I wish the organists are unified on this. If absense of prelude and postude doesn't do any good, church musicians should try to voice themselves. But until then, aren't we supposed to follow it? Our Church's teaching is not 'realistc' enough?' If we follow only the rules that we understand, we are no better than those who sing "City of God' with guitar and all. We talk about sacredness of the Liturgy which is directly connected with the Church's teaching. Are we singing chants because of our personal preference or it's because the Church placed it in the first place? I get frustrated in trying to do what the Church asks us to do when other fellow musicians whom I want to trust and get support from, have doubts on certain matters.

The quiet we excersize now will make the music of Christmas a more appreciated feast for the ears.

Mills is very clear: in the EF, no organ except to accompany singers if they have to have it. That said, I personally known no OF parish that obeys this.

I have obeyed it in every OF parish I've served.

It seems to me that the one thing that has been lost in the west, is that Advent is a penitential season. I have had some disagree to the point of asking for Christmas carols during Advent. But in the east, it is a season of fasting. I don't play preludes or postludes during Advent, but I do use organ music during communion and offertory times. Last year I played a different version of "Savior of the Nations Come" each week. However, the trumpets have been retired from hymn playing until midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I sometimes think church directives or suggestions assume that Catholic musicians are reasonable people of decent taste, who will approach Advent music with understatement. Obviously, they don't understand the United States that well, do they?

Thanks Mary Jane. You do have lots of great ideas.
Mia

I am not looking to start a battle, but I do disagree with some of the things being said here. Advent is NOT Lent. The documents make that clear. Although it has some penitential connotations, it is not the same and should not look and sound the same as Lent. In Lent we see a request to not use instrumental music. I do not see anything of the nature for Advent; only a request that we use moderation. Certainly, not using the trumpets or the louder literature fit this directive. A ban on organ preludes, offertories, and postludes does not seem to be justified in this light.

Advent, Lent, All Souls, and Requiem Masses.

It is essentially from Fortescu. By the way, the Ecclesia Dei Commission recently cited this book as authoritative, but not even the Vatican is enough for some people.

I'm choosing to observe the "suppression" with the choral singing of the introits from Bruce Ford's AMERICAN GRADUAL just prior to the congregational Entrance hymn.

No Gloria for Advent, Lent, All Souls, and Requiem Masses.
It seems that is at least clear for eveyone. I guess taking out some parts of the Mass is easier than keeping silence in the Mass (and before and after Mass).
Last year when I said to my new pastor that I won't be playing organ intrumental music during Lent, he looked at me with a shock. He is a very caring priest. He told me that the people really don't know how to pray and the silence doesn't seem to be helping them. Does it?

Wonderful suggestion, priorstf! I am going to do just that for our next bulletin.

I would pull out all the stops, so to speak, for the feast days.

The GIRM seems to suggest that matters have changed in the OF

In Advent the organ and other musical instruments should be used with a moderation that is
consistent with the season’s character and does not anticipate the full joy of the Nativity of the
Lord.
In Lent the playing of the organ and musical instruments is allowed only to support the singing.
Exceptions are Laetare Sunday (Fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and Feasts.

There you have it. I should add that during Lent, in addition to not doing instrumental music, I accompany congregational song as lightly as possible - 8', 4', and nothing else. Maybe a 2' on the last verse of a great hymn. That sets off the austerity of Lent well, and pleases the old ladies who always complain about my volume!

Musicam Sacram hasn't been abrogated and still remains in force. The GIRM doesn't necessarily contradict what Musicam Sacram says because the GIRM doesn not explicitly call for or make allowances for instrumental music. What is so hard to understand about Advent being a penitential season? As someone on this thread indicated, that fact seems to be ignored. Look, if we don't sing the Gloria isn't that an indication that we've shifted gears?

The organ should remain silent except for the sustaining of the singing (choral and congregational).

"What is so hard to understand about Advent being a penitential season? "

"Advent isn't truly any longer a penitential season. "

I would love an authoritative citation either way.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Before V2, everyone was very clear about Advent. Can't understand what happened.

Well, here is the age old hymn of Advent. This is clearly a hymn of repentance.

Rorate Caeli

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be not angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity : behold the city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert. Jerusalem is desolate, the house of our holiness and of thy glory, where our fathers praised thee.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

We have sinned, and we are become as one unclean, and we have all fallen as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us by the hand of our iniquity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

See, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send him whom thou hast promised to send. Send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion, that he himself may take off the yoke of our captivity.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Be comforted, be comforted, my people; thy salvation shall speedily come why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? I will save thee; fear not: for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.

Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the Just One. Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Ne irascaris Domine, ne ultra memineris iniquitatis: ecce civitas Sancti facta est deserta, Sion deserta facta est: Ierusalem desolata est: domus sanctificationis tuac et gloriae tuae, ubi laudaverunt te patres nostri.

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Peccavimus, et facti sumus tamquam immundus nos, et cecidimus quasi folium universi; et iniquitates nostrae quasi ventus abstulerunt nos: abscondisti faciem tuam a nobis, et allisisti nos in manu iniquitatis nostrae.

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Vide, Domini, afflictionem populi tui, et mitte quem missurus es, emitte Agnum dominatorem terrae, de Petra deserti montem filiae Sion: ut auferat ipse iugum captivatis nostrae.

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Consolamini, consolamini, popule meus: cito veniet salus tua:. quare moerore consumeris, quia innovavit te dolor? Salvabo te, noli timere: ego enim sum Dominus Deus, tuus, Sanctus Israel, Redemptor tuus.

Rorate caeli desuper, et nubes pluant iustum.

Thanks Francis. Love that hymn! We will sing it every Sunday during Advent.

I've actually heard an opinion voiced that the rubrics (or whatever) we're talking about pertains to the music at the Mass, and not particularly to prelude and postlude music. That would make sense in that all of the documents we're looking at are about what is done or not AT Mass - that's the only thing they cover. Even the Recessional hymn is not even acknowledged as a part of the Mass.

Point!

LOL, G!

"I recall several years ago being a subscriber to a 'list serve' for NPM, and at the beginning of Lent reading the question of whether or not the flute could be played during Masses in Lent."

I knew of a parish where, because someone read that the organ was to be used only in moderation during the penitential seasons, they just switched to piano, flute and drums.
No joke.

(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)

Steve, this makes sense. so we come to a consensus that reconciles law, reason, and a sense of the faith! how Catholic!

Some priests adopted blue in an effort to remove any remaining elements from Advent observance that seemed penitential, and they said so. Apparently they figured that the liturgical experts of the day knew better than the Church, and should be followed. This offended people who saw much of 1970s-1980s US Catholicism as an effort to overlook the problem of sin and stick a smiley face on everything.

Besides, artistically made purple vestments weren't replaced with artistically made blue vestments, but with polyester ponchos. I know one parish where an elderly priest wryly lamented after a church fire that, alas, they hadn't been able to save the Advent blue vestments, so he was compelled to wear the old purple ones. :-)

Trying to 'purify' Advent totally of its penitential elements seemed odd to my mind, since the Sunday readings before and during Advent place so much emphasis on the end of the world and the Last Judgment.

His dictis, I like Steve's idea.