Background to PMM
MIDI files of chants

The Panel was set up in the period following Vatican II as a forum for the interchange of ideas and sharing of new music developed in religious communities.

It was a time of learning, of new texts, especially new hymn texts, and of new melodies for the office and for the Eucharist.

It was a time of experimentation, of trial and error, and communities soon came to discover the musical expression most suited to their own worship. For most this proved to be some form of modal music, whether the original Gregorian Chant, newly-composed modal melodies, or a mixture of both.

One of the Panel's most successful publications is Hymns for Prayer and Praise (ed. John Harper, Canterbury Press, Norwich 1996). For each hymn two tunes are provided, one chant, and one "organ". An accompaniment edition for the chant tunes is in preparation.

Pope John Paul II speaking in Rome about the liturgy:

'It is necessary to rediscover and live constantly the beauty of prayer and of liturgy. The highest music, therefore, is that which rises from our hearts. This is the harmony to which God is waiting to listen in our liturgies.'

Extract from 'A new song in an old mode' by Dom Alan Rees OSB (Church Music Quarterly, RSCM, December 2003)

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