At risk of being pelted with rotten vegetables, can anyone identify this setting? I have heard it in Papal liturgy as well so it must be published in some sort.
It's being sung at the cathedral in Cincinnati this coming Sunday. The composer's name is not given in the ascription. Perhaps the DOM there would have more information.
The worships aid from the Cincinnati Cathedral says "Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris" under that Alleluia. My only guess is that perhaps the DOM heard it there, and transcribed it. It looks to me like it could have been a chant (remove the barlines from the Cincinnati book and that's what you get), perhaps adapted from an Neo-Gallican antiphonal -- I don't recall that exact tune in the Roman or Monastic antiphonals, though it does bear a passing resemblance to an alleluia attached to a Magnificat setting in the Cantus Selecti.
I shall rewrite what I blotted out above. Having seen the music printed in the Cincinnati mass leaflet only confirms my opinion, namely, that if it weren't in France and in the very cathedral of N.D. de Paris, one could be forgiven for thinking it one of the cute little examples from Owen Alstott's Respond and Acclaim. Predictably dance-like and happy-clappy it lacks any liturgical or ecclesiastical gravitas. Whether in square notes or round ones, it's resemblance to chant is not unlike that of a weiner to chateaubriand. (Plus, the singing of three Alleluyas, while having become commonplace these days, is something that rightfully should be confined to the Easter Vigil. The historical number for the rest of the year is one.)
The point of the inquiry is I am attempting to build up a repertoire of triple alleluias which may be used in place of the "Gospel Acclamation" which is closer to the ideal than OCP or everyone's favorite "Celtic Alleluia". I am, of course, aware of the tradition of the triple Alleluia being reserved for the Easter Vigil (seeing how I attend one, if not the only, seminary in the country that regularly sings the propers for the Novus Ordo). It's for this reason that I would like to refrain from using the mode 6 triple Alleluia for a Gospel Acclamation. While it is, properly speaking, a chant (and thus are more suited to the liturgy), usage of this Alleluia removes the chant from its proper context of the Communion.
For daily Mass at the seminary we simply use the gradual simplex alleluias as laid out in Bartlett's Lumen Christi series. However, when big feast days come 'round, I am usually told by the rector that the music should be "big". ("Big" meaning harmonies, brass--place the National Shrine as your model and run with it). So, I think there is some merit in trying to find acclamations which can be used for this purpose which avoid the sing-song feeling of OCP and the like.
So far I have collected: - Theodore Marier's mode 5 Alleluia from his famed Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Canticles, - Dom Gregory Murray's mode 8 Alleluia, - Robert Twynham's mode 8 Alleluia, - and this Alleluia of unknown origin.
Quite a few of the Gregorian alleluyas can, with a few weeks of patience, be mastered by most any congregation. The mode viii one for, among other times, Advent Sunday, and the mode ii one for Christmas day, are two that come easily to mind. There are others. Too, one might draft into service some of the examples from Modus Cantandi Alleluia found at p. 825 of Graduale Triplex.
It is both surprising and saddening that many chant and liturgical scholars, even notable and influential ones, trumpet the utterly false opinion that chant alleluyas and ordinaries are beyond the capabilities of 'the people'. There is quite a lot of the Gregorian repertory which is, in fact, well within the capabilities of 'the people' - not all of it, but much more of it than some would think.
And, here is a very simple-but-lovely mode vii alleluya which is well known in Anglican circles and may be found in The Anglican Use Gradual:
To follow up on Mr. Osborn's comment about using certain of the true Alleluias from the Graduale: In the early 70's I worked and studied with Msgr. Martin B. Hellriegel, who was one of the leaders of the movement for liturgical revival in the US. Msgr. Hellriegel had gathered and printed on heavy card-stock ten or twelve of the most accessible of the Gregorian Alleluias. After awhile, the people would recognize the Alleluia by the organ incipit, followed by choir/cantor singing the Alleluia, and they would join at the jubilus. The cantor/choir would continue with the verse (sung on the appropriate psalm tone), the congregation then joining on the repetition of the Alleluia. I still remember the excitement of hearing over a thousand people singing the great chant melodies with fervor at the Church of the Holy Cross in Saint Louis. It was interesting that his people sang English hymns and German chorales in the 1930's and 40's and yet, in 1975 they could as a congregation fill that church with the sound of five complete chant masses and parts of others. Msgr. Hellriegel once said that "the average person in the pew is not a theologian. His experience comes from the sights, the sounds, the smells, even the touches of the sacred liturgy." He would continue, "If you invite a dear friend to dinner, do you not clean the house, cut fresh flowers, set your finest table and prepare a worthy feast? Why, if we would do this for a friend, would we ever do less for our Lord?" He was an early proponent of the "Extraordinary" form 'informing' the Ordinary Form.
The "Notre Dame de Paris" Alleluia referenced above was sung at the Dominican ordination of priests in Washington yesterday. Has anyone learned of the original source since the original post last year?
Incidentally, the transcription in the leaflet from Cincinnati linked above is inaccurate, as is Salieri's engraving in chant notation. The first "Alleluia" should not be "So-Do'-TI-Do-La-So," but rather "So-Do'-LA-TI-La-So.) (I doubt that this change MJO's assessment of it, but it might make a difference for some! :-)
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