Beyond the Spire
Welcome to Beyond the Spire, a podcast of the Save Our Sacred Songs project at the Catholic Shrine of St Walburge in Preston, supported by the National Lottery.
In each episode, we go beyond what you see from the street, we explore the story and the sound of Gregorian chant, the Church's sacred song, so that this treasure of faith and culture is not just preserved, but lived and loved again.
Beyond the Spire
Latest Episodes
E20 • Why Gregorian Chant Still Matters
After tracing chant from its roots to the present, “Beyond the Spire” closes by asking whether this ancient music still has a future. The answer is an emphatic yes: Gregorian chant slows modern haste, unites voices in common prayer, forms memor...
E19 • Practice: Organ and Gregorian Chant
This instalment examines the proper place of the organ in a liturgical world centred on Gregorian chant. The very title expresses the principle: the greatest instrument appears most noble when it knows how not to dominate. The episode considers...
E18 • Practice: Today’s Issues and Opportunities
This episode examines singing Gregorian chant today, noting how contemporary habits, technology, and expectations differ dramatically from the past. It reflects on hearing with modern ears, the realities of current liturgical settings, and the ...
E17 • History of music: The Restoration of Roman Catholic Liturgy
This episode leaves the direct analysis of melodies and turns to the nineteenth-century recovery of Gregorian chant. At its centre stands Dom Prosper Guéranger and Solesmes Abbey, presented as decisive in restoring both Roman liturgy and Roman ...
E16 • History of music: The Decline of Gregorian Chant
This episode studies the gradual eclipse of Gregorian chant in the later history of Western church music. As musical culture changed, and as Renaissance and later styles introduced different ideals of beauty, authorship, and expression, chant n...
