Nuptial Mass OF Propers?
  • jcquinonez84
    Posts: 1
    My fiance and I are getting married on June 18th, 2011. I am new to chant, but have fallen in love with it. My fiance's only request was for the music at the Mass to be Latin, or at least chant. I have done a little reading, and am learning about propers for the Mass.

    I don't really know where to start. We have a choir that can sing Latin, but think I would have to provide them with the music. Are there specific propers for the OF Nuptial Mass? Do we just use the propers for that day? Should I scratch the propers and just pick some hymns (I would rather not)?
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,185
    Congratulations!

    This web page lists the proper-chant options for the OF Nuptial Mass. (Yes, you have options for chants in the OF.)

    This web page lists the polyphonic settings of the proper texts for the OF Nuptial Mass.

    If you want the chant notation for these, please let us on the forum know. I believe that recordings of most if not all the chants are available online as well — that will help your choir learn them well.
  • marajoymarajoy
    Posts: 781
    There's only 4 polyphonic settings?! You would think that composers would have been scrambling over each other to write for the weddings of nobility! What am I missing here?

    Obviously, I know that now (someone was wondering about this over at your blog,) no, most churches don't have a choir for weddings, the only times I've seen anything resembling a "choir," was for the wedding of church musicians themselves who appreciated beautiful music! (And, once for a wedding of two friends who just happened to have a *ton* of friends who were good singers! The groom was an occasional cantor, and the bride wasn't very musical, but they had two organists in their bridal party, and a choir of about 10 of their friends that almost successfully pulled of the Biebel Ave Maria!)
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,185
    I did look at CPDL again to see if any additional polyphonic proper settings were uploaded; none turned up. Actually, there's this ridiculously long setting of "Timete Dominum" by Haydn (don't remember which one) that could accompany an equally ridiculously long entrance procession.

    It would be great for a parish have a standing schola for weddings (and funerals). Having a choir who could execute these polyphonic propers would be incredible. Either or both would be a compelling witness to the beauty of the Faith.
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 468
    On wedding propers vs. propers of the day. Part of it depends on when the wedding is. The OF allows great flexibility in choosing which propers (though less so for the Gradual/Alleluia/Tract/Responsorial Psalm). Generally, the wedding propers are preferred, but if you're getting married on a big feast like Saturday in the Octave of Easter you'd arguably want to use the propers of the day. If you tell us what day (and year), I'm sure folks'd be happy to weigh in.

    There's only 4 polyphonic settings?! You would think that composers would have been scrambling over each other to write for the weddings of nobility! What am I missing here?

    Possibly because their weddings were often conducted by bishops? When a bishop officiates at a wedding (see Fortescue) it's standard for the Mass that follows to be the Low Mass of a Bishop, which would mean no singing of the propers, rather than a Solemn Pontifical Mass (either at the throne or the faldstool).

    However. '>from the San Francisco Examiner via the NY Times an 1882 wedding at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco with an orchestra of 50 musicians. Even there though, the Archbishop officiated at the marriage, but wasn't the celebrant for the Solemn Mass pro sponsis that followed.

    Much music composed for the occasion, by the man who conducted one of San Francisco's early symphony orchestras and a choral piece by an Edgar E. Kelly... that may be a typo for Edgar Stillman-Kelley, who was at the time an organist in San Francisco and would later be called "Dean of American Composers" though little
    remembered today.

    Also used, Rossinni's Gloria (other Mass parts not mentioned, but perhaps it was his Messa di Gloria) plus Saint-Saens' Inviolata Incidental music by Bizet, Raff, and Mendelssohn. 300 candles in the sanctuary.
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