Introducing chant in multi-lingual parishes
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Apart from my regular church commitments, this past year I volunteered to direct and advise an incipient chant schola in a 175 year-old urban, multi-lingual parish. To date, the group (presently consisting only of white, non-immigrant singers) has sung the Latin propers once a month at an early Sunday morning Mass while the other masses serve Hispanic and Ugandan parishioners. Yesterday’s holy day was the first occasion in which all the parish music groups participated in a single liturgy. Our schola sang the introit and a couple of Latin Marian hymns while the other music groups offered selections reflecting their cultures. I enjoyed all the music but admit this merging of styles is disconcerting to those conditioned to regard chant and polyphony as an ideal.

    I’m wondering if any of you have had success introducing chant to those segments of a parish whose first language is not English. I’m particularly interested in any inroads made with Spanish speakers since Ugandan music - despite its use of drums - is often chant based and presents less of a stylistic chasm. (The Ugandans are wonderful singers, by the way.)

    I know there are factors at play here besides language, but if there are any success stories out there involving chant in multi-lingual parishes I would be interested in how they were achieved. My instinct is to be grateful for what has been accomplished and let it go at that. I suppose what I’m really asking is whether it is possible to push for a greater chant presence without affronting those who cherish their specific cultural traditions.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    At a parish with a distinct lack of Spanish speakers but many Asians, I was continually pleasantly surprised at the joy in singing chant, since many of them had know it in their home countries and it was the ONLY thing they could hear in the Mass that was in any way tied to their Catholic tradition.

    While I speak some Japanese, my other Asian languages are limited, sometimes to just being able to say hello. But one Vietnamese gentleman (established because as I worked through hello in various languages until he smiled when I got to Vietnamese) when I showed him my business card (with the a Musica Sacra choir engraving on it) began singing and we finished the Gregorian Ave Maria together.

    So I would hazard a guess that attempting to do music of their individual cultural heritage which to some may be seen as demeaning, instead do chant. Use square notes so that all are on the same ground starting.

    You are doing good work. Keep us advised.
  • jwsrjwsr
    Posts: 2
    Hi, Randy;
    The chasm either does or does not exist, and at least partially it depends on what you mean by "Hispanic". I know it is a catch-all, but Cuban, Mexican, Brazilian (the catch-all often catches them), and South American Catholics have a fondness and tradition of Chant, as do people from Spain. The Central and Island N American populations tend more to guitar, and devotional hymns which were usually used for Processions (always popular), but now in Mass.

    In Boston, the Cathedral, St Joseph (Lynn), St Columbkille, and St Adelaide Latin Mases attract a fairly multicultural crowd, and chant is not only not a problem, but quite universally liked. In fact, at St Col's, the Chant Latin Mass was brought in partially to provide a Mass that ALL communities at the Parish could share.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    I contacted a parish in Spain to find out what hymnal they sang from...the answer, The Graduale Romanum. Some have said the musical abuses we see in the US never got there.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Not true. The Spanish (Spain) abuse of popular music goes way back. There was legislation in Seville in the 17th century regulating the number of villancicos that could be sung at Mass. Today, if there is music at all, its somewhat folkish in nature, but the organ plays it. Everyone seems to know the Mass settings and folky (hispanic) songs, but in the cathedrals, one doesn't hear all that much music at all.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Thanks, Michael, for setting this straight. Is any of this published?
  • music123
    Posts: 100
    I went to Sunday mass in Chinchón, Spain, a small town about an hour from Madrid a few years ago, and the music at the mass, well, it left a little bit to be desired. It consisted of about 7 or 8 ladies singing folksy kind of stuff with guitars (though their voices actually blended quite nicely). The congregation did not sing at all, I believe, not even on the Ordinary. It felt a little odd (almost as odd as I felt when I realized that apparently sitting in the back half of this church was code for "I'm not going to communion," so I had to really hustle to get up there in time...)

    But back to the subject, I'm going to be working with the Hispanic ministry at my new position. The people doing the music right now seem very sweet, and I'm hoping we can work some chant in there somehow. So I'd be interested if anyone has some tips as well.
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