Kultur im Schloss invites you to a concert with Gregorian chants on May 15th
Wolfach (md). Music lovers are invited to a special concert event on Saturday, May 15, in the palace chapel. The Kultur im Schloss will present the concert “Urbs Jerusalem beata” Gregorian chants from the heavenly Jerusalem with the Schola Gregoriana of the music college at 17 pm Freiburg under the direction of Christoph Hönerlage.
To the great astonishment of the professional world, Gregorian chant has achieved tremendous popularity in recent years, not least due to the huge success of the Mönchs-Schola from Heiligenkreuz Abbey, which landed a hit in the international charts with their album "Chant Music for Paradise".
Christoph Hönerlage, who teaches Gregorian chant, German liturgical singing and liturgical singing at the University of Music in Freiburg, founded the women's school "Exsulta Sion Freiburg" in 2003 and the Schola Gregoriana of the Freiburg University of Music in 2008. Both ensembles have focused on the specializes in authentic Gregorian chants. With both ensembles, Christoph Hönerlage accepted an invitation from the Custody of the Holy Land (order of the Franciscans in the Holy Land) on the past Easter days to help shape the Holy Week and the Easter holidays in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The Franciscan Order also runs the Magnificat, the only music school in Jerusalem's Old City. This school is attended by Palestinians and Israelis, Christians, Muslims and Jews.
The Gregorian chant, named after Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604), is the oldest written chant, not only of the liturgy, but of the Western world in general. The first written evidence from the 9th century only reproduces the texts of the liturgical chants sung by heart for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. These chants are unisonous, melodic and are based on the church modes. They are sung without the accompaniment of instruments. The first evidence of a notation comes from the 10th century.
Christoph Hönerlage puts the concert in the Wolfacher Schlosskapelle under the title "Urbs Jerusalem beata", this is how the hymn to Holy Jerusalem begins, with which the concert of the Schola Gregoriana Freiburg ends. Jerusalem and Mount Zion were the epitome of God's dwelling place among men for the biblical people of Israel. In other chants Jerusalem is personified as “mother” and as “daughter of Zion”, who calls for joy, and finally Jerusalem also appears in the Revelation of John as a heavenly city, which at the end of time descends from God from heaven, adorned like a bride. This heavenly Jerusalem is a symbol of the kingdom of God.
Admission is free. However, the Kultur im Schloss association is asking for a donation for the expansion of the local history museum in Wolfacher Schloss.
