Our Father tone
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    Our parish has taken up singing the Lord's prayer, in English, according to the traditional tone. Sadly, we've noticed that it doesn't exist in the new missal (except for in Latin). Has anyone else noticed this? Have folks been having this same problem? How have you been dealing with it?

    Adam S.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Several people have written to me saying that the USCCB made a decision to be different than the rest of the English speaking world, and keep the "Snow."

    However, I have not been able to get documentation of why/how/when this decision was made.

    See page 11-12 here: document from ICEL website, which speaks of the new Our Father melody being "optional" by conferences.

    Here is a video recording of the new Our Father with free organ accompaniment.

    I think Dr. William Mahrt has pointed out some serious flaws in the Snow, if I remember correctly.
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    Jeff - what do you mean be "the Snow"?
  • Adam Schwend
    Posts: 203
    The "Snow" version, as some call it, is a setting of the Lord's prayer by Robert Snow...which somehow became the de facto melody. This was a chance to change that and return it back to the original Latin tone, or at least try....seems to be an opportunity lost.
  • ossian1898ossian1898
    Posts: 142
    Ah. Thanks! I Googled it and now I understand. The OF I play at on Saturdays never sings the Our Father and we don't of course in the EFs I do either.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,161
    I think Robert Snow deserves credit for his setting of the "Our Father". It's the most successful and well-liked piece of English-language chant composed in the past 50 years, and that's enough reason to keep it around. I suppose it dates to around 1966, as I've found it published in a hand Missal from that time (the "Saint Paul Daily Missal"). The book's acknowledgements say that the musical settings in it were approved by the National Conference of Bishops.

    As for the ICEL settings, aren't they all optional for the bishops' conferences?
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    Yes, the USCCB made the decision to keep the Snow setting as the vernacular norm in the US, which is why it appears as such in the main body of the Missal. The additional ICEL settings will be found in an appendix in the Missal. The UK and Australia have kept their common settings as well, which vary from the new ICEL renditions. We may still utilize the new ICEL settings, but the "norm" is still Snow in the US. At least this is the instruction that has been given from the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    The additional ICEL settings will be found in an appendix in the Missal.


    I have been told that they forgot to include the main melody appendix, but included the two Mode IV pieces.

    At least this is the instruction that has been given from the USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship.


    Would it be possible to point to this statement?
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    I have been told that they forgot to include the main melody appendix, but included the two Mode IV pieces.


    Oh, wow, I didn't realize that.

    Would it be possible to point to this statement?


    I only have it in private correspondence with the director of the office.
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    The Snow setting - despite the things one can well criticize about it - is the one chant that nearly everybody sings in the parish in which I work. I'm not about to yank the rug out from under people and replace it by something they're unlikely to encounter elsewhere - even if that might be considered objectively "better" or more accurate.

    I think the decision to keep the Snow setiing in the Missal was a judicious one, although it is unfortunate that the one more closely in line with the traditional tone somehow got left out of the Missal and is only available on the ICEL website.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Dr. Mahrt's comment was in response to something that I had said and quite simply, he stated that it is upside-down for a Gregorian Chant and, after a quick run through in my head, I realized and from then on whenever I composed something in the style of a Gregorian Chant I made darn sure it was not upside down!
Add a Comment