Is there a Chabanel "collection?"
  • Dan McGarveyDan McGarvey
    Posts: 59
    So as I mentioned in a recent post, we're phasing our Respond & Acclaim here and going full-throttle with Cabanel and Garnier. My cantors and organists have asked me if it would be possible to make a binder for them that has the full collection of settings organized by liturgical year. It's more efficient than emailing them the Psalms every week.

    I'm hoping someone has already done this, as currently I'm pulling each Psalm setting individually from the Chabanel site and making a new PDF file that has them all in order, which is really tedious and not the best use of my time. If this doesn't exist, I'm not asking anyoe to do it for me, but why re-invent the wheel, right?

    If this hasn't been done then I'll be happy to share my work with anyone who wants it.

    Cheers,
    Dan
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Dan,

    I am flattered you are using the Chabanel Psalms and Garnier Alleluias !

    I am sorry we have not (yet) put out a hard-bound collection, but about two years ago, they announced that the Revised Grail will be replacing the current translation.

    We are patiently waiting for these new (mandatory) Psalms to be released to the public.

    In the meantime, I hope and pray that the "congregational insert" JPEG's make it possible to easily create Congregational Handouts OR add to Parish Bulletins.

    I also realize that I'm not always as "far ahead" as I would like, in terms of staying ahead on the Feasts. The other Chabanel composers really inspire me --- I've learned so much from them! That's why I'm re-doing Year C and Year A entirely (slowly).
  • Dan McGarveyDan McGarvey
    Posts: 59
    Hi Jeff:

    I usually make my own congregational inserts that have four or five of the sung responses on a single sheet. But what I'm keen on having is not so much a printed book, as I am just a single PDF file that has each Psalm for the year for the organist (and my cantors use the organist's score). Since my musicians are used to having their R&A on hand, this is something they'd like to have and I'm trying to make for them.

    Last I heard, the monks that did the Revised Grail are incorporating updates given to them by the Vatican. Do we have an ETA?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    No ETA...there is a list of email addresses at GIA that will be getting a notification. The number of addresses is said to exceed 1,000.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    The RG psalms are mandatory for spoken use.

    If I read the language of GIRM 61 correctly, it will still be lawful to use older sung settings, including the current Chabanel settings, since the NAB psalms with the old antiphons qualify as "another collection of the psalms and antiphons... approved by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops...."
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Chonak, I've heard differently....can you E-mail me?
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    RIchard and Jeff… when appropriate, please share your insights with us all!
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    This ought to be a Frequently Discussed Question by now.

    First, here's a principle from canon law: burdens and restrictions are to be interpreted strictly, i.e., precisely. That means that in cases of doubt, the interpretation goes in the favor of freedom. (This rule is reflected in the code at, e.g., Canon 18.) Conversely, favors, privileges, and permissions are "multiplied": interpreted generously.

    'Cause that's the kind of Church the Church is.

    Sure, Liturgiam Authenticam 36 says there should be an approved translation, and it should be used in the liturgical books; that will govern the translations used in the whole Lectionary.

    OTOH, GIRM 61 creates a loophole by allowing various things in place of the Lectionary Psalm (which will be RGP). It allows, among other things, metrical psalms. It would be absurd to allow metrical psalms -- i.e., paraphrases -- but not the NAB.

    So pull out GIRM 61 and read along. A sung setting can come from "a collection of psalms and antiphons...approved by the USCCB or the diocesan bishop". And it looks as if *any* approval will do. It doesn't say *current* approval. It doesn't say "approved for liturgical use". Maybe even "approval for reading" could be enough. 1963 Grail Psalms are lawful at Mass now, and they're not in the Lectionary -- but of course they are approved for the Office. As far as I know, settings of Jerusalem Bible psalms or RSV psalms -- which were formerly approved for Lectionary use -- are OK.

    I'm not saying that I like the NAB psalms, just that they will probably be legal for use beyond Advent 2012, an interpretation that may be useful during the transition. I hope you would consider keeping the Chabanel NAB settings available via the web for a while. (If you choose not to, an enterprising person could simply copy them now and set up an alternative web site, if they are free to copy and redistribute under the Creative Commons license.)

    Even under a theory of revokable approvals, some diocesan bishops might authorize the NAB psalms for years to come. Ted Marier's hymnal contains old non-NAB psalms, and psalms from prior editions of the NAB, and it has diocesan approval here.

    This loophole is intended to avoid disrupting the Church's music practice when new translations are approved for liturgical books. Who'd-a-thunk that they actually put in a helpful rule to avoid disruptions!

    PS: I'm happy to recall that Paul Ford confirmed my interpretation in this thread.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    We don't plan on taking any Psalms down. If the Secretariat tells us that they are no longer allowed, we will still leave them up for study purposes, although we will clearly state that they are no longer allowed.

    Let us continue this conversation, Chonak, when it is not so late at night...
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    While I see the practical necessity for the Chabenel settings to follow the new "official" psalm translations, I think Chonak is right that we will continue hearing translation and dynamic equilvence options well into the future. In the typical parish it is likely some cantors will not have the wherewithal to alter habits of ingrained repertoire. In a more musically sophisticated venue like St. Paul Church in Cambridge, MA the decision has been made to reprint Ted Marier's psalter settings as is. As you may know, those psalm translations come from a variety of sources.
  • rogue63
    Posts: 410
    So please help me......

    The Chabanel psalms have been a great boon for improving the music at my weekly school Mass. According to chonak's post above, referencing GIRM 61, I am not breaking the law by continuing to use the Chabanel Psalms as long as I want to: today, Advent 2012, Easter 2050.

    Am I correct? Because these settings are a good treatment of a sometimes tedious text, and I hate to switch all my nice files around.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    rogue63,

    The Chabanel Psalms follow the official text.

    But at some point in the future, the Church is going to CHANGE the official text to the Revised Grail.

    Whenever that happens, the Chabanel Psalms will be based off the new text. Whenever that happens.
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    at this moment, only the gia composers have the new psalter text. i've been told that their 'reward' for purchasing the copyright from conception abbey is that they were promised a head-start on publishing their versions....wlp and oregon catholic press are *furious*
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    wlp and oregon catholic press are *furious*

    See? Almost everything produces some good.
  • Fr. Keyes
    Posts: 7
    Three years ago, after becoming so tired of Respond and Acclaim, I decided to put my composer training to some use and launched for myself a project of composing all the psalms in a gregorian mode. I would take the psalm of the Sunday, find the psalm in the Psalterium Monasticum(PM), take the antiphon from the PM and write it out in gregorian notation using the meinrad fonts, lay the English text under the antiphon, move some notes around to do some tone painting, and to make it musical, and then send it over to the Music Director who pointed the psalm text to the appropriate mode. I started 3 years ago with the psalms of September in cycle C and now I have come full circle and composed all the antiphons from the Sunday Lectionary.

    So they are all sitting here on my hard drive in various degrees of completed work. I have sent some of the finished pointed psalms to Chabanel and hope to get all of them over there eventually.

    anyone who wants a particular psalm can email me at frkeyes at stedwardcatholic dot org

    I would like eventually to put them in a printed collection and even have my choir record some of the favorites, but would prefer to wait for the new grail text, althouhg that may start the work all over again.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Ah, Fr. Keyes... you have come to the point I have come to long ago, realizing that setting the texts is a very disheartening project when the whims of translators dictate your longevity. Throw the English to the wind! Compose in the Latin. It is timeless and universal. Don't let your work become a museum piece!
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Compose in the Latin. . . . Don't let your work become a museum piece!

    Haha, tell that to Blessed Notker!
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Notker heard me long ago. He is praying for the Church as we speak.
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    In a more musically sophisticated venue like St. Paul Church in Cambridge, MA the decision has been made to reprint Ted Marier's psalter settings as is. As you may know, those psalm translations come from a variety of sources.


    Randolph, do you mean that this has been the practice up to now, even though the translations of the psalms don't always follow the current Lectionary, or do you mean that it has been decided that if and when there is a new edition it will not contain the forthcoming official translation? I would be rather disappointed if the latter were the case.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    (A partial answer:)

    Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles (Second Edition), approved in the 1980s, includes psalms not matching the current Lectionary, because their texts come from the RSV, the 1963 Grail psalter, "Psalms for Modern Man" (presumably the TEV), and "The Psalms" by Mary Perkins Ryan. Also, the Lectionary's NAB psalms themselves have probably changed somewhat since 1983.
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Incantu,

    According to my source - an organist at St. Paul’s doing much of the Sibelius work on the hymnal revision - Ted Marier’s original settings of the Psalter are to be retained. With the exception of the upcoming changes in the ordinary and dialogues, the revision is in fact complete.

    I have mixed feelings. Those of us associated with St. Paul’s and the choir school not only are accustomed to Marier’s Psalter settings but consider their wording far superior to Lectionary translations. It is but one instance of St. Paul’s proud tradition of marching to its own drummer. While that attribute has kept a valued musical integrity intact throughout times of radical change, one could argue that it impairs opportunities for influence. It’s hard for a parish in the suburbs to model itself after St. Paul’s if the latter does not employ official texts.

    Another thing to keep in mind; the hymnal revision is the work of the old regime but both the parish and the school are under new leadership. (I’ll post on the new music director in the near future.) There have already been significant changes at the school and in parish liturgies so it may be premature to say the present course of the hymnal revision will not change.
Add a Comment