EF Propers for St Therese of Lisieux
  • RCruz
    Posts: 13
    Anyone know of the origin for the EF propers appointed for St. Therese of Lisieux (October 3 in that calendar)? They're surprisingly tricky chants that seem to have disappeared from the 1974 Graduale. Were they "modern" compositions that were suppressed?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    RCruz,

    The 1974 Graduale is intended to serve the needs of the OF. Tricky propers don't serve that self-understood need. I'll look at the Graduale this evening, if you like, but the rules seems to have been simplify, simplify, simplify
  • Arthur Connick
    Posts: 496
    The definitive book for the Gregorian chants of the OF is Ordo Cantus Missæ (1972, 1987). The proper chants indicated in the OCM for S. Teresiæ are indeed those found in the Solesmes book (¶282 in OCM), but also the EF ones (¶453 in OCM).
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,212
    I'm not able to find any of those EF propers in the CANTUS database of chant materials, so perhaps they are neo-gregorian modern compositions. (Since she's a 20th-century saint, it's not surprising.)

    A footnote in the preface to the Graduale says that some neo-gregorian compositions were omitted from the 1974 Graduale, and indeed all those EF propers are omitted completely from the book.
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  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,507
    I wonder of it's possible to find an old Carmelite liturgical book.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,779
    I have just looked at the Proprium Carmelitarum (1950) the scan I have appears to be a supplement to the Liber. Text and music appear to be identical with the Graduale Romanum 1961.

    N.B. Cantus appears to mainly index Antiphonals... Not Graduale, now I do not know if there is an online index of Graduale,
    "The CANTUS project, now at the University of Western Ontario, features a database of indices of the Gregorian chant texts in selected manuscript and early printed sources of the daily Divine Office."
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 242
    I've been told by several Benedictines that these are certainly modern compositions, written at the time of the canonization, and that they are poorly done (in the opinion of those who chant every day). Of course, this was slightly sad news for me, as (1) I used those very chant texts to illustrate my argument at Sacra Liturgia this past summer, and (2) I love St. Therese.
    Thanked by 1RCruz
  • stulte
    Posts: 355
    I too rather liked that Gradual for her feast. It seemed simple too until right before the verse where a rather tricky passage threw me off when I gave it a read-through for the first time. Maybe this and other things in the melodies are the reasons for the criticism?

    As far as Propers for Discalced Carmelite Saints are concerned, I'm pretty sure they would match the LU if the Saint's feast is on the Roman Calendar since the OCD have used the Roman Missal for centuries if I'm not mistaken.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,291
    Yes, the Nebraska Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the two daugter houses are the first reformed Carmelites, i.e. Discalced Carmelites, to use the Carmelite Rite (a change that in the first place was not endorsed by Teresa or John, apparently).

    Dr. Kwasniewski, I sympathize. The choices of texts are exquisite. But you knew that already! :)
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