Of Vespers, choirs, and rubrics
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    The only mention of “choir” that I find in the GILH’s rubrics pertains to celebrating the office “in choir”.

    (http://www.ewtn.com/library/curia/cdwgilh.htm)

    Rubrically, then, are we to conclude that the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite includes no role for a choir separate from that of the congregation?
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 390
    As far as I know - yes.

    It makes sense historically: The Mass has always been there for the whole Christian folk and thus specialists were appointed to render the artistically demanding pieces of liturgical music.
    The Office has been for centuries a "specialists' liturgy", where everyone really taking part in it was expected to be capable of chanting the common parts.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Interesting.

    That seems a bit at odds with the idea of trying to encourage greater use of the Divine Office by laity—but then, anyone who’s learned the modern LotH has probably realized that they didn’t do a bang-up job of making it “user-friendly”!
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    'Choirs are to be assiduously cultivated'.

    I can't recall just where, but that is somewhere in the council documents.
    (It's there even though one of the prime objectives of folksy music groups and their misguided clergy friends was to get rid ot them... Another Vatican II precept that was trampled by the 'spirit of Vatican II' crowd.)

    It doesn't seem to me that there should be any confusion about what choirs do.
    -Anthems and motets at appropriate places, such as offertory and communion.
    -Leadership of the congregation in singing the ordinary and hymns.
    -Singing parts of the ordinary on certain occasions (though I am not a fan of this).
    -Descants
    -Propers, whether in chant, polyphonic, or choral form.
    -The verses of the responsorial psalm may be sung by cantor or the choir.
    -A principal mass on a given Sunday or Solemnity which is not gorgeously ornamented by some gem from the Church's dower of sacred choral music is a poor one indeed.

    No, none of this is spelled out specifically anywhere that I know of, but common sense and obedience to the 'assiduous cultivation of choirs' seems plain enough. There are ample things that choirs historically do. It all seems rather self-evident.
    Thanked by 2Richard Mix CHGiffen
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Jackson: This thread, though, is about the Divine Office. As written in the OP, the GILH seems to make no provision for the role of a choir.

    I also have a hard time lending credence to igneus’s idea in light of the breadth of choral repertoire that exists to accompany Vespers services.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    When we do Vespers at the Cathedral we typically have the choir alternate verses of the Psalms with the people, the congregation singing in unison with organ and the choir singing in parts without organ. This gives the congregation time to rest and keeps them from getting confused by left/right sides, since we only do Vespers a few times per year and it isn't always the same folks in the congregation. We do the same thing with the Magnificat.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    It seems to me, then, that a choir's role in vespers or matins would not be dissimilar to its role at mass. I naturally draw parallels with evensong, in which there are traditional roles for the choir. As someone stated above, the psalms can be sung in polyphonic alternation with plainchant. Ditto the office hymn. And the canticle can be sung wholly in polyphony or anthem form, or in polyphonic alternation with the people. One may not wish to have the choir sing elaborate versions of the people's part of the dialogue and the suffrages or intercessory prayers as in evensong, but the rest seems self evident to me. It seems the natural outcome of an 'assiduously cultivated' choral liturgical milieu.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Jackson: I tend to agree that one would expect something along that line to be the choir’s stated role at Vespers, Lauds, etc.; however, GILH does not seem to make provision for such.

    Technically, per GILH, there seems no place for even a motet in the daily Office.

    One might think this line of thinking overly focused on rubrics, but the “flip-side” of it is that it guards against problems like the textual deviations that some publishers have introduced in an attempt to “gender-neuter” the language of the Bible.

    But, it does give pause. For those of us who plan choral Vespers programs, strictly speaking, one might want to adopt the moniker “Evening Prayer”, perhaps even explaining the subtle difference.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Where rubrics are unclear or non-existant:

    We all know of unfortunate things that are done to mass or office by some rather unfortunate persons with unfortunate taste where rubrics are unclear - or even when they are crystal clear but ignored!

    For those of us whose aesthesis is not unfortuate, we are, it might seem to me, free to use our beautiful imaginations, informed by tradition and a sense of the sacred. Given that choirs are 'assiduously cultivated', we, then, devise a role for them which is consonant both with the best liturgical praxis of our time, informed by and in consonance with that which we have inherited. The only presupposition is that one neither addeth to nor taketh away from the office itself. So, as you say, there is no place for an anthem or motet, unlike in evensong where it is stated that 'here may be sung the anthem'. Still, though, there is ample latitude for choral rendering of what is there. Historically, there is no place for an anthem in any of the offices; though one is free to sing a votive antiphon, plain or polyphonic, at the end.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    For those of us whose aesthesis is not unfortuate, we are, it might seem to me, free to use our beautiful imaginations, informed by tradition and a sense of the sacred.


    The problem is that I don’t know anyone who considers his/her aesthesis to be “unfortunate”, and an awful lot of variance regarding what counts as “unfortunate”.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    The problem is that I don’t know anyone who considers his/her aesthesis to be “unfortunate”


    You've met me.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    You can also dialogue cantor and congregation with choir. Our room isn't particularly long, so this usually works pretty well.
Add a Comment