Elevate your music IQ

and your prayer life. Chant draws heaven to earth, and souls into the presence of God.

ChantWorks promotes a tradition two thousand years in the making. Even longer if you count the prelude of our Jewish forefathers. Concentrate carefully and you can almost hear the voices of monks of ancient times singing along while you chant.

Chant and liturgy connect us spiritually with those saints who have gone before us. Chant offers a greater level of authority since it is sacred texts sung in their purist form (no need to compress or contort words into a rhyme). And chant gives flight to prayer. 

There is healing in chant

Chanting sacred texts is an ancient and universal mode of prayer, meditation and communion with the Almighty. It is especially communal and gives entry to meditation on ancient truths that exist beyond man’s understanding. The power and impact of chant on a soul is derived by elevating scriptural and liturgical texts and gently weaving melodies around that text.

Chant respects the rhythm of natural speech. While poorly sung chant plods, practiced and crafted chant lifts the spirit to communion with God. All those within proximity rise to experience the sacred mysteries. Because chant avoids distracting secular music styles, it remains sacred and apart in a way that modern music cannot. Contemporary forms of religious song prioritize melody, while knotting a rough rendition of text around that melody. The meaning, beauty and purity of the text will always suffer when God’s Word does not lead.

The history of chant

The Catholic tradition of chant dates back to the Apostles, while Latin Gregorian Chant is over 1200 years old. Gregorian chant is the supreme model (St. Pope John Paul II quoting Pope Pius X) and permanent standard (Pope Benedict XVI) of Catholic liturgical music. Chant exemplifies the required characteristics of sanctity (holiness) and goodness of form (true art), and thus achieves the final required characteristic of universality.

Chant existed before written music, and so was once was passed down to the next generation and moved from place to place by an oral tradition. Chant spans all levels of difficulty, from a few simple notes to highly ornamented pieces, all for the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.