Fr. Columba Kelly, OSB, a Benedictine monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey since 1952, is the director and composer for the Saint Meinrad Gregorian Schola. He finished his doctorate in Church music at Musica Sacra in Rome in 1963, just as Roman liturgy was moving from Latin into English.

In 1964, Fr. Columba was appointed choirmaster for Saint Meinrad, where he began his work of composing English-language chants based on the principles used to create the original Gregorian Chant repertory. That same year, he also began teaching at Saint Meinrad College and Saint Meinrad School of Theology.

Outreach

For 12 years, he taught summer courses at St. Joseph College's (Rensselear, IN) Liturgical Musical Program. He has led numerous workshops on chant, throughout the United States, at the Abbey of Solesmes in France, and for Benedictine communities in Australia.

During the summer of 2003, he gave three presentations on chant at the National Pastoral Musicians' National Convention in Cincinnati, OH.

Each summer, he gives a two-week workshop in the theory and practice of chant in both Latin and English. In May 2010, he gave two presentations on chant at the Ascending Voice II symposium sponsored by Pepperdine University.

You can find information about this year's workshops at Saint Meinrad at these links:

Beginner Workshop
Advanced Workshop

Chant Books and CDs

In recent years, Fr. Columba has directed Saint Meinrad's chant schola in a program of Latin and English chants produced for CDs: an Advent/Christmas CD, a Christmas CD and a Lent/Easter CD. In 1999, he directed the schola in a performance at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. He has also assisted in a number of special projects and compositions regarding Gregorian Chant.

His settings of the Responsorial Psalms and Refrains for Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter seasons have been published by Gregorian Institute of America, Chicago, IL. His chant style setting with SAB chorus of the St. John Passion for Good Friday has been published by Oregon Catholic Press, Portland, OR. He has written two books on chant, published by Edwin Mellen Press.

Developing English Chant

During the past several decades, in addition to his teaching, Fr. Columba has created a body of English chant based on the natural rhythm of spoken word.

Currently, there are more than 1,800 responsories and antiphons in the liturgical books at Saint Meinrad. This music, which represents only part of his work, forms the day-to-day music of the Archabbey. This work has been carried on with the assistance of his confreres, Fr. Samuel Weber, OSB, and Fr. Tobias Colgan, OSB.

Fr. Columba has worked with recreating melismatic chants for English texts developed to fit (more or less) the Latin melody. Although the music for the English is similar to that for the Latin, it is not the same. Rather, it has been carefully crafted to respect the rhythm and meaning of the English text.

In addition, Fr. Columba has created wholly new compositions, such as the responsorial psalms for the Third Sunday of Advent and for Christmas Midnight Mass in the melismatic idiom; both are contained on the Advent and Christmas CD.

All of these compositions are an attempt to recreate the tradition for our own time. With its free rhythm and modal sonority, chant has a decidedly modern sense.