a capella EF Mass?

Scott_W

There was a substitute organist at the EF Mass this Sunday, and it got me wondering that, if for some reason the organist was absent, can the choir simply sing the ordinaries and propers without organ accompaniment? Or is there some organ-or-nothing rule I'm not aware of? Thanks.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

There is no rule against acapella singing in the EF.

Iirc, the term "acapella" comes from the practice of singing unaccompanied in the chapel, for Mass.

We have sung the ordinary and proper chants without organ accompaniment for 5 years. I believe Dr. Mahrt's choir in Palo Alto has done this for 40(+) years, both before and after the council. (My understanding is they sing mostly for OF masses now.)

At our parish the organist plays preludes, hymns, improvs, and postludes. The chant is rarely accompanied, and when it is we most often use a pedal tone. The polyphony is never accompanied.

I think it really depends on how the choir is trained, and how the director is able to train them. If the director is more skilled at accompanying than training singers to sing in tune, then chances are the chants will not be sung acapella.

There is no rule mandating organ accompaniment, nor is there a rule against it. It is a question of preference and practicality.

It is not so common to accompany the propers, and is often considered poor taste. But, I suppose a very fine organist can make it work when necessary.

Adam Wood

Strictly speaking, unaccompanied is the norm.

Chris Garton-Zavesky

Organ accompaniment is not required for the Extraordinary Form.

jpal

As music director/organist, if I am absent for a weekend, I often don't hire a sub anymore -- everything is sung a cappella at all four (OF) Masses, led by the cantor. And based on comments I get from cantor/congregants/priests about how well it goes, I wonder if I should go on vacation more often!

In fact I am very gradually phasing organ accompaniment out for certain things...but I can't phase it out TOO much until we get our new organ. Otherwise we will get, "What's the new organ for? We sing everything a cappella anyway!" ;-)

Ben

My schola *never* uses organ to accompany the chants, at the request of our celebrant. This works well, because the organist can't come to rehearsals, so it's easier this way for everyone.

We only use the organ for prelude, interlude and postlude, and processionals, when they are not covered by chant.

That being said, another schola that I'm a singer in sometimes has accompanied propers. It can be done very well, but the accompaniment can't let the piece drag, like I've seen occasionally when I go other places.

I don't have anything against it. It can be very helpful for the ordinary, if it's being sung antiphonally, or by the congregation with the schola, and you have a large church.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Ben, agreed about the ordinary in a large acoustic. I just heard a decent accompaniment of Credo III, alternating between choristers and congregation, sung at Westminster cathedral. The organist was sensitive, and it helps that Credo III, being relatively modern, lends itself more to more modern harmonic accompaniment.

Ben

I've seen lots of excellent accompanied chant from Westminster cathedral.

JulieColl

Also from Fontgambault. I have a CD of their celebration of the Assumption with Mass, Vespers and Compline and the organ accompaniment is exquisite.

quilisma

We avoid organ accompaniment for the Propers too. One of the reasons being that, like Ben, the organists never come to practice with us and some of them aren't overly familiar with chant. Having said that, a bit of faux-bourdon from a competent organist can sometimes enhance the chant, but it should be really subtle, I believe.

R J Stove

The sole diocesan EF Mass that is, to my knowledge, offered each Sunday in my diocese (which also contains an SSPX chapel and may also contain diocesan priests providing occasional EF Masses) has singing which is entirely a cappella. Except, that is, for the vernacular hymn at the end (when there is a vernacular hymn at the end at all) and, intermittently, the Credo.

This almost totally unaccompanied singing is not a situation which I, as an organist, particularly welcome, for several severely practical reasons:

(a) it is the devil's own job for any small choir (consisting mostly of amateurs with varying degrees of enthusiasm) to sing that long a cappella without its pitch dropping markedly;

(b) recruiting substitute organists becomes near-impossible if such organists are to be kept in quarantine from the choir and if their role is confined largely to a few twiddly solo bits at the Offertory etc.;

(c) extra singers who are fluent in neume-reading and happy to perform without the slightest organ support and sympathetic to the EF are not exactly abundant in my neck of the woods;

(d) clergy and congregation alike seem rather to enjoy the sound of organ-playing - this isn't a boast, since I'm merely one of three organ regulars - and have told me they'd like to hear more of it.

Increasingly, therefore, I find myself playing at what might be called "conservative OF" Masses elsewhere, where the organ is valued rather than shunned, and where (mirabile dictu) I'm actually permitted, indeed urged, to attend organ-and-choir rehearsals.

ClergetKubisz

Although we do OF and all hymns are accompanied, the choir sings mostly unaccompanied motets or choral versions of hymns (we did O Sanctissima this weekend). Fact of the matter is that I was growing tired of the same piano-accompanied "sweet songs" that they were doing, and the previous choir director would never allow programmed for congregational singing ("but that's a CHOIR song!"). Fr also wanted the level of music performance to increase, so I taught the choir how to do something they previously couldnt. Now they learn everything a cappella, and then if we are using accompaniment we put it in last.

CharlesW

Do I have the only choir in the world whose pitch can drop with organ accompaniment? Surely not! LOL.

Kathy

There's a beautiful book about Carthusian novices called An Infinity of Little Hours. One of the novices had been a musician before he entered the cloister, and when he first arrived he thought it was a neat musical effect, the way the choir lowered the pitch by half steps throughout the night office...

Arthur Connick

We sing the propers a cappella, but sing the chant ordinary with organ accompaniment to encourage participation by the congregation. We're not absolutist on singing a cappella chant, but we would need to rehearse with our organists. When they are available, I prefer to spend time on other stuff.

I am interested in why EF people would want to minimize use of the organ at Mass.

JulieColl

Ditto here, Arthur. I like the variation; it tends to get monotonous with all acapella all the time. I think the sound of the organ with the Kyrie after the Introit, for example, provides some needed relief, as it were.

I also like the way the Schola Bellarmina on their CD collection of the propers, always sing the Gradual unaccompanied and the Alleluia accompanied. It symbolizes to me, at least, the starkness and rigor of the Old Testament giving way to the New.

I remember listening to the recordings of Msgr. Schuler's Masses and thinking the same thing. The unaccompanied propers were a beautiful complement to the grand orchestral masses. My favorite paradigm of the Missa Cantata is a tapestry of different musical elements:unaccompanied chant and polyphony interspersed with accompanied chant for the ordinary and two vernacular hymns (from the Anglican hymnal!) acting like bookends at the beginning and end of Mass, with some instrumental organ music (preferably Baroque) as well. Something for everyone.

Ben

Charles, you're not! One time I was directing where the console was up front, but the speakers in back. We opted to put the schola near the console. Which was great until the accompiment for one of the pieces was a little too quiet (my fault, not the organist's, I told him to), and the schola ended a minor second down, with the organ obviously still on pitch. It was a little painful... :)

CHGiffen

Perhaps you have to be into birds for this, but in my neck of the woods & lakes, we have the commonly known duck hawk, which also known as the peregrine falcon. If you have ever watched on of these swoop down in a dive towards their prey, you can appreciate that a local priest of my acquaintance here, when he sings what ostensibly is recto tono, invariably sings in RECTO PEREGRINO. It's painful.

Richard Mix

the schola ended a minor second down, with the organ obviously still on pitch. It was a little painful... :)

Somewhere in the ethnographic literature dealing with the courts of central Java ia a rapturous paragraph about the hair-raising excitement that the sparsely accompanied Bedoyo srimpi can generate at certain moments through the aural illusion of the kemanak rising in pitch. This music is considered to be of supernatural origin.

R J Stove

Arthur Connick writes:

"I am interested in why EF people would want to minimize use of the organ at Mass."

Really, I have no idea, and it's not for want of trying to seek enlightenment from the choir director concerned. It would seem that he merely hates the sound of the organ, whoever's playing it. (There's no suggestion of personal animosity to me or to any other organist.) When a final hymn is countenanced, he demands that the organist remain silent during several verses, with invariably disastrous results in terms of congregational participation and maintenance of accurate pitch.

As like rather a lot of present-day Catholics he appears to be basically an antiquarian Protestant, he accepts no artistic criterion higher than his own caprice. If the clergy were to dismiss him, they would find themselves spending extra money, since he insists on being unpaid.

Julie Coll observes:

"I like the variation; it tends to get monotonous with all acapella all the time. I think the sound of the organ with the Kyrie after the Introit, for example, provides some needed relief, as it were. "

This is the feedback I consistently get from priests and parishioners.

Ben

When a final hymn is countenanced, he demands that the organist remain silent during several verses

Odd.

JulieColl

It would seem that he merely hates the sound of the organ, whoever's playing it.

Strange but true, since I've encountered this exact same attitude with the EF people in my diocese. Actually, I can't believe there are people somewhere else in the world who think the same way. I thought it was a local eccentricity.

gregp

I am interested in why EF people would want to minimize use of the organ at Mass.

Perhaps it's a little bit of "we've always done it that way"-ism. We've had the EF for 5 years now, and because of our red-haired stepchild status, we've never had access to a keyboard of any kind. That's helped us enormously in forcing us to improve our pitch matching and everything else, but I can detect little attitudes about the organ in general that make me wonder what will happen if we ever have one. A good problem to have, I guess.

matthewj

I once attended an EF Mass in a humble chapel that used an old Lowrey living room organ to accompany things. A capella was definitely the way they should have went.

David Sullivan

he thought it was a neat musical effect, the way the choir lowered the pitch by half steps throughout the night office...

Kathy, I'll have to remember that one...it's a musical effect. That's it...a musical effect. Intentional, right?

JulieColl

That's funny, matthewj! I can just hear the vibrato. : \

I know the use or non-use of the organ at the EF depends upon one's personal preferences and is purely subjective, but one argument in favor of more organ rather than less is that most people newly come from the OF no doubt feel more at home with a liturgy comitante organo than without, esp. to support congregational singing.

From my own personal experience and from what I've heard from numerous other former OF Catholics, the "monastic" model of the EF (acapella propers and ordinary) is just too austere and foreign for people used to the Novus Ordo, and a judicious use of the organ (and a vernacular hymn or two as the processional or recessional) provides just that little bit of continuity and familiarity to make them feel more at home in the EF. That's certainly something to consider if you want to make the EF more accessible to OF Catholics.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Matthew- ouch. Been there.
When I first started at St. Anne, the choir called their organ "Ethel". No offense to lovely Ethel's of the world... but yes it was a home organ and on its last electronic breath. And the choir just sang like the poor organ would keep them on pitch and make it all sound great. No such luck. Even Rossini propers, which actually were composed with organ in mind, were consistently "microtonal", shall we say. So glad those days are behind us.

Adam Wood

From my own personal experience and from what I've heard from numerous other former OF Catholics, the "monastic" model of the EF (acapella propers and ordinary) is just too austere and foreign

I imagine, on the other hand, that this austerity and foreignness is an attraction to many people.

CharlesW

I imagine, on the other hand, that this austerity and foreignness is an attraction to many people.

Yes, to the former Calvinists who are now more Catholic than the rest of us. LOL. Unfortunate, but too often true.

My parish has a pipe organ, and it was used from 1953, through Vatican II, and is still in use today for masses - well, except for that mass Sunday evening where the over 50 "contemporary" group uses guitars. That crowd is, for the most part, not members of the parish anyway. It's the last mass of the day in town, so they come from the lake, the parks, and the land of the heathen to get their obligation in. ;-)

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

I think amateur string quartets should be played with organ, too. After all, they often drop in their pitch at the end of a long piece. And when organists make, say, more than five finger flubs a piece, we should be writig pieces so that skilled singers can cover their mistakes.

I've had more than a few wild rides with organists losing their place (Franck's Panis angelicus comes to mind) and me having to tread water while they catch up, or skip ahead or what have you. It's all part of the adventure, I guess.

The biggest reason I don't care for most accompaniments is that they radically change the composition. It can be done well, but it most often drags and bulks up everything, and turns into what I call "death chant". Slow and dreary, lifelessly sagging beneath the organ. And the choir doesn't learn to sing in tune any better.

So why bother? Let chant be chant. Train your singers so they can accomplish things on their own. The ones asking for variety are usually the types who can't bear to hear things wothout harmony. And they're often... organists. If you want harmony, train your singers to sing in tune, to listen to eachother without accompaniment- and then they can learn polyphony.

OTOH. I see the "lets spice this up a bit", especially if you can't train the singers. It's not a crime to have chant hymns and ordinaries accompanied.

Myself, I love the organ when it's used for stirring improvs, rousing vernacular hymns, and fabulous organ repertoire- and not dominating/ covering mistakes of singers.

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

Ok. Wow. That was a long comment. Sorry to ramble, friends.

CharlesW

If the organ is used to cover mistakes by singers, you have real problems to address. Good chant singers often don't need accompaniment. Congregations sometimes do. Depends on your situation. How the H**L can anyone lose their place in Panis Angelicus?

Ok. Wow. That was a long comment. Sorry to ramble, friends.

Now, now. Your rambling has become rather endearing over time. ;-)

JulieColl

Perhaps, Adam, and the ideal situation would be if different models of the EF Mass were available in a parish setting so people's preferences could be accommodated as much as reason and liturgical law will allow.

BTW, I finally found my Fontgambault CD and wish you could hear the monks chanting the Kyrie comitante organo. It's just sublime.

I think it's interesting that in France traditional Catholicism is perhaps stronger than in other parts of the world. 1/3 of all French seminarians are studying for the traditional orders, and their traditional parishes are known for the robust participation of the people. Perhaps there is no connection between the way they sing chant with the organ and the fact that French traditional Catholics love to sing at their EF Latin Mass, but I say whatever they're doing is well worth studying.

Here's the Schola Sainte Cecile singing the Sanctus at Notre Dame Cathedral with the schola and congregation singing antiphonally. This is typical at Latin Masses in France, and a skillful use of the organ is what primes the congregation to participate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZESpyX3RegA

CharlesW

I think it's interesting that in France traditional Catholicism is perhaps stronger than in other parts of the world.

I think that in France, it has always been stronger. The French long ago put their own unique stamp on liturgy, and it is magnificent!

JulieColl

Sorry to pop up again, but this is an even better example of schola/congregation interaction during the Kyrie and Gloria. Again, it's the organ which cues the people to sing. Needless to say, this is in France (St Nicolas du Chardonnet at Paris).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU_s-yrrY7o

ClergetKubisz

I've seen those videos and they are magnificent! Also remember that the French monarch was for quite some time also the Holy Roman Emperor, and therefore France has always had very close ties to the Holy Mother Church.

JulieColl

Just found a YouTube video of the monks of Fontgambault singing the Mass of the Assumption. They sing all the propers and ordinary (Mass IX) with a lovely, quiet organ accompaniment. This is truly to die for. I could pack my bags and my Liber tomorrow and be quite happy to be a church mouse listening to the monks all day. Included on the CD are a brilliant organ prelude and postlude so the grand pipe organ of Notre Dame de Fontgambault must often be in use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMjNevd2gXs

MaryAnn Carr Wilson

To accompany or not to accompany...
As to the common practice of tasteful or excessive accompaniment and the relative fantasy of chant purists, I find it telling that the OP asked the question in the first place.

Organ is wonderful, and yet can become too dominant in many parishes. There. I said it.

/Ducks behind... Oh no! I have no console behind which to duck!! So the above statement is took courage... or not. You decide!

CharlesW

Accompaniment depends on time, place, singers, music selected, and a host of other factors. There is no one answer that fits every instance - and there never will be.

JulieColl

Not to worry, Mary Ann, I won't throw any more videos at you. : )

Even if I'm exceedingly partial to the pipe organ and hope I may spend my eternity playing one, I'll happily concede that in the Mass, the organ ought to be subservient to the human voice and may the Lord preserve us from loud, bombastic organ accompaniments. The way I see it, during the liturgy the organ should be an embellishment, an ornament, but not the main course. I'm also a great advocate of intervals of reverent silence.

As B. Andrew Mills says in Psallite Sapienter: "Silence is always an acceptable option. Some musicians dread silence, and seek to cover the entire Sacrifice with a wall-to-wall, continuous music. This can be irritating, esp. when the music is poorly prepared or ineptly improvised. The magnificent chants of the Roman rite will appear all the more beautiful for not being awash in a sea of mediocrity, and such music as may be added from time to time will be all the more welcome for its rarity."

Adam Wood

Instrumental accompaniment is like a lot of other things:
If you NEVER do it, you might benefit from trying it.
If you ALWAYS do it, you might benefit from giving it a rest.

At my work parish, I don't think it ever occurred to anyone to not just accompany everything all the time. One of the first things I did was start singing AT LEAST ONE unaccompanied piece every week (usually a post-communion meditation).

I'd say about half of our choir pieces ("Offertory Anthems") are unaccompanied (anything from Gregorian Chant to Renaissance Polyphony to Early American), and we frequently sing unaccompanied Ordinaries (my own Mass of the Blessed Fire and Mass of St. Elizabeth, a composite chant Mass cobbled together out of the 1982, the Missa Oecumenica, the Missa Emmanuel), and we also frequently sing one or more hymn verses unaccompanied whenever it is idiomatic (chant hymns and early American hymns, mostly). The handful of "Praise and Worship" songs we do are made amenable to dignified liturgical worship by singing them unaccompanied.

None of this has bearing on the EF at all, and very little bearing (in terms of programming choices) for the OF, since I work at an Episcopal parish, and would definitely do many things differently in a Catholic setting.

But my point about it is: Steadily increasing the amount of music sung unaccompanied, both by choir and congregation, has given more and more musical confidence to the parish, and widened its musical abilities. Also, if something happened to the accompanist or the instrument, we could get along just fine doing the whole service unaccompanied if we had to.

I have a particular personal preference for unaccompanied music- both as a listener and as a performer. That, and my own lack of organ skills, have contributed to my "a capella agenda" in my parish work. But, having seen the results (and having heard more than a few visitors specifically compliment my very small parish's congregational singing), I have to say I think, even apart from my own bias, that this has been a very good thing for the congregation, and I encourage others to try it out if they haven't. There's plenty good room for unaccompanied music within the styles and practices of pretty much every flavor of liturgical worship, from Extraordinary Form to extremely ordinary forms.

JulieColl

That sums it up very well, Adam, and your suggestion to change it up from time to time in one's musical program is always excellent advice. We sing the propers and polyphony unaccompanied which I think makes for a good contrast with the accompanied ordinary, but any more than that would feel too much like Lent, at least to me, although it might be interesting to sing one or two verses of a congregational hymn unaccompanied. We've done that on occasion, with the choir singing SATB acapella and then going back to the organ.

With your background, I'd be very interested to hear what your musical suggestions might be for an EF Missa Cantata, say for the Feast of All Saints. Besides the propers, what hymns, motets and mass setting would you suggest?

Adam Wood

With your background, I'd be very interested to hear what your musical suggestions might be for an EF Missa Cantata, say for the Feast of All Saints. Besides the propers, what hymns, motets and mass setting would you suggest?

I have no experience working in the EF, so anything I would offer on that would be wholly hypothetical.

hartleymartin

Sometimes using organ accompaniment with chant is useful for highlighting the different seasons. During Lent I avoid using organ accompaniment as much as possible.

I also use it to highly the importance of certain pieces of music such as the Gloria. I often use a two-voice mass "Mass in Mi" by Bevenot, using the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, but instead of his two-voice Gloria, I will use Gloria XV (Latin or English) with organ accompaniment.

hartleymartin

For an EF Missa Cantata for All Saints, I would highly recommend Victoria's "O Quam Gloriosum" for the offertory after the Offertory chant.

http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/victoria/vict-oqg.pdf

Latin Text:
O quam gloriosum est regnum,
in quo cum Christo gaudent omnes Sancti!
Amicti stolis albis,
sequuntur Agnum, quocumque ierit.

English Translation:
O how glorious is the kingdom
in which all the saints rejoice with Christ,
clad in robes of white
they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feAT-Kxw5rc

hartleymartin

I should mention that I think this recording is a little too slow and I find their dynamics a bit dubious.

If I had my way, I would be singing this on All Saints!

Adam Wood

Assuming you were doing vernacular "bookend" hymns: For All the Saints (SINE NOMINE) and Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones (LAST ONE'S SCHADENFREUDE), at top and bottom, respectively. Both are amazing and wonderful hymns, and neither should be sung without organ. (Although, I think an unaccompanied inner verse of Ye Watchers, with lush choral harmony, is an amazing thing.)

I have no idea what I would use for a Mass Ordinary. It's my opinion that this is the most community-specific decision a MD makes.

JulieColl

(Although, I think an unaccompanied inner verse of Ye Watchers, with lush choral harmony, is an amazing thing.)

Sounds awesome and thanks for the classy suggestions, Adam and Harley! We don't have Mass on All Saints, but I'll use those hymns this Sunday with O Quam Gloriosum for Offertory which we've been working on for a while and Jesu Dulcis Memoria (Victoria) for Communion with a few chant verses of same. I think we'll also do Mass V, Magnae Deus potentiae.

By the way, we like to sing Last One's Schadenfreude (LOL!) mostly in unison but with the "Alleluias" and "O praise Him" in SATB. Very cool.

Adam Wood

By the way, we like to sing Last One's Schadenfreude (LOL!) mostly in unison but with the "Alleluias" and "O praise Him" in SATB. Very cool.

love it

David Sullivan

harleymartin makes a good point about seasons. My understanding is that organ playing by itself isn't allowed during Lent or for Requiems, but may be used to support the singing if necessary.

Also pertinent to Scott W's original question, we have this statement from Pope Pius X in Tra le sollecitudini: The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone.

Personally, my preference is for unaccompanied chant, but I can see the usefulness of accompaniment for congregational singing, especially when the congregation is unfamiliar with the chants. Yet, there's something stirring about full-bodied, unaccompanied congregational singing.

Arthur Connick

David, why do you prefer unaccompanied chant?

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