Vernacular Propers in the Old Rite?
  • Tradnteen
    Posts: 2
    From "Guidelines for Liturgical Services according to the 1962 Missale Romanum"
    available on this very website: http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/lowmass.pdf

    "Question:
    Is there any music, which is not allowed at the Low Mass?

    Answer:
    It is not permitted to sing any of the prayers or responses (i.e. “Et cum spiritu tuo,” “Amen,” etc.),
    nor any of the Proper (i.e. “Introit,” “Gradual,,” etc.), nor any of the Ordinary (i.e. “Kyrie,” “Gloria,”
    etc.), whether in Latin or in the vernacular."

    Does anyone know a more specific hierarchal authority for this? To me it doesnt make sense, at least for the vernacular. I can see the argument that if you sang all the Ordinary and Propers in Latin it by that very fact would become a High Mass instead of a Low Mass. Though, so what?

    But for the vernacular, why not? Vernacular hymns are allowed at Low Mass. The instruction of 1958 explicitly says: "Hymns in the vernacular are permitted at a Low Mass, on condition that their theme corresponds to the part of the Mass at which they are sung." And what would "correspond" better than what the priest is actually praying up there quietly in the Latin?

    It seems to me you cant have it both ways. Either vernacular translations are recognized as having an official liturgical character, or they arent. If they are, then they'd be usable officially. But if they aren't, then why couldnt they be as part of the congregation's unofficial hymns at Low Mass? Do you see what I'm saying?

    Given that they are allowed to have vernacular hymns and devotions going on during Low Mass...was/is there actually anything legally stopping the people, in an unofficial way, from "layering" vernacular translations or paraphrases of Propers of the Mass, or sung Ordinary pieces (in Latin or at least the vernacular), over a priest's [latin] Low Mass as, essentially, private vernacular hymns and devotions? If so, what, what source from the hierarchy definitively excludes this possibility?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    The permission to sing vernacular hymns at Low Mass was a nod to the fact that it was often local practice, using pastoral permission, to do so, and had been for at least 200 years.

    Missals provided alternate prayers in the vernacular to be read silently while the priest said Mass.
  • Tradnteen
    Posts: 2
    Okay, I found the canonical source:

    De Musica Sacra (1958) says of Low Masses:

    Quote:
    "c) It is strictly forbidden for the faithful in unison or for a commentator to recite aloud with the priest the parts of the Proper, Ordinary, and canon of the Mass. This prohibition extends to both Latin, and a vernacular word-for-word translation."
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    One has to wonder what practice that instruction (section 14c) was designed to prohibit, exactly. It sounds as if some congregations were saying the priest's entire parts of the Mass, including the Canon. Apparently such "progressive" '60s-type practices were being enacted in the 1950s somewhere!

    14c does indicate that there are exceptions to this rule spelled out in section 31, regarding dialogue Masses. In those low Masses, the faithful may say the parts proper to them: (a) they may make responses such as "Amen" and "Deo gratias"; (b) add the server's responses such as "Domine, non sum dignus"; (c) recite the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus-Benedictus, and Agnus Dei; (d) and present the propers (Introit, Gradual, Offertory, Communion). Paragraph 32 adds the Pater noster.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    In the 60"s our parish had a "dialogue Mass" - a low Mass with 4 vernacular hymns, ordinaries,and reponses sung by the congregation.
    I recall hearing that the role of the commentator goes as far back as Trent when he was to function as a translator.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Wow, that's rather definitive. You can sing hymns but not propers with the priest and not in the vernacular. Interesting.
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