Are troped ordinaries permitted in the EF?
  • wingletwinglet
    Posts: 41
    I've searched the forum already and haven't found a definitive answer yet. It would seem that they are banned, but where can I find documentation?

    If tropes are banned, when can we sing all those great early works that included them, besides a concert?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    I believe they are banned in the TLM, but others disagree but they are a small minority and cannot cite any document. The only legitimate use would be at the Sarum Use, but they are rather difficult to find!

    Cantus Selecti has one of the troped Kyrie, which suggests it could be used at Benediction etc.
    Thanked by 3winglet CHGiffen OraLabora
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Winglet,

    Aside from the Kyrie (which Tom has already addressed) what other part of the Ordinary might be troped?
  • Josh
    Posts: 103
    The Kyrie was most frequently troped; the Gloria was sometimes troped, especially on Marian feasts - which is why the Roman Missal as reformed after Trent under St Pius V had to specifically ban troping the Gloria even on Marian feasts, since those Marian tropes were particularly popular.

    I believe that the Credo was rarely troped (though there was a bad habit of skipping parts of it, when set polyphonically, to make it shorter); the Sanctus and Agnus Dei were occasionally troped, especially in earlier centuries. (Unrelated, but similar, is the French tradition of singing O salutaris Hostia or some other Eucharistic anthem after the Elevation; it is still done at EF Masses there, and can be seen as parallel to the OF Memorial Acclamation - I wish our priest would allow this at our Missa cantata.) I recall reading that even the Epistle was troped on rare occasions (e.g. the feast of St Stephen in northern France).

    As to what could be used legitimately, the tropes can be thought of as motets - there exist prefatory tropes that lead into the actual text of the Introit; if there is no Asperges, anything suitably sacred could be sung in church "before Mass begins", just as hymns are, and thus logically such a prefatory trope could be sung (examples exist for Advent Sunday and Christmas Day); it could be argued that, in the time between the Asperges and the Introit, just as a flourish may be played on the organ, so such a trope could be inserted, though some frown on such dangerous liberalism...

    As to the tropes for the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, they remain forbidden; but if any of them could be sung separately as motets after the Offertory and Communion antiphons, or for that matter just before or just after Mass as processionals or recessionals, then that would be fine. And I see no reason why some elaborately troped item could not be sung at Benediction, so long as the text and music was pious.
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen Elmar
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,307
    The placement of the Communion antiphon at the start of Communion is difficult. It is better to sing it per the pre–1955 rubrics. The same is true for the Benedictus IMHO though that makes the O Salutaris harder.

    The troped Gloria for feasts of the Virgin was so common that the rubric was in the missal until the nineteenth century.
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    Which is the Christmas Day prefatory trope?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    In the present context, would tropes include the diatribe so common in prayers of the "faithful" in an OF context?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    Sorry did not realise that some would not know of the variety of tropes...

    There are two Volumes of the Analecta Hymnica on Tropes these can found in various formats on the Internet Archive... https://archive.org search for "Analecta Hymnica Vol. 47 / 49"

    Vol. 47. Tropi Graduales. Tropen des Missale im Mittelalter. I. Tropen zum Ordinarium Missae. Aus handschriftlichen Quellen herausgegeben von C. Blume and H.M. Bannister

    pp. 5-42 Vorwort und Einleitung
    pp. 43-216 I. Tropi ad Kyrie
    pp. 217-281 II. Tropi ad Gloria
    pp. 282-299 Appendix Troporum ad Gloria
    pp. 301-369 III. Tropi ad Sanctus
    pp. 371-405 IV. Tropi ad Agnus Dei
    pp. 407-416 Tropi ad Ite Missa Est

    Vol. 49. Tropi Graduales. Tropen des Missale im Mittelalter. II. Tropen zum Proprium Missae. Aus handschriftlichen Quellen herausgegeben von C. Blume

    pp. 5-14 Vorwort
    pp. 15-164 I. Tropi ad Introitum
    pp. 165-207 II. Tropi ad Epistolam
    pp. 209-277 III. Tropi ad Graduale
    pp. 279-242 IV. Tropi ad Offertorium
    pp. 343-366 V. Tropi ad Communionem
    pp. 367-389 VI. Appendix. Tropi super 'Libera' et 'Media vita'


    Also the following books will be of interest,

    Tropen zum Kyrie im Graduale Romanum
    hg. von Anton Stingl jun., EOS Verlag Sankt Ottilien 2011
    http://www.beck-shop.de/fachbuch/leseprobe/9783830674689_Excerpt_001.pdf

    Tropen zum Gloria, Sanctus und Agnus Dei im Graduale Romanum
    hg. von Anton Stingl jun., EOS Verlag Sankt Ottilien 2012
    http://www.beck-shop.de/fachbuch/leseprobe/9783830675457_Excerpt_001.pdf
    Thanked by 2Josh CHGiffen
  • Josh
    Posts: 103
    Trope before the Introit of Christmas Day (Laudes festivæ (1940), n. 12, p. 206f):

    Hodie cantandus est nobis puer, quem gignebat ineffabiliter ante tempora pater et eumdem sub tempore generabit inclyta mater. Quis est iste puer, quem tam magnis præconiis dignum vociferatis? Dicite nobis, ut collaudatores esse possimus. Hic enim est, quem præsagus et electus hymnista Dei ad terras venturum prævidens longe ante prænotavit sicque prædixit:

    Introit of Christmas Day (Is. 9, 6; Ps. 97, 1):
    PUER NATUS EST NOBIS...


    This means something like, in a painfully literal and yet clumsily amateurish translation:

    "Today the Child is to be sung [about] to us, whom the Father ineffably begat before time and the same [that] within time the illustrious Mother brought forth. Who is that Child, whom with such great shouted praises is worthy? Tell it ye unto us, that we may be able to be fellow-praisers. For this is he, whom the prophetic and elect hymnist of God pre-beholding coming to the earth afar off before he foreknew and thus predicted:

    "A CHILD IS BORN FOR US..."
    Trope Hodie cantandus for Introit Puer natus est.pdf
    141K
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • Josh
    Posts: 103
    I note that the flowery diction and opening "Hodie" of this trope sounds quite Byzantine, and perhaps derives from some troparion or other of the Christmas liturgy in the Byzantine Rite.
  • ClemensRomanusClemensRomanus
    Posts: 1,023
    Cool. I've used Laudes festivae so many times and never noticed this trope...

    Thank you.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,307
    The medieval liturgy’s drama would not be so unfamiliar to a Byzantine Christian, but it’s likely from later Frankish usage.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    Trope before the Introit of Christmas Day (Laudes festivæ (1940), n. 12, p. 206f):
    Hodie cantandus est nobis puer,


    Is in the Analecta Hymnica, Vol. 49 pg. 7
    https://archive.org/stream/analectahymnicam4849drev#page/6/mode/2up

    The notes and explanations are all in German in the Analecta, but I can arrange a translation. A quick synopsis here,
    It is found in many manuscripts... including Sangallen and Winchester 10th century, also in other manuscripts of the 11, 12 and 13 century. Used in England, Italy and France.

    Now if this is sung before the Introit... i.e. Before Mass begins (EF rubrics), this could be sung instead of a hymn just before Mass...
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • BGP
    Posts: 219
    Well the texts for the EF (and other liturgies) are contained in the liturgical books, they are trope-less, I wouldn't thing an explicit ban would be needed. The tropes were part of various and assorted local medieval usages (as I understand it).

    They can be used in a devotional context outside of the Mass. Benediction, public novenas...
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