Columba Kelly, OSB

Benedictine Father Columba Kelly is the director and composer for the Gregorian Schola at St. Meinrad Archabbey, in St. Meinrad, Indiana. He is considered one of the foremost experts on Gregorian chant in the United States.

Father Columba finished his doctorate in church music at Musica Sacra in Rome just as Roman liturgy was moving from Latin into English. During the last 35 years, in addition to his teaching, Father Columba has created a body of English chant based on the natural word rhythm of spoken word.

Presently, there are more than 1,800 responsories and antiphons in the liturgical books at St. 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 over the years with the assistance of Benedictine Fathers Samuel Weber and Tobias Colgan. The English antiphons on St. Meinrad's chant CD recordings give an indication of his achievement.

In addition, Father 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 Archabbey’s 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.

Edwin Mellen Press has published two of his books on Gregorian chant: Gregorian Chant Intonations and the Role of Rhetoric, and his translation into English of An Introduction to the Interpretation of Gregorian Chant. He has contributed articles to Today’s Liturgy.