Discovering Chant

Discovering Chant asks conductors, teachers, and music educators to reconsider the use of plainchant as an essential pedagogy for teaching intonation, phrasing, and understanding of musical line—while building community within an ensemble. This revolutionary pedagogical application uses chant for teaching aural awareness and a natural and intuitive understanding of musical line. The pedagogy was borne out of the Westminster Choral Institute at Oxford, where chant has become a part of the daily regimen of the Grammy-nominated Westminster Williamson Voices. James Jordan incorporates this pedagogy into the daily warmups of his choirs. Collaborating with James Whitbourn and Isabella Burns, this book provides the philosophical and pedagogical foundation for this method. The enclosed CD demonstrates the performance of chants for study by conductors.