“Sing the Mass, not during the Mass”
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Does anyone remember the origin of this phrase? I’ve found it before but can’t remember …
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 998
    This is in Notitiae 5, 1969, 406:

    La formula è superata.
    È la Messa, ordinario e Proprio, che si deve cantare, e non «qualcosa», anche se plane congruit, che si sovrappone alla Messa. Perché l'azione è unica, ha un solo volto, un solo accento, una sola voce: la voce della Chiesa. Continuare a cantare motettti, sia pure devoti e pii (come il Lauda Sion all'offertorio nella festa di un santo), ma estranci alla Mesa, in luogo dei testi della Messa che si celebra, significa continuare un'ambiguità inammissibile: dare crusca invece di buon frumento, vinelo annacquato invece di vino generoso.
    Preché non solo la melodia ci interessa nel canto liturgico, ma le parole, il testo, il pensioero, i sentimenti rivestiti di poesia e di melodia. Ora, questi testi devono essere quelli della Messa, non altri. Cantare la Messa, dunque, e non sola cantare durante la Messa.


    In English:

    That rule [permitting vernacular hymns] has been superseded. What must be sung is the Mass, its Ordinary and Proper, not “something”, no matter how consistent, that is imposed on the Mass. Because the liturgical service is one, it has only one countenance, one motif, one voice, the voice of the Church. To continue to replace the texts of the Mass being celebrated with motets that are reverent and devout, yet out of keeping with the Mass of the day amounts to continuing an unacceptable ambiguity: it is to cheat the people. Liturgical song involves not mere melody, but words, text, thought and the sentiments that the poetry and music contain. Thus texts must be those of the Mass, not others, and singing means singing the Mass not just singing during Mass.


    The Italian phrase "dare crusca invece di buon frumento, vinelo annacquato invece di vino generoso" is quite stronger than the English "it is to cheat the people".
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen SrEleanor
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    'Don't sing songs AT the mass, sing the mass!"

    The first I heard this clever and useful phrase was from a participant in Fr Columba's chant workshop at St Meinrad's in January of 2003. (There was a foot of snow on the ground and I was 'in heaven'.)

    The second time I heard it was from Then-Archbishop-Elect DiNardo when he first came to Houston and addressed an assembly of Catholic church musicians at St Vincent de Paul's.

    There is an unarguable logic to this phrase. It should be understood as the expression of a self-evident truth. The mass is what we are supposed to sing first and foremost, not other stuff during mass. This also means priests singing THEIR parts as well as the people singing THEIRS. Priests are included - they are NOT exempt.
    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    It's similar to that ubiquitous quote attributed to Pope St. Pius X: "Don't pray at Holy Mass, but pray the Holy Mass," which sums up in a nutshell the goal of the original Liturgical Movement which was to encourage the active participation of the people so they should not assist at Mass as "outsiders" and "mute spectators":

    " If You wish to hear Mass as it should be heard, you must follow with eye, heart and mouth all that happens at the altar. Further, you must pray with the priest the holy words said by him in the Name of Christ and which Christ says by him. You have to associate your heart with the holy feelings which are contained in these words and in this manner you ought to follow all that happens at the altar. When acting in this way you have prayed Holy Mass."
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen M. Jackson Osborn
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