Dum Clamarem – Sorrow and Hope in Gregorian Chant

This CD opens with an early piece presented in a late edition within the Brescia Gradual of the 12th century and linked to the Canticle of the Three Young Men. The two following sections are each made up of pieces from different masses yet arranged as a Proper (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion), in order to provide the correct liturgical order, typical of the performances by the choir. In the style of an appendix, the CD closes with four Marian Antiphonae Finales in both simple and ornate form, here dated from 10th to 12th centuries. The pieces of the “Propers” belong mainly to the Tempus per annum, that is, to the period of the liturgical year not in high times (Christmas, Easter, etc.). The texts are mostly from the Psalms. The melody used conforms to the variations in the Graduale Novum Vol.1, published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana MMXI, as the result of decades of studies and improvements by scholars of the subject. However, the Adiutor in opportunitatibus is not yet included in the Graduale Novum, whose second volume is still to be published, but instead, revised, to the Graduale Triplex, where the Antiphonae finales belong to the repertoire of the Office. All texts and their translations have been added for the benefit of the listener, in the belief that listening while following the text means to understand a lot of the character of the composition, since Gregorian chant is deeply linked to the nature of the text.