Quite often people try to find out about the “secret” behind the ever growing interest in the ”Gregoriaans Festival van Watou”.
The success is due, first of all, to the theme itself: Gregorian chant. For a number of years a growing, yet inexplicable interest in this kind of music has taken place worldwide. The revival of Gregorian chant during the latest decennia is a remarkable phenomenon. Can it be explained by the search for mental renewal, which our society structures can no longer offer? Obviously, since Gregorian chant is the most honest music imaginable. This music offers beneficent rest, even if one does not understand Latin. Gregorian chant is universal, fifteen centuries old and still present in many cultures. This is due to the fact that this music touches the heart of everybody expressing joy, love, concern, acquiescence, fear, hope or trust. Gregorian chant is the wavelength of the heart, which cannot be calculated as FM, MW of LW. This music feeds the hunger for deeper spirituality and more intense inner life, which can be noticed at the beginning of the new millennium.
This totally unexpected success can be explained by a social phenomenon whereby young people show up an intensified longing for more inner life. Hereby Gregorian chant is being rediscovered. It is not a purely musical experience. Gregorian chant possesses something fascinating, it calls for mystery and mysticism. Thanks to its deep spirituality and inner life Gregorian chant meets the intense need for mental deepening.
The Gregorian repertoire may be ”centuries old”, singing it and listening to it is ”surprisingly young”.
As liturgical chant, Gregorian music offers everything: it is sensual, it cherishes silence, it does not ask for verbal expression and it possesses a strong symbolical-ritual force.
Holiness and beauty are perfectly integrated, so that this music can be seen as a fresco, a mosaic, or an icon, the foreshadowing of Eternal Beauty.