Well our small choir (large schola?) recesses for the summer :-)

And we really do have cold winters, last year's was the coldest on record in the past 115 years ("Global warming" Hah! Though I guess it's "Climate Change" now...)

I for one, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours daily, am glad for a return to the frequent celebration of the feast of St. Feria :-)

We sing in a different parish every month, so most I assume are soldiering on with the same insipid (French) music as before (it really is no better than what's done in the English-speaking world). At the abbey where I regularly attend Sunday Mass, it's (Gregorian) business as usual.

We're going to be working hard, without the pressure of big feasts. If we don't have a piece ready for one week, we'll use it another. And I plan to make more time to work on fundamentals, esp. reading.

Mid-June through August we rehearse every other week. We use our rehearsals to work on new music and mostly sing familiar pieces for mass. Summer is also a good time to incorporate solos, especially at the times when many are on vacations. Bi-weekly rehearsals free up some time for learning new organ pieces, too.

At offertory when I need to keep diva sopranos happy so they will continue singing in the choir.

Charles,

You didn't answer my question.
As a matter of truth, is a solo by a Diva (soprano or otherwise) in keeping with the nature of the liturgy? Cantors and precentors have specific roles, but these aren't diva soloists.

Keeping diva soloists can't be among the duties of a musician dedicated to the worship of God in the public ceremonies of the Church.

Bruce,

Not boiling. Maybe I misunderstand what you said?

I asked Charles a simple question. The question he answered (which is a valid question) isn't the one I asked.

Cheers,

Chris

When choirs are in recess there are times when a solo would be quite fitting where an anthem would be sung ordinarily at the offertory or during communions. There is much literature for such use that is quite fitting. Bach chorales and arias, Schutz Geistliches konzerten, Couperin solos and duets, Mozart, Distler, and much more if one does his research well. Of course, the literature used for these purposes at liturgy should pass the same strict requirements for text and musical aptness that one uses for hymns, propers, and anthems. Passing such tests, there is nothing wrong with solos. (Perhaps one's negative face towards solos is prompted by the very fact that they are... 'solos'. When understood as anthems sung by one person the light changes for the better.)

Charles,

Surely in Masses according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI a solo is even less appropriate than in it is in the venerable form. I once had this point made to me at a First Communion planning meeting: the children should sing everything, I was told, and nothing the children couldn't sing should be sung. The Ave Maria, by Schubert, I was told, could only be used if the children sang it.

Gratefully, it wasn't the pastor who told me this. I haven't used the piece since, but only because I became convinced that Pope Saint Pius X disapproved of its use, and that of other pieces designed more for the operatic stage than for the House of God.

most cantors ARE divas

A thing can be common practice and still be bad.


Charles (Melo),

No, I'm not near the fire in SoCal, because I'm in the southern part of the Republic of Jefferson. [For non-California readers, there's at least one idea that the northern part of California should "secede" from the rest of the state, and this new Republic would be called Jefferson].

My son, on the other hand, is in Santa Barbara. That's closer, isn't it?

Yes, I take completely the point that individual cantors can (and sometimes should) sing individual parts of the propers. I can conceive of a single cantor singing all of the propers if there were true necessity, but these people aren't making themselves the center of attention, but being servants of the liturgy.

I won't take Papal liturgies as the model of anything at this point, though John Paul II said that we should be able to, even as he disregarded the rubrics he issued.

Jackson,

The problem I have with solos is that they are often more suited to the Operatic Stage than they are to the Liturgy. Most people enjoy listening to Mozart's Requiem but wouldn't think it proper for most requia.

God bless,

Chris

Most people enjoy listening to Mozart's Requiem but wouldn't think it proper for most requia.

I wish you could convince the resident EF mass musicians of that. They pull out Mozart often, even though I have noted the works of others are more appropriate.

Surely in Masses according to the Missal of Pope Paul VI a solo is even less appropriate than in it is in the venerable form.

That is your opinion and I don't share it. A well written piece of music with text related to the readings of the day is perfectly acceptable as a solo piece at offertory.

During the summer Sundays of the Year, we gather at 9:00 AM to rehearse for the 10:00 AM Missa Cantata (OF). The schedule is pretty much the same. Propers from Graduale Romanum, usually Palestrina or di Lasso motet after the Offertorium, motet after the Communio. Ordinary: chant. Closing: "Salve Regina" Tone 5 simplex.

Mozart's supreme medium was opera (even J.S. Bach - who did write secular music - would probably be stunned at Mozart's musical and dramatic talent in his greatest operas, so when I encounter people who blithely dismiss Mozart, well, it says more about the dismisser than Mozart), and then ensemble music. It certainly inflects his sacred music. But the joys of Mozart are best appreciated being part of a vocal or instrumental ensemble - btw, the way that Bach is often best appreciated being part of a choir.

Haydn is woefully underappreciated.

No, he's not and was a very skilled composer. I think the main point with Mozart is that he was primarily a secular composer who occasionally produced something for church. I have mentioned to our EF musicians that Haydn, if they want to do works from that time period, wrote much better choral church music.

You beat me, Salieri, Michael is my preference.
Having just sung JSB "Singet..." and Schubert Mass in G, I'll take Amadeus' ability to write for the VOICE anyday over those two and Beethoven.

Possible mass settings (other than Mozart)

Hassler Missa Secunda
Byrd Mass for three [four or five] voices
Palestrina Missa Papa Marcelli
Charpentier (name escapes me)

Mozart was reared in Church music: he worked for the Archbishop of Salzburg with Michael Haydn (both musicians' liturgical style is remarkably similar), his father wrote Masses for the Achiepiscopal court. And when Salieri took over as Hofkappelmeister after the death of Giuseppe Bonno be brought several Mozart Masses with him to add to the choir's repertoire. In fact, the Mass of Salieri (who as an excellent liturgical composer) are also similar in construction to the Missae Brevis et Solemnis of Mozart and M. Haydn.

I think one needs to keep in mind that the average Mozart Mass is only Seven movements: I: Kyrie, II: Gloria; III: Credo; IV: Sanctus; V: Benedictus; VI: Agnus Dei; VII: Dona nobis (follows VI without a break), not the multi movement Missa Solemnis such as the Dominicus Mass, Orphanage Mass, "Great" Mass, and Requiem. And solos are generally very short.

Mozart Missa Brevis in D Minor (K. 65)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBnzXm3LXT4