Foreword
·Once there was a computer scientist and mathematician who was unsatisfied with how the new edition of his book was being produced with different technology. He realised he could make a computer program to typeset books and estimated that it would take about six months. This is Donald Knuth who started the TeX project. He didn’t charge for his software. He actually paid people who found bugs in the program.
It was through this typesetting program taht I came into the world of Gregorian Chant. I learned TeX while preparing my undergraduate thesis at the University of New South Wales. Not long afterwards, I was asked to type up the hymn Adoro Te Devote for a children’s class. The tools available were a long way from those available today. More requests for chant booklets followed. I would type it up, then the choir or master of ceremonies would find all the mistakes and explain the right way to set things out. In this peculiar way I learned a lot about reading square notes as well as bits about the Mass and the Divine Office.
This ability to type chant served well what I started leading a little choir for Sunday Mass. The full propers were too complex, so I would make psalm toned copies of anything that I couldn’t master from the Liber Usualis. I also started making videos for other choir members to learn the pieces by ear. The process of simplifying and recording pieces helped me gain more facility with the music. Over years I grew better able to make sense of the melodies and hopefully make pleasing music in the service of God.
In 2020 I had some more spare time thanks to Sydney’s precautionary measures. My video of the main hymn from the Little Office, Memento Rerum, was the most popular of all my videos.