Solesmes Triors Fontgombault

Dom Joseph Gajard Monk and French musicologist. Belonging to the Benedictine order and choirmaster of the Abbey of Solesmes, he contributed decisively to the recovery of the purity of Gregorian chant.Born in Sonzay (Indre and Loire) on 25 June 1885, he professed at Solesmes on 15 August 1911, where he became assistant to Dom Mocquereau. He edited the Officium Majoris Hebdomadae for The Vatican edition in 1922, contributed to the publication of the 2nd volume of the Nombre Musical Grégorien in 1927, published the Antiphonale Monasticum in 1934, and published the Agendis Mortuorum in 1949.In 1946, he was named Director of the "Revue Grégorienne" magazine (founded in 1911), in which he published many practical articles, and in 1954, of its replacement, "Études Grégoriennes". He directed the Paléographic Musicale, founded by Dom Mocquereau and conducted all the recordings of Gregorian Chant until his death on April 25, 1972.

Meditation is a compilation of chants selected in collaboration with the Most Reverend Father Dom André Laberge, the third abbot of St-Benoît-du-Lac. These works are drawn from the two albums recorded by the Chœur des moines de l’Abbaye de St-Benoît-du-Lac for Analekta in 1996.

Charles Callahan is among today’s most prolific of American composers, with over 300 works in print for organ, piano, chorus, solo voice, chamber ensemble and orchestra, many of which have had premieres throughout the world with such notable artists as the Choir of Saint Thomas Church (New York City), Harvard University Choir, St. Olaf Choir, Washington Choral Society, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with broadcasts on television (The History Channel) and on National Public Radio. Born in 1951 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He took additional study with Flor Peeters in Mechelen, Belgium, with Daniel Roth in Paris and at Solesmes Abbey, France. Dr. Callahan has taught at Baylor University, Middlebury College, Catholic University and Rollins College and has served as organist and music director for churches in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Produced by Jean-Baptiste Mersiol and Jacques Viret, Emeritus Professor of Musicology at the University of Strasbourg and a Gregorian chant specialist, this 3-album set highlights historic recordings dating from 1930, restored to a sound quality that is almost contemporary and gathered together for the first time in their entirety, and with their original running order. Solesmes Abbey was then the world’s great specialist in Gregorian palaeography, and its chants aroused an admiration that was unanimous and went beyond musicological considerations. A genuine cornerstone of Western music, the universal splendor of this monodic singing with a thousand-year history is invaluable evidence that grace is obtained through beauty.