At the Local Abbey, Singing Unto the Lord an Old Song
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
Published: April 10, 2007

SOLESMES, France, April 5 — One of the tasks of Roger Server as mayor of this quaint village in western France is to console misguided tourists who want to hear the monks in its 11th-century monastery singing in Gregorian chant. “People come and ask, ‘Can you visit the concerts?’ ”

Tourists are restricted to the back of the church, he said, shaking his white hair in mock exasperation. “I tell them: ‘You can visit at the offices. You can admire the sculptures in the church.’ But the monks say, ‘We’re not here to receive tourists; we’re contemplatives.’ ”

The monks, 55 of them, inhabit the monastery that hovers over the village like some great granite mother hen over her chicks. But in recent times the monks have gained a measure of fame for their dedication to Gregorian chant, the simple vocal music whose cadences, in Latin, for centuries adorned the Roman Catholic liturgy. the rest