The suitability of Respond and Acclaim? Owen Alstott
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    From the "Pastoral Council" article I've branched off with this topic as some of the responses included general swipes at Owen Alstott by name, and a sense of general dissatisfaction or derision towards his psalter. I get it that it's not personal, but such broadsides are unfair if the reason behind the criticism isn't unveiled.
    One of the things I believe bk27 did mention, as have others in other threads, is that many pastors invoke (remarkably) a specificity regarding using the responsorial setting that appears in the missal amid the readings. There is a plus to that which is extremely wise and hospitable. Another issue that escapes serious attention is that the opposite of Prof. Mahrt's paradigm, especially as regards the Gradual and Tract, is now strongly ensconsed in the catholic consciousness regarding the structure of the psalm and "who" sings "what."
    Personally, I don't think these two different paradigms need to be at odds with each other. Everything is situational. But getting back to Alstott, his settings reflect an accessibility of purpose that go hand in glove with American/British expediency, but yet do not evoke any obvious association with other popular forms of secular music, unless one happens to think that the pentatonic ethos is "folk-based." So, with that, the following Alstott settings I find to be completely serviceable as they are. Others left off the list don't meet my criteria, and that criteria is simply based upon an obvious structural functionality and some measure of melodic craft that works for the PIPs.

    Here's the list of "good" Alstott settings according to melo:
    DAY PSALM RESPONSE

    2AdvA 72 Justice shall flourish
    3AdvA 146 Lord, come and save us
    4AdvA 2 Let the Lord enter
    NatVigil 89 Forever I will sing
    NatMidN 96 Today is born our Savior
    NatDay 98 All the ends of the earth..
    3OrdA 27 The Lord is my light
    7OrdA 103 The Lord is kind and merciful
    AshWed 51 Be merciful, O Lord…
    2LentA 33 Lord, let Your mercy…
    3LentA 95 If today you hear His voice
    4LentA 23 The Lord is my shepherd
    5LentA 130 With the Lord there is mercy
    Palm/Pass. 22 My God, My God, why have You..
    East.Vigl. 104 Lord, send out Your spirit
    East.Sun. 118 This is the day the Lord…
    5EastA 33
    6EastA 66 Let all the earth cry out…
    14OrdA 145 I will praise Your Name…
    18OrdA 145 The hand of the Lord feeds…
    Assump. 45 The queen stands
    20OrdA 67 O God, let all the nations
    21OrdA 138 Lord, Your love is eternal
    22OrdA 63 My soul is thirsting..
    23OrdA 95
    28OrdA 23 I shall live in the house…
    All Saints 24 Lord, this is the people

  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    I know the above well enough to sing from memory the soprano, alto, and descant lines from memory. (Sometimes the tenor.)

    Alstott's music is, precisely, serviceable. It is not beautiful. I can think of one or two exceptions. (I seem to remember liking the Alleluia verse for Epiphany.) Mostly I've used R and A because it is so incredibly easy, the Rossini of a parish music program. Hand it out to a dozen cantors at the beginning of the year and badda bing badda boom.

    Compare any one of the above with a real composition, for example, at :22, 4:36, and 8:34 of the below. Very brief antiphons can be really composed, so that they are not merely utility music but actually beautiful
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdEQVufzyPo
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 310
    It's also worth keeping in mind that R&A (well, at least the R part) is trying to achieve something that was not necessarily supposed to be attempted--setting every response in the lectionary cycle for a Sunday or solemnity to music. That was not the goal of those who either composed the texts or the translators any more than those who composed or translated entrance and communion antiphons. Think of the response for year c 3rd Sunday of Advent: "Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel." I mean, there's only so much Alstott or anyone can do. Many of Alstott settings for seasonal use (1) serve the text well and (2) are straightforward to sing. I actually also find his Pentecost response fairly good. When it comes to the responsorial psalm, the ability of the congregation to sing the response has to trump beauty, as does how well the music serves the text. Also, fwiw, I like his Pentecost setting. My complaint is the OCP does not publish all of the seasonal psalms in every issue of R&A and music issue. For instance, "To You or Lord, I lift my soul," which is also the psalm designated for year c 1st Sunday of Advent, cannot be found at all in the R&A for years a and b, nor can it be found in the music issues for those years.
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    I like Guilmants Lectionary Psalms, although the obvious disadvantage is that they're not in our books (we use TM).
    Thanked by 1RedPop4
  • Jani
    Posts: 441
    Good list. If nothing else, they become so familiar that there is good singing from the pews. Or in my case, chairs. Meh.

    One of my first posts ever here was about how I had some of those so thoroughly memorized that I often sang them right out of the lectionary without the music. Then the one time I actually used the music I was completely lost.

    As soon as my little chant group becomes better at all of this, we will move on to something else in the responsorial psalm department.
    Thanked by 1RedPop4
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    The good thing about R & A is that it is (just barely) passable, and that there is much worse to be had. The bad thing about R & A is that, with few exceptions, it is rather uninspired. Worst of all are the skip-to-my-loo, hippety-hop Alleluyas, which I unfailingly replace with something possessed of greater gravitas and ecclesiastical propriety.
    Thanked by 4Ben hilluminar kenstb CHGiffen
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Like the "Mary had a little lamb" Lenten gospel acclamation?
    Thanked by 2hilluminar RedPop4
  • JPike1028
    Posts: 95
    ClergetKubisz: My parish began using the Guimont settings when we switched over to the Gather III hymnal. I find them to be much nicer than the R&A stuff.

    My wife/DM is also looking to start using the Parish Book of Psalms settings in the near future as well.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I also prefer Guimont to R&A. It's no chant, but at least there's more musical interest there.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • kenstb
    Posts: 369
    I am thrilled to read all of your comments. In my parish, I am apprenticing two English speaking cantors and we have been using the R & A for the masses at which they serve. I have found the melodies rather uninspired, but they are for the most part pretty easy for the congregation to follow. As for the acclamations, I usually have to compose something more acceptable to my ear.

    I'm not certain that Owen Alstott was composing with people like me in mind when he set these psalms to music. Often, when I write music, I am attempting to create something that my particular Schola or similar ones could master. Some of Alstott's work is quite well known to my congregation, so they actually participate with some enthusiasm. In that regard, it is at least accessible to ordinary folks.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Might I remind everyone the focus on Alstott concerns his psalm settings, not the GA's.
    No one here, including moi, is advancing any of those as "art" in any sense, within a schema that may have a schola chanting a proper processional, or singing licitly "on behalf" of the congregation a Gloria, the balance of offering a decent R/A or other setting is proportionately not a worst-case scenario.
    And, if I may, the decision about what to program when should not be exclusively be based upon what "I...prefer."
    For example, a huge successful setting for WLP MR3 Masses is Bolduc's ST. ANN. Everyone and their agnostic uncle loves to sing it. However, does that mean at the little tiny funeral I sang at this morning I should sing the Holy from it? Heaven's no. Not even MoC would seem appropriate. Solution: ICEL (Jubilate Deo) Holy, accompanied.
    Everything is situational. What we should try to realize is that the overall ecology strives towards excellence both in programming and in rendition (by the PIPs as well!)
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 904
    For those not already familiar: Columba Kelly's Lectionary Psalms are quite nice. They are available in two volumes (Sundays/Solemnities of Advent-Christmas, and Lent-Easter). Despite the general protestations to chant in my last parish, the congregation, for the most part, picked them up easily and sang them well.

    Sorry to diverge from R&A topic at hand, but the use of Meinrad psalm tones in the above video made me think of it.
    Thanked by 2Ally RedPop4
  • bkenney27bkenney27
    Posts: 444
    I am stuck in the R&A rut for the exact reason you said I mentioned before: We have the lovely Breaking Bread hymnal in which these refrains appear.

    Aside from that though, for some reason, the congregation has no problem picking up a brand-new Responsorial Psalm refrain from R&A week after week, but as soon as I throw in something from the Vatican II Hymnal, they clam up and don't sing.... even if they have it in front of them.

    Finally, our Children's Choir can do R&A almost on autopilot so that helps keep the psalmody consistent across all the Masses.

    I dream of a day when we can use better psalm repertoire, but I'm still working on better hymnody! :)
    Thanked by 2kenstb RedPop4
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