Thoughts prompted by Cardinal Sarah's interview
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    It is not a matter of celebrating with one’s back to the people or facing them, but toward the East, ad Dominum, toward the Lord.

    This way of doing things promotes silence. Indeed, there is less of a temptation for the celebrant to monopolize the conversation. Facing the Lord, he is less tempted to become a professor who gives a lecture during the whole Mass, reducing the altar to a podium centered no longer on the cross but on the microphone!

    courtesy of Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's blog.

    1. I'm very pleased to see a senior Cardinal speak thusly about microphones.
    2. I wonder what would happen if our cantors (or cantrices) operated ad Dominum w/o microphones.
    3. If anyone here is blessed with a loft in which the choir sings, does respondent face the tabernacle or the choir members while directing?
    4. Architecturally and acoustically speaking, how can we build (or, if necessary, reconfigure) for the sung liturgy, ad Dominum?
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn CCooze CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    ...what would happen if our cantors (or cantrices) operated ad Dominum w/o microphones.

    In the case of some (too many, really) this would be a blessing, for they wouldn't be heard.
  • NihilNominisNihilNominis
    Posts: 1,023
    To 3, it is interesting to think that the director of a choir in choro could reasonably direct them while himself facing the Lord. Perhaps lofts are not what we should be fighting for, in this redesigned church.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    NihilNominis,

    On the few occasions my director is out of town, he asks me to lead the schola. On those occasions, I try, to the extent possible, not to turn my back on Our Lord while directing. (Somewhere, I have a picture because one too many people had cameras.)
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    We have a choir loft. I try to stand diagonally (if you see what I mean) so I can direct the choir but am sideways on to the Lord; I'm sure He understands.
    Also, as our organist is Orthodox, the loft is liberally decorated with icons, so one is always reminded of the purpose of our singing.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Viola,

    That sounds like the posture of the celebrant at the 3rd Confiteor. I could see that that works.

  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    For the director of the choir to not face the choir he is directing it, to my mind, a bit of silliness. Should the leaving procession process out backward so as not to turn their backs on the tabernacle? The Ordinary is sung accompanied, outside of Advent, Lent, and non-festal Fridays (at which, of course, there is no choir anyway), and for these I direct from the console, also for any accompanied anthems, so there I'm facing the console and the choir.

    When the choir sing unaccompanied, as for the proper, always, and certain anthems, etc., I face the choir.
    Thanked by 7Liam JL M. Jackson Osborn Casavant Organist CHGiffen MarkThompson Spriggo
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Good and worthy of note is Salieri's point. There was a time when I actually did make a low Sarum bow to the tabernacle and walk backwards out of the nave whilst bowing, just as I would have done to my earthly monarch (were I lucky as an Englishman and had one!). It makes sense and was somehow spiritually satisfying. I don't do this any more, and regret that I am not moved to do so. I've lost something that, perhaps, I need to regain. However! Directing a choir or fulfilling some other liturgical function requires that one's attention and posture be directed to the choir, the schola, the etc. This is necessary for the choir's benefit, and the result is a properly glorified monarch in the tabernacle or on the altar. Making a self-conscious to-do about facing the tabernacle when directing a complex motet or anthem is really some sort of artificiality which impedes one's liturgical task and the proper direction of one's choir - I'm rather certain that The Monarch understands this.
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    Chris
    That sounds like the posture of the celebrant at the 3rd Confiteor.

    Please could you explain?
    Thanked by 1WGS
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Viola,

    Sorry to be so confusing.
    I try to stand diagonally (if you see what I mean) so I can direct the choir but am sideways on to the Lord;

    To address the penitent altar boys, our pastor turns 90-degrees from the tabernacle. The following two prayers Miseratur and Indulgentiam he says at this 90-degree angle. For the Indulgentiamhe touches the altar stone.

    Make more sense?
    Thanked by 1Viola
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    I am seated at the organ in the center of the loft and my back is always to the tabernacle. My job is playing and directing. The priests take care of all necessary courtesies to the tabernacle. If God had to direct this choir he might not be as charitable about it as I am. ;-)

    Note: This cardinal would make a good pope, I think. I am reading his book.
    Thanked by 2JulieColl CHGiffen
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Great book, it is amazing to read in his book about the amazing Catholic cultural literacy of the African people.

    A connection I had not made before I read his book: Cardinal Sarah was baptized and instructed by the White Fathers, the Holy Ghost Fathers, in his hometown in French Guinea and taught by them in seminary. The Holy Ghost Fathers at that time were under the leadership of Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve who was the District Superior of all French-speaking Africa.

    Cardinal Sarah, from what I can tell, unless I'm mistaken somehow, may be a product of the original preconciliar Liturgical Movement as lived and carried out by Archbishop Lefebrve's missionary priests in Africa before the Second Vatican Council. I posted something about that a while ago.

    In the biography of Arbp. Lefebrve by Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, the Arbp. notes that at a funeral ceremony circa 1960 for the victims of an AirFrance crash, "The whole government was there. When the Nuncio intoned the "Libera me", all the Catholics joined in singing heartily."

    He also recounted that for the Dakar Pan-African Congress, the presidents of Senegal, Madagascar, Dahomey, and the Upper Volta "came to the cathedral for High Mass and sang loudly together all the Latin chants, including the Graduale," i.e., the Propers.

    He claimed that "the faithful knew all of the chants perfectly (i.e., Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc.) and understood that the Latin language is a sign of the unity of the Faith."
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Many thanks for this, Julie.
    It sort of puts the defining lie to certain notions about what 'the people' can and can't do.
    What a truly inspiring account.
    Perhaps I, too, should read his book.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Those particular incidents were in Arbp. Lefebrve's biography, also an interesting read.
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