Welcome to Beyond the Spire, a podcast of the Save Our Sacred Songs project at the Catholic Shrine of St Walburge in Preston, supported by the National Lottery.
In each episode, we go beyond what you see from the street, we explore the story and the sound of Gregorian chant, the Church's sacred song, so that this treasure of faith and culture is not just preserved, but lived and loved again.
Publisher
Canon Antoine Bunnens - St Walburge’s Catholic Shrine
After tracing chant from its roots to the present, “Beyond the Spire” closes by asking whether this ancient music still has a future. The answer is an emphatic yes: Gregorian chant slows modern haste, unites voices in common prayer, forms memory, and keeps doctrine sounding in the life of the Church, inseparable from the Roman rite. The episode ends not in nostalgia, but in an appeal to learn, listen, participate, and help restore the Church’s own song. Content Gregorian chant matters today b...
7 Jul 2026
E18 • Practice: Today’s Issues and Opportunities
This episode examines singing Gregorian chant today, noting how contemporary habits, technology, and expectations differ dramatically from the past. It reflects on hearing with modern ears, the realities of current liturgical settings, and the task of introducing an ancient sacred language to communities. Chant requires patience, attentive listening, discipline, and liturgical objectivity—traits often in tension with modern culture. The discussion considers obstacles such as weakened formatio...
7 Jul 2026
E19 • Practice: Organ and Gregorian Chant
This instalment examines the proper place of the organ in a liturgical world centred on Gregorian chant. The very title expresses the principle: the greatest instrument appears most noble when it knows how not to dominate. The episode considers accompaniment, alternatim practice, the maintenance of pitch, and the danger of imposing harmonic or rhythmic habits foreign to chant. It is an important practical meditation on hierarchy in sacred music. Content Gregorian chant is fundamentally unacco...
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