“Uma novidade muito antiga”: memória e (sócio)transmissão do Canto Gregoriano no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify how and in what environments Gregorian Chant was practiced throughout the history of the formation of Roman Catholicism in Rio Grande do Sul. To this end, bibliographical research and documentary sources related to the subject in the 19th century were used, collected in the Archives of the Metropolitan Curia of Porto Alegre, followed by material related to scores and hymnals in use in the 20th century, especially in the environment of seminaries and formation houses of religious congregations. The second methodological resource used was the Life History, through semi-structured interviews with elderly deponents: priests, religious, organists, composers, who witnessed the changes in liturgical music resulting from the Second Vatican Council in the subsequent decades. Finally, open questionnaires were applied to the conductors and members of new choirs that constitute the resurgence of the genre today. It was concluded that, after a four-decade process of memorial erasure, there is a growing interest not only in Gregorian chant, but in the Roman liturgical tradition in general, with great public acceptance, and which has found a favorable environment since the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, with the Vatican having launched a project to learn Gregorian chant using smartphones.