Cantores Matris Dei

CANTORES MATRIS DEI is a choir and education project that was founded in 2022 with
the aim of restoring the sacred by promoting the authentic music of the Roman Rite of the Catholic
Church-Gregorian Chant. While professional colleagues join us for some liturgies, most of the time the
choir you hear comprises of our Chant Class. The class is not affiliated with any one parish but trains
singers in the hope that they will develop the skills and confidence necessary to take the chant back to
their own communities. CANTORES MATRIS DEI regularly provides music for Glasgow Latin Mass and at St
James, Coatbridge.

Adult Chant Class

The training programme of ‘Cantores Matris Dei’ is our chant class which is open to those over the age of 16 who wish to learn how to sing chant. This group regularly sings the Ordinary chants at Mass in addition to seasonal and communion chants and pieces. The adult class meets for two sessions per month and for shorter rehearsals before an engagement. Membership is by consultation with the director.

Sessions involve tuition in vocal technique, chant notation, Latin pronunciation, the meaning of the prayers and ceremonies of the sacred liturgy and their development, and how to pray the Mass.
The Cantores Matris Dei approach can be summed up in the following prayer for the commissioning of a cantor which traces back to the 4th century Council of Carthage and the 1595 Pontificale Romanum.

BLESS US O LORD, THY SERVANTS WHO MINISTER IN THY TEMPLE.GRANT THAT WHAT WE SING WITH OUR LIPS WE MAY BELIEVE IN OUR HEARTS,AND WHAT WE BELIEVE IN OUR HEARTS WE MAY SHOW FORTH IN OUR LIVES.THROUGH CHRIST, OUR LORD. AMEN.

Young Chant Class

The Young Chant Class is for young people who have made their first sacraments, have a clear singing voice and can read fluently. There are two classes each month and registration is by consultation with the director. Members of the Young Chant Class have opportunities to sing alongside the grown-ups at Mass as they learn new repertoire and join in rehearsals before engagements.

The Cantors

The Cantors of Cantores Matris Dei are singers whom have gained a level of proficiency which enables them to sing some of the Propers of the Mass and lead other pieces. They are usually members of the adult chant class but have a discrete class of their own once per month in which they engage in a deeper level of chant analysis and preparation. On occasion they are joined by professional colleagues for special events.

Our Director

Our founder and director is Fraser Pearce. More information is available at www.fraserpearce.co.uk

Why Latin and Chant?

When we participate in the Scared Liturgy, it is as if we stumble upon on a conversation that has been going on for millennia between God and His people. It is natural that this conversation may contain elements which are not directly comprehensible to us as we are joining in at a particular point. As we enter into the conversation, we first of all listen and take in what has already been said before responding and offering something of our own. Over time, we become familiar with the recurring mysteries of the conversation which begin to form our spiritual lives.

From ancient times, God’s people conducted this solemn and holiest of conversations in a sacred language; for the Jews it was Hebrew and for Christians in the West, it is Latin. From the beginning of human existence, and even before, song has lent solemnity and a heartfelt outbreathing of prayer to God. In the temple of Jerusalem, the psalms were chanted as the animal sacrifices were made and as the evening sacrifice of incense was offered. The musical tradition of the New Covenant continued to develop chants, scriptural and devotional, in the mother tongue of Holy Church which accompany the ritual action of the Sacred Liturgy in which we participate today. Through these chants, the prayers and the readings, inspired by the Holy Spirit in the Church over two thousand years, God continues to converse with us in the present.

As we assist at Mass or the Divine Office in this way that the Church has requested and passed on to us, we let it all wash over us. Using written translations we listen, we watch, we pray. We remember that the most profound kind of full, conscious and active participation in prayer is when we are interiorly engaged, joining our prayer with that perpetual conversation of worship that continues in eternity. We allow ourselves to be taken out of the ‘everyday’ and transported to the courts of the Lord where we ponder all these things in our hearts.