DOM Fonteinnes

About the composer

Beforehand: the following text is not about Dom Fonteinnes but about chants. The origin of chant is not known. It seems to have appeared naturally. For centuries no system of notation was developed for this music, and monks learned it orally. In the 8th and 9th century a simple system was developed, where the signs indicate the direction of the melody, but do not define exact pitches or intervals. The majestic solemnity of this music has had a strong influence on European music and still inspires many composers. Gregorian chants are named after Gregory I (590 – 664). It is the official liturgical music in the roman catholic church, a collection of hundreds of chants for all the days of the church year, assembled in Graduale and Antiphonale. Gregory distributed the chants over the days of the year and revised the melodies so that they were more consistent with the words. Gregorian chant is completely homophonic, it is sung without accompaniment and partly consists of reciting singing (accentus), partly of more melodic, sometimes heavily ornamented lyric (concentus). Another difference is in syllabic chants (each syllable has one tone), neumatic chants (most syllables have 2-3 tones) and melismatic chants (still more ornamentation). In the performance three forms are discerned: responsorial (alternating soloist and choir), antiphonal (alternating two choirs) and cantus in directum, when the chant is sung without interruption, either by the believers, or by a choir.
In the beginning of the 17th century the singing of Gregorian chant deteriorated, for a large part caused by a very mutilating edition that came into print, the Medicea-edition. The Benedictine monks of the abbey in the French village of Solesmes, however, took up a thorough study of all old sources and tried to reconstruct the chants as good as possible. The monk Dom Fonteinnes reconstructed the Stabat Mater chant around 1850. An old source of the Stabat Mater chant can be found in the Maintzesch Gesangbuch from 1661.
In the early years of the twentieth century, after centuries of deterioration, Pope Pius X assigned the Benedictine abbey in Solesmes to assemble the reconstructed chants in an official edition of Gregorian chants, called the Editio Vaticana.
An interesting interpretation of the Gregorian Stabat Mater can be found on CD 4 (see below), sung by Noirin Ni Riain in a way that reminds me strongly of the Irish group Clannad. The song consists of the stanzas 1, 9, 19 and 20 of the “Vatican”-text, and she accompanies herself on a drone.
Another interpretation, quite different, is by the Polish jazz pianist Wlodek Pawlik On Good Friday of the year 2000 a concert was organized where monks and nuns sang the Gregorian chants, while Pawlik added his improvisations. The result has been recorded and can be heard on CD 5, a present from Ignace Verberk. He bought this cd in Krakov, Poland.
The Belgian composer Father Jean-Marie Plum composed an adaptation for organ solo of the plain chant Stabat Mater melody: Introduction, Variations et Final sur le Stabat Mater traditionel.