As part of the celebrations of the 800th anniversary of the Order of Preachers, we organized a series of open lectures on the essence of Dominican chant, given by the world-famous French champion of early music – Marcel Pérès.
Marcel Pérès is a well-known figure in the world of early music and a respected authority, especially in the field of Gregorian chant. As an artist and musicologist he is active in many fields. An excellent singer, founder and long-time artistic director of the Ensemble Organum, director of the Centre Itinérant de Recherche sur les Musiques Anciennes (CIRMA), organist and composer, he is known for numerous recordings that have opened new perspectives in research on Gregorian chant and early sacred music. His innovative interpretations of Old Roman chant and of Guillaume de Machaut’s famous “Messe de Notre Dame” have already entered the “canon”.
The Kraków open lectures with Marcel Pérès aim to introduce a wide audience – amateurs as well as students and professionals – to the specific character of Dominican chant. We hope that an attempt to enter into the way the first Dominicans thought about this basic form of church music will contribute to a better understanding of the essence of Dominican chant, to the discovery of its beauty, and will encourage people today to pray with these chants. In this way the Dominican friars of the first centuries of our Order will once again become guides on our paths of faith.
The lectures took place on Friday and Saturday, 9 and 10 December 2016, at 5:30 p.m., and on Sunday, 11 December, at 9:30 a.m. in the chapter house of the Kraków Dominicans, 12 Stolarska Street. Over three consecutive days the following topics will be discussed:
The open lectures accompany specialist workshops which Marcel Pérès will lead during these days for a group of pre-registered participants.
We warmly invite you to take part in this event!
The event is coordinated by Fr. Grzegorz Doniec OP.
We recommend a very positive, though still too rare, phenomenon: a pastoral tandem formed by a Dominican – Tomasz Grabowski OP – and a deacon – Krzysztof Porosło. “Saints and angels in the liturgy” was the subject of their next lecture, given just before the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.
In the second catechesis, entitled “On the Word and the voice”, Fr. Tomasz Grabowski and Deacon Krzysztof Porosło looked at the liturgy of Advent: its history, theology and the practical living of this season.
In the third catechesis, entitled “On the Cross and the manger”, Fr. Tomasz Grabowski and Deacon Krzysztof Porosło spoke about the liturgy of Christmas: its history, iconography and the three Masses celebrated on that day.
