FAYETTEVILLE — It’s music of the centuries, a true classic, if you will: The Gregorian chants of a thousand years ago still come to life weekly at St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville.
The Gregorian Schola is heard each Saturday evening at Mass and its members all seem drawn by one thing: love of the chants.
Richard Lee leads the group today, but he’s been there since it began in 1993.
“Brother Christian Guertin came up to me one day at St. Thomas (Aquinas University Parish) and said, ’I want to start a chant group. Do you want to be in it?’”
The rest, as they say, is history, and Gregorian chants certainly have a lot of history. Pope Gregory I, who served from 590 to 604, is traditionally credited with developing plainchant for the Mass, hence the term “Gregorian chant.”
Lee is a University of Arkansas philosophy professor, which seems an appropriate match for a fan of the chants. He’s been leading the group now since about 1996.
But other members of the group through the years have come from diverse backgrounds and places. They’re not all even Catholic.
“We’ve had people from Africa, from France, the Netherlands and Haiti,” Lee said.
One former member became a priest and another former member is currently studying for the priesthood. Still another became a rabbi.
During a rehearsal last winter, several members shared their feelings about what drew them to the Latin Schola and their fascination with — and love of — the chant was evident.
Sam Donelson, another long-time Schola member, noted that Church Latin (or ecclesiastical Latin) is easier to pronounce than classical Latin.
But the group agreed the Latin isn’t too difficult.
Member Susan Hubbard said she was already becoming familiar with Latin because her children were learning the language at St. Joseph School. (Father John Antony began a class for middle-school students at the school.) “It was learning how to read (chant) notation” that was the tougher task.
Winfridus Bakker, who is from the Netherlands, grew up in Holland. Today, he works for Tyson Foods and participates regularly with the schola.
“I find it enjoying,” he said.
Latin is easier, he suggested, for people who already speak Spanish or Portuguese.
Membership is somewhat fluid as people come and go, but the Gregorian Schola is open to anyone interested in learning chants. In addition to the chants themselves, part of the appeal is the flexibility, members say. In a choir, if someone is absent, there’s a missing line of music. But in the schola, everyone chants the same part so it’s less taxing to the rest of the group if someone is absent.
