I don't know where I'd be without my Anglican Hymnal (1982) from which I take hymn selections almost every week at our EF Missa Cantata. Our pastor gave it to me shortly after I began playing at the mass. He also gave me a video of a sung mass at an Anglican Ordinariate in Texas, and that is the paradigm I've followed ever since at our Latin Mass: vernacular hymns at opening and closing, chanted propers and ordinary and polyphony. Our pastor has worked extensively with the Anglicans and the Anglican Ordinariate over the years and there is indeed much to be learned from them.

Can we have the humility to see that the Anglican Ordinariate is one of the best things that has happened to the Catholic Church?

Actually, Hartley, back in the late 1800's, a good number of what we consider to be Methodist and Anglican hymns today appeared in Catholic hymnals, written in most cases by Catholic priests. I was really surprised by this.

We really do welcome the Ordinariate and their priests, but are put off by the snobbishness of some of the musicians that came with them or took positions. However, that's pretty common in the Episcopal world. There are two very restrictive anglican musical interest groups - one requires that you be a cathedral musician - which adds to the snob appeal.

That's not to say all Episcopal musicians are snobbish, mind you.

Catholics can be snobby, too.
In fact I've noticed that the more conservative a Catholic is the greater his or her snobery towards Anglicans is likely to be, particularly towards Anglo-Catholics.
And, they really have nothing at all to be snobby about!

Well, of course it is (or thinks it is!)... specialness is what snobbery is all about.

Is this some bad parody of a Monty Python sketch?

What's the current humidity and temperature? Accompanied or unaccompanied?

Put together Anglican hymnody and Catholic authentic Gregorian propers, and then include polyphonic music from all over Europe, and that's a more complete picture of what sung liturgy could be in the English speaking world if a tyrant king hadn't gone off the deep end and started a state church.

Paul, I share your love of Tallis' works. My understanding is that Byrd's music written for the persecuted Church was only illicit in the eyes of the (unjust) English laws of the time.

I do not envy Byrd's position. While I like to think I would have been brave, and resisted like the resolute Thomas More, or even cared for priests like the cunning Margaret Clitherow, forgive me, I don't know how I would have managed in such harsh and confusing times. IIRC, Byrd is thought to have died a faithful Catholic.

I hope you are right. I am drowning in a sea of OCP and the closest Anglican-Use parish is 150 miles away in San Antonio.

Benedictgal,

I invite you to come to San Antonio and visit our parish someday.

Gavin,

I am at Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, 15415 Red Robin Road, off of Babcock and North Loop 1604 W (for those not familiar with San Antonio, IH 10, running down North-South, divides the North Loop into East and West).

We are the first Anglican Use parish in the United States, indeed the world, and our parish just celebrated its 30th anniversary on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother; likewise our pastor celebrated his 30th anniversary on the same date (we had our major celebrations on our 25th anniversary year, replete with a banquet with the then archbishop and Choral Evensong and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament). This date was purposely selected by him for his ordination, the establishment of the parish, and the reception of several former Anglicans into the Catholic church. We use the hymnal 1982, among other traditional hymnals; well okay, the organists use the hymnal, the rest of us sing from the bulletin, but you know what I mean. :) Nevertheless, it is still usually easy to sing the bass part by listening to the organ.

The parish uses the Anglican Use (according to the Book of Divine Worship: one early morning Low Mass on Sunday, two sung Masses on Sunday, Monday through Thursday low Masses and sung school Masses, and all Holy Days of Obligation) and also the Latin of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Missal (one Sunday evening Mass and Friday school Masses).

I do plan on visiting the local Traditional Latin Mass community in the spring (which is not located at our parish; it is currently meeting at St. Piux X, an archdiocesan parish, not SSPX).

Your friend (and anyone who can sing) is welcome to join the parish choir. We always need good singers. I sing for the major feasts and at special events such as Nine Lessons and Carols, Choral Evensong in commemoration of All Souls, etc. While we are in the middle of rehearsals for Nine Lessons and Carols, if your friend is interested in joining the choir next year, rehearsals are at 7 pm on Thursdays except as noted by the DoM. Our parish has just renovated the choir room so that there are wooden risers. The main literature for the adult choir is taken from the New Church Anthem Book (we have copies, so no need to buy anything), supplemented by materials from the Choral Public Domain Library (such as Palestrina's Sicut Cervus, for example), and other materials. Choral ordinaries of the Mass are by a variety of high quality Catholic (Viadanna, etc.) and Anglican composers (Nicholson, Darke, etc.). The DoM supplies all music. I am just writing this so to give you an example of the literature which is sung at this parish. Low voices sing minor propers before the people sing high quality hymns, though on special feasts, the DoM selects a chamber group from the adult choir to sing choral offertoire. Mass is sung through, with very few spoken texts (including the Roman Canon).

Now, the parish does have a choir in residence which sings for Choral Evensong about once per liturgical season. The conductor thereof, Dr. Finster, sets his own joining policies.

One more thing: incense is used at sung Masses and Choral Evensong. Most of the time it doesn't disturb anyone. However, on the Feast of the Assumption this year, our pastor, deacon, and altar server (each with incensing duties) introduced our larger thurible, and one could actually see the incense rafting from the high altar towards the nave.

If you wanted a paid opportunity, though, you just missed it. Our latest assistant organist and academy choral music teacher was hired last January.

For which Mass, Clemens? I am sorry to admit that I do not know the names of all our singers, or even a third.

Remember that Tallis, while he composed works for the Anglican state church, remained a Catholic in the same way Byrd did.

One of the most mind-changing realizations for me, in terms of my long slow drift away from proggie-folkie 90's liturgy to my current thinking and preferences was noticing how illiberal it is that mainstream liturgy all looked and sounded so much the SAME. The same all year round, the same from place to place. Enculturation? Hardly.

For reasons that escape even me, I like to think of myself as "liberal." I mean that not in a political way but in a more fundamental way - of having a liberality of spirit. Somewhere between Summorum and Anglicanorum I realized that the Benedict's liturgical agenda was liberal in a way that all the fakey mainstream crap never could be. I mean, particularly, that he (and "the movement") was allowing for, even asking for, a wide variety of legitimate liturgical expression. He was saying that, indeed, there is more than one way to celebrate the Mass, and that drawing from the rich history of our many traditions (and even sanctifying the human mistakes of the last century) provides us a way forward out of our habits, routines, and complacency.

There is a lot of talk (around here especially) about the ideal way to celebrate the Roman Rite. I think that's fine and good to consider, and there certainly should be plenty of EF Solemn High Masses with fully chanted propers going on in the world. But even inasmuch as an ideal exists for one particular theoretical celebration (if you can only have one kind of Mass - here's the way to do it), I think that the ideal from the standpoint of the whole Universal Church is a plurality not just of Rites (East/West) but also Forms, Uses, styles and legitimate local adaptations. And you don't get that from a mariachi workshop at NPM. You get that from within the storehouse of treasures built up by faithful Christians in all times and places over the last two millenia.

SEMPER ET UBIQUE

Speaking of the biretta, I enjoy seeing our clergy where them. It is quite classy seing them recess and them tip their cap at the name of the Blessed Mother mentioned in a hymn. There is a sense of reverence there that I hope is not lost on visitors to our parish. It is not merely the biretta, though I think they are stylish. It is about the reverence shown.

Ummm......well....... :)

Yes, the Anglicans do sing and play with authority, but I find that very appealing. Their hymns seem to embody the old Roman virtues: auctoritas, gravitas, pietas, benignitas, veritas, simplicitas, dignitas, etc.

If it felt like the authority of the Church, Julie, that would be one thing. It feels like the authority of the State, or of the composer. It imposes, and I don't want to be imposed upon. YMMV. But the best of that repertoire is very convincing indeed.

I don't often think of the Anglican Church as being the state religion of Great Britain,

Supreme Governor