On Wednesday, July 11, I interrupted a more secular tour of the chateaux
of the Loire valley in order to enter the medieval spirituality of the
Abbey of St. Pierre of Solesmes to celebrate the feast of St. Benedict. The
day was sunny and warm without being hot and we drove the 90 kilometers
from Tours in about one and one-half hours. We arrived just as Mass was
beginning in the austere chapel. The full parking lots announced the
equally full church so we hurried through the medieval courtyard and were
ushered by a Benedictine monk to places at the back of the long nave.
For those of you who have not been to Solesmes, perhaps a short
description will set the scene. The cloistered Benedictine monastery began
as a priory in 1010. The arcades of the nave of the chapel date from this
period and the vaults and transepts from the 15th and 16th centuries. The
overall impression is of transitional gothic; the nave is excessively long
and very high. Although the choir was built in the 19th century and
restored in 1974 it harmonizes with the earlier medieval construction.
Because we were at the back of the nave and because the monks were in
their traditional places in choir stalls near the sanctuary, we could not
see them well, but we could participate fully by listening to the well-
modulated and seemingly effortless tones of the chant. We could follow the
chants with the books provided and with the pamphlet in French and Latin
which contained the proper of the Mass for the feast of St. Benedict. This
included a special sequence for the feast, "Laeta Dies" (Happy the day of
the great master, conferring the gift of a new light: it is the day we
celebrate). At the end of Mass we were impressed by the large number of
priests, monks and lay brothers who processed out of the choir.
We stayed in the chapel for several minutes after Mass in order to study
the architecture and appreciate the monumental sculptural groupings in the
chapels of the transepts. However, we were soon drawn outside by the
singing of a mixed choir standing in the courtyard just outside the main
entrance of the chapel. The music was full and earnest as it resonated off
the surrounding buildings. Drawn to the sound we discovered that we were
hearing the youth choir from the cathedral of Vilnius in Lithuania which
was on tour throughout France and had sung the day before in Paris. They
sang from memory in Lithuanian as well as in Latin and each of their hymns
was answered with a selection sung by the Petits Chanteurs a la Croix de
Bois from Besancon, clad in their traditional white robes with wooden
crosses around their necks. I learned that this latter choir was spending
three weeks at Solesmes to study chant as it does every summer. Finally,
in conclusion the director of the Lithuanian choir intoned the chant "Salve
Regina" and we all joined in, members of the two choirs and those of us
standing in the courtyard. The manifestation of the universality of the
Church and of the devotion to Our Lady brought tears to many eyes. The
choir members exchanged souvenirs, the women singers from Vilnius putting
their colorful silk scarves around the necks of some of the Little Singers.
We left Solesmes by way of the Sarthe river in order to enjoy the
impressive view of the monumentality of the monastery mirrored in the
tranquil water. Although the work of Solesmes has been interrupted several
times by the events of history (the monks had to leave Solesmes in 1791,
1880 and 1901), the contribution of the monks of this cloistered community
to Gregorian chant continues with renewed vigor as they carry on the
glorious legacy of Dom Pothier, Dom Mocquereau, and Dom Gajard and the
semiological study of chant introduced by Dom Eugene Cardine. Solesmes
continues to produce the chant books necessary for the post-Vatican II
liturgy, a rich flowering of the history, tradition and doctrine of the
Roman Catholic Church.
