GREGORIAN CHANT
The Under Appreciated Rock Artist for this month is Nick Freund, a Catholic priest who joined the faculty at the St. Pius X Seminary, in Galt, California (near Sacramento) where he taught for 8 years as an English teacher and headed the band and choir. He had been a musical composer before, having created a Gregorian chant in 1963 for a Catholic mass. The following year, the Roman Catholic Church abandoned the use of Gregorian chants in services. As Nick Freund puts it: “I enjoy Bach and Gregorian chant. But I don’t see it as an expression of today. It’s like a beautiful old painting in a museum – you admire and appreciate it, but it has no relevance to ‘Now’. We should express our worship of God in terms we use today.” Also: “I could spend years writing a classical concert, and nobody would ever hear it.” (September 2014) |