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Wednesday 6 August 2014

Chant Camp - an idea whose time has come!

There are more and more examples popping up all the time.
In his youth Nicholas Lemme identified with the grating sounds and angst-filled lyrics of grunge music.
“I played guitar in rock bands,” the 36-year-old Rapid City native said. “I didn’t know much about church music. To me, it was … hum-drum hymns.”
Today the former garage band member spends his days steeped in church music. Lemme teaches Gregorian chant to would-be priests at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Denton, Neb.
Gone are the contemporary, hard-charging rhythms he once pounded out on his electric guitar.
These days, ancient and more measured melodies move him — enough to bring him back to his hometown to share his passion with a new generation of musicians.
Lemme and his wife, Elizabeth, will spend five days showing local children how to sing Gregorian chants, the unaccompanied, centuries-old sacred music of the Roman Catholic Church.
Gregorian Chant Summer Camp begins Monday at Terra Sancta Retreat Center in Rapid City and culminates Friday in a noon mass led by campers. The St. Michael’s Latin Mass Community, which operates within the Diocese of Rapid City, sponsors the five-day program.
“There is no other camp like this in the Black Hills,” camp coordinator Jean Carlson said.

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