blast out recordings – continue to check the website for more!