If you don't have a copy of the 'Liber Usualis' and many recordings of chant to sing along with, or (preferably) a church where you can join the 'Schola Cantorum,' and sing chant throughout the year, don't bother with this. It will only frustrate you and cause you to feel like you can't relate to the music on the CDs. Most of the chants (on the CDs) were recorded in the 1950s and early '60s (before Vatican II), and released on vinyl. Most Catholic churches don't sing these chants anymore. It is unfortunate that this is the case, since these chants are some of the most spiritual and moving music of western civilization. ( )

I'd rather sing it than listen to it. Singing it is like vocal yoga, and this book explains why. ( )

Buh-leh. Maybe 20% of this book is interesting information about the history & musicality of chant and its role in liturgy. The rest is new-age–ified nonsense about how chant can save the world. Lots of assertion and a few anecdotes about how chant evens out bodily energy and sound connects one organ with another and resonates us with the world and much other feebleminded nonsense of that sort. Granted, the interesting information is interesting, but it was scattered piecemeal through the nonsense, and I'm peed off that I had to slog through so much garbage to get to the gems.

If you want to acquire actual information about chant, you'd be better off finding another book. The only reason to bother with this one is that it has, in the back, the Latin text and English translations of the chants from the CD on the popularity of which this waste of trees was trying to piggyback. ( )

Table of Contents:
Chap 1 Welcome to Chant
Chap 2. Music and the Medieval World
Chap 3. A History of Early Western Chant
Chap 4. The way of Devotion
Chap 5. The Composition and Notation of Chant
Chap 6. The Way Chant is Sung
Chap 7. Healing through Chant
Chap 8. The Life of Chant
Discography
Text and Translation for the Chant CD
Acknowledgments