Some reviews have been received of our recently published music: "The Season of Advent" and "Pax Aeterna" with Tom Donald piano.

More reviews are promised: we hope to add them eventually.

Incidentally you can listen to all this music free on line, via (for example) Spotify, or go to the Music page of our web site and click on the ITUNES or Ffin Records Direct button: https://www.pluscardenabbey.org/music

You can also order the CDs from our shop, or download the music, in whole or in part, via iTunes or Ffin Records direct.

Season of Advent

The Season of Advent Gregorian Chant from the monks of Pluscarden Abbey

Advent is a treasure trove of beautiful chants, which are here sung by the monks of Pluscarden. The CD sets forth chants from both the Divine Office and the Mass, including antiphons, responsories and hymns. The singing of the chant is a fundamental part of the life of prayer at Pluscarden and this comes across in the way the monks sing. They are not professional singers, but they sing extremely well, and the way they sing shows that they understand the words, the way the music functions and its purpose as prayer. The music serves the words and this comes across in this CD and distinguishes their singing from that of professional choirs who have recorded Gregorian Chant. To be clear: the monks of Pluscarden sing Gregorian Chant better than many professional choirs.

It is helpfully accompanied by a full booklet, giving the Latin texts with English translation, an explanation of the liturgical context of the chant and the mode in which it is sung, enabling the interested listener to gain a greater insight into the music.

Anyone who enjoys Gregorian Chant, or who likes good music in the background, will certainly enjoy this CD.

Dom Anselm Brumwell, Choir Master at the Abbey of St Gregory the Great, UK

This CD fills a glaring gap in the available repertoire of Gregorian Chant recordings, and we should thank the monks for remedying the lacuna. With it they offer the public a counterbalance to the overwhelming secularization of this ancient and rich liturgical season of the Christian year.

The selection made presents a varied and balanced overview of the chant repertoire for this season in the monastic Liturgy of the Hours and the Roman Mass. It is divided into four sections, one covering each of the four weeks of Advent, and concludes with the solemn tone of the Alma Redemptoris, traditionally sung at this season. Each section offers some examples of Office antiphons and Mass chants sung during that week, to which is sometimes added some extra heterogenous items, such as a hymn, a responsory or a devotional chant like the Rorate Cӕli. Section four also includes the Second Preface for Advent as well as Sanctus and Agnus Dei 17, usually sung on Sundays in Advent. The CD is accompanied by an excellent booklet giving the Latin text and a translation for each item, and, in the case of the Mass chants, a brief but pertinent commentary on its musical, historical, or spiritual significance.

The singing is of high quality, entirely unaccompanied, respecting the tradition of the organ’s silence during Advent. The pitch is near perfect. The general ensemble of voices is very unified, the enunciation faultless with no final consonants falling by the wayside (as so often happens). Repercussions are performed with subtlety, and in chants of the Mass in particular (Tollite porta, Qui sedes…) some melodic lines are impressive in their sweep. In general, the attention to detail and expression creates a nuanced interpretation that results in something beyond mere correctness, something truly beautiful that emanates spiritual longing and hope, joy, and genuine devotion.

Congratulations to the monks for this new addition to their recorded repertoire.

Sr. Bernadette Byrne OSB, Choir Mistress, St. Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde

The Pluscarden Advent CD is very good, in my opinion: very pleasant to listen to! JohnHardyMusic has done tremendous mastering work on the overall sound. You can barely distinguish between pieces recorded in sessions 4 years apart. Amazing!

Dr. Giedrius Gapsys, Musicologist, Professor of École de Chant Grégorien de Paris.

THE SEASON OF ADVENT: Gregorian chant from the monks of Pluscarden Abbey

The new CD released by the monks of Pluscarden is a musical and liturgical goldmine. The singing of the main chants of the Mass and the Divine Office for the season of Advent is of a very high standard, reflecting profound appreciation of both text and music. The booklet of 31 pages, without going into small print, provides the Latin texts for all 34 tracks, together with full translation and notes on each item. The care that has gone into the production of the CD is evident also in the quality of the sound editing.

One of the most attractive features of the recording is the way it evokes the four-week structure of Advent, moving from a distant glimpse of light and joy to chants thrilling with expectation on the threshold of Christmas. Section II is particularly lovely: listen to the lifting of the tonic accents in the antiphon Ecce Dominus noster (track 8), and the opening of the high walls and gates in the next antiphon, Urbs fortitudinis; the Alleluia, Laetatus sum (11) flows forward in youthful joy, whilst in the Communion chant, Ierusalem surge (12), we sense we are standing on tiptoe.

There are many other glorious moments. An extra-liturgical favourite of many monastic communities, Rorate caeli (4), is evidently loved by the monks of Pluscarden. The Alleluia of the third Sunday of Advent, Excita Domine (19), dances with joy as it invites the Lord to come, veni, and save us.

The singing is underpinned by an understanding of the neums that give expressive sense to the music in the earliest manuscripts. The treatment in the introit Gaudete (17) of the torculus and porrectus, as of the bivirga on nihil, is masterly. At the opening of the offertory Ave Maria (28), the articulation of the torculus resupinus prepares the rising gracious acclamation of Maria. Marian chants are intrinsic to the atmosphere and mystery of Advent, and the two final items make a fitting climax to the recording: Ecce Virgo, the ecstatic Communion chant sung on Sunday IV of Advent (33), together with the loveliest of pieces, the solemn version of the Alma Redemptoris Mater.

This CD succeeds in conveying the beauty of the sung liturgy and its potential to transform our lives. Time stands still, to allow glimpses of eternity to enter our lives.

Sr. Margaret Truran OSB, Choir mistress, Santa Cecilia Abbey, Rome, also founder of the Chant School Cantantibus Organis

A CD from Pluscarden Abbey is obviously something anyone with some interest in Gregorian Chant will receive with gratitude and listen to with great attention.
The CD is well presented with a rather austere cover and accompanied by an informative booklet in which one finds all the texts with an English translation, a short introduction and limited but useful comments on the most important pieces.
The programme is remarkably clear. It follows the four weeks of Advent. Each time, the tone is set by two or three antiphons from the liturgy of the hours with their psalmody. One cannot express more clearly the way the Chant as a whole is rooted in psalmody. The sublime and more elaborate melodies of the Proper of the Mass have no other origin and can be understood fully only against the background of the constant murmur of psalmody. Monastic choirs are probably the only places where the way Chant issues from the continual prayer of the Psalms can be experienced.
Hence the place of the community. It is very apposite to hear at times the sound of the whole community – with its qualities and also, unsurprisingly, its weaknesses – and at other times the better voices of the schola. We are given to experience a real community singing, not a chemically pure performance by selected artists. This is essential to the meaning of the CD: it is about joining with the prayer of a community, much more than looking for an aesthetic pleasure.
The monks of Pluscarden sing reasonably well together. They are excellent at sharing their enthusiasm with us. One can feel a deep understanding of the pieces, indeed that sort of complicity with pieces which have been sung for years and have become like good old friends. We are never far from the hearts of the singers, from their faith and devotion, and this is very inspiring, even, at times, moving.
The Offertory Ad te levavi is a good example of a piece which is perfectly assimilated and rendered with a very balanced interpretation. The manuscripts are followed with intelligence and suppleness. No exaggerated contrast between longer and shorter values provides for regularity in the pace. There is a real feeling for the musical phrase. Moreover, the piece as a whole is mastered from the beginning to the end with a sense of direction and great surety of mood. This is the best that we can expect from any monastic interpretation.
You find the same quality in other pieces such as the Introit Gaudete, the Communion Dicite, pusillanimes, the Antiphon O Sapientia, the Introit Rorate, the Offertory Ave Maria, or the Responsory Iudea with its quasi-perfect verses. In other pieces, maybe more difficult, such as, for instance, Universi, Qui sedes, or Tollite portas, the balance between the attention to the details of the neumes and the general phrasing has not been reached to the same point, even if great qualities of togetherness remain strikingly present. The short Antiphons are unequal: quite a few feel a bit heavy, others are just right. This does not come as a surprise: any monastic choir has pieces which they sing better than others. The Sanctus and the Agnus Dei XVII are superb.
On the whole, this is an important CD for it offers a real overview of Advent as it can be lived and prayed by a fervent monastic community. It gives you a direct access to the Church at prayer in one of the most loved and important seasons of the liturgical year. We can only be thankful and… ask for more.

Rt Revd Dom Xavier Perrin OSB, Abbot of Quarr

PAX AETERNA

This is a brave project on the part of the Monks of Pluscarden Abbey. In this excellent and interesting CD we find a number of well known pieces of Gregorian Chant, which are sung in the traditional manner by the monks, but are accompanied by a piano improvisation by Tom Donald. There have been one or two attempts to produce something similar in the past; some will remember Enigma’s use of Gregorian Chant, for example, but this recording seeks to respect and preserve the authenticity of Chant and the quality of the improvisation. This could well be an avenue that will open up the beauty of Gregorian Chant for a new audience, especially those who perhaps have found the stark nature of unaccompanied chant not to their taste, or even boring. This has many of the qualities of jazz improvisation, and we must acknowledge the skill not only of Tom Donald, but also of the monks; it must have been difficult at times to sing chants which are intimately known in a very different musical context. This says much for the great skill of the monastic schola and of Tom Donald.

Every listener will have their own favourites, but I was particularly taken by the marvellous harmony produced in the singing/playing of the Magnificat and of Psalm 90, Qui habitat, where the chant and the accompaniment complemented each other so well. Similarly, each listener will have a different reason for turning to this CD, but the musicologist, the Chant afficionado, the jazz lover and the curious will surely all find something to their taste – and probably many surprises!

Dom Anselm Brumwell, Choir Master at the Abbey of St Gregory the Great, UK

Gregorian Chant accompanied by improvisations on the piano does not seem like a very promising prospect…but be prepared for a surprise!

“The monks in choir began to sing. They imitated with their voices the timelessness of heaven. Mildly they mocked, among the sounds of the ebb, the urgencies and ambitions of men.”

These words in George Mackay Brown’s Magnus spontaneously rise to my mind as, through the timeless echo of the monks’ voices singing Our Lady’s Magnificat, rivulets of fluid sound weave their way, gradually building up to form a great joyful tide. With Gloria 15 the tide becomes crashing breakers evoking the image of the Pantocrator who dominates history. In Parce Domine the breakers become the relentless beating of insistent supplication knocking at the door of Divine Mercy. The three Gradual Psalms flow like a stream through the verdant meadows of meditation; but the dark and threatening Psalm 139 speaks of treachery and danger, and the gathering clouds of the Passion. By contrast comes the gentle trickle of arpeggios sweetly running through Psalm 132 like the melting snows of Mount Hermon or the fragrant oil on Aaron’s robe.

Not all pieces are equally successful. If you have experienced the profound silence that accompanies Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and Benediction, the abrupt opening chords and the slightly syncopated jazzy modulations that form the sound backdrop to the Laudes Divinæ come as something of a shock. One might also question their musical suitability for a chant that is essentially a smooth litanic recitatif. The perpetuum mobile effect of the accompaniment to Psalm 90 (not Psalm 4 as indicated in the booklet), though in itself ravishing, possibly misses the characteristic quiet and night-time peace of the Hour of Compline.

Dare I suggest a favourite? Perhaps Psalm 113A which, as though by a stroke of magic, seems to carry us back through the mists of time, evoking deep communal memories that forged a people in newly found freedom and divine election. Here as elsewhere, an unmistakable Celtic influence can be heard in the modality and musical poetry of the piano part. Another influence – that of jazz – is discernible in the subtle interplay – at times playful, at other times provocative – between the two musical partners.

What we have here is a daring and imaginative project in which the live convergence of two completely different musical genres results in the astonishing creation of an altogether new form. The result is provocative, exciting, spiritually uplifting, and witnesses to the “eternally regenerative process of music as it develops through the ages.” (James Macmillan)

Sr. Bernadette Byrne, Choir Mistress, St. Cecilia’s Abbey, Ryde

The CD with Tom Donald is a revelation. Very original and very subtle. Much more than an odd experimentation of putting two worlds – chant and piano – in one room and see what happens. It’s a dialogue done with a due respect, taste and a high level of musicality. Congratulations!

Dr. Giedrius Gapsys, Musicologist, Professor of École de Chant Grégorien de Paris.

Pax Aeterna grows in interest each time I hear it. It’s impressive how the piano improviser Tom Donald stuck with his 15-year dream to find the monks to set it in motion. Plain Chant has its own beauty, language, and tones to suit the moods of each text it sets. It is timeless, mystical, beautiful and, above all, prayerful: sung here so positively and effortlessly by the six-monk schola. Tom has been sensitive to the sentiment of each piece, in its varying colours and texture. His piano improvisation, recognising the prayerfulness of the words and modes, has collaborated well with the monks, achieving a most successful outcome. This recording deserves our support and attention.

Maureen Woodhead, musician, teacher of singing and of piano.