Another option is the set of office/ferial tones, chosen in the same way by using the modes of Sunday's introit and communio as guides. The texts won't be the same, of course, so this will be a purely musical congruence. It might be useful to reflect on the texts a bit: each psalm tone has a different feel. Sing through the text in each tone to develop a sensibility. It's a wonderful exercise.

Ancilla - you wrote:

"I thought that if a cantor(s) intoned, then everyone could join in - I could print little leaflets for the Church and Chapel. "

Again, I'm going to play devil's advocate - I understand your motivation - and it is a noble one. To introduce daily Mass goers to the idea of propers for each and every Mass and for them to become familiar with the different Psalm tones.

But what about the idea that the congregation doesn't always need to be singing? What about if they come to understand that each Mass has a set of propers attached to it (of course the antiphons you are talking about are Lectionary texts, and different from the Gradual texts), but then they also might come to expect that they should be singing them all the time. Enter the schola, singing the Introit from the Graduale on any given Sunday. Has the distinction between schola and the congregation been blurred? What about the notion of participating by listening, and watching the procession?

Having them learn the Psalm tones by singing them is a lovely idea. But why not let them hear the psalms sung in their traditional places in the Mass - after the Introit antiphon, Communion antiphon, etc.

What about a middle course of action? Have the weekday cantor sing the entrance and communion verses. You'll be breaking the hymn habit and building the listening habit at the same time.

Ancilla, and Pes -

It seems to be my calling in life to always try to find an angle that hasn't been addressed. I apologize if I sounded to critical of your efforts. I failed to say that I applaud your efforts toward solemnity. And yes hearing, and even singing a Psalm tone is a beautiful thing. And much more in keeping with our Catholic tradition.

But here is the problem, a real life problem, that I see unfolding in my own parish. We have come to the point where we can sing the Gregorian Introit if we choose to. It's taken years, but that is where we are. Sometimes we don't have time to rehearse it, so we'll do an Anglican Use. These are my personal second choice. I miss an antiphon with a melody, but I'll save that for another thread. A couple of times now we've done something from the Rice Gradual. Lovely. And once in a while we'll still do a hymn - maybe because we don't want to appear to be too radical, or maybe because a certain hymn is expected (looking ahead to Palm Sunday, for example - I know we will end up doing Hosanna, Filio David and then the congregation will join in with "All Glory, Laud, and Honor.")

We try to switch out what we do from week to week, depending on the day, and the resources available. But one thing that concerns me most about the Psalm tone approach (which the Anglican Use is) is that it is SOOO easy for the congregation to sing. Our pastor, a very good man, loves singing, so he joins in lustily on just about anything he can sing. This sets the tone for the congregation. Since he is slowly becoming more familiar with the Psalm tones and even the Latin (You should hear him belt out Gloria XV - it's fabulous), he will even sing along the best we can on the Psalm verses AND parts of the Antiphon when we sing the Gregorian Introit. And so here and there people, who are not totally weaned of the habit of singing at the entrance, are singing the Introit.

Now, I am in no way going to appoint myself the liturgical police and tell people to stop singing. The impulse to sing is beautiful. But I do have a theory that too many Psalm tone propers, as an interim step, although an alternative to the hymn, do not necessarily lead the people toward an understanding of the role of listening as a form of participation. Does this make sense? Probably not explaining myself too well. This is just based on what I've observed over the last year or two here locally.

My biggest fear? Possibly unfounded, but here it is: that if the Psalm tones become too entrenched, the pastor might require that we abandon the Gregorian Introit altogether since the people are doing so nicely singing along with the Psalm tone propers. Maybe this will never happen. But I want to be prepared.

Therefore I don't want the singing to always be so accessible. I want to be able to do the Gregorian propers - because they set the right tone, because the Church asks for them, and because they allow for the beautiful procession to unfold in sight and sound. My second choice, to be honest, is to choose a dignified hymn on certain Sundays so people can do their singing on those days - and the two won't be confused. No interim step that might be seen as the panacea. If the two options we offer the congregation and the pastor are different enough, one can't necessarily be substituted for the other. That's my theory, anyway. I hope I'm right.

And yes, Psalm tones are beautiful. And I'm pleased there are other opportunities to sing them and listen to them during the Mass.

I appreciate AOZ's concern about "getting stuck."

There has been such a focus on participation by the congregation for the last 40 years, such an emphasis on their "doing something," that it is difficult to make people believe that prayerful listening is a form of "doing." (We'll stay out of the existential doing vs. being argument for the moment.)

Even when some success is achieved with sung Kyrie or Sanctus settings, you'll often find that you can't use the closing Kyrie "because the congregation won't know it." The same situation can arise with psalm-tone propers. You're stuck with the familiar. Not that the familiar is necessarily bad, but you can find yourself roped off from other options.

It is an issue, to be sure. I tend to find myself thrilled by the irony that people sing Psalm tones with more gusto than dumb hymns. It makes me very happy to hear it! but of course this itself leads to some problems down the line -- though I'm not entirely sure that this is a pressing problem for most parishes.

Now, the Ordinary chants are a different matter. Those are people's music, have no doubt. Even if they look complicated, they can be learned by the people. We should never shy away from more complicated ordinary chants -- unless the pastor forbids it, of course.

Dear AOZ,

I didn't take your advice to be critical in any negative way, so please don't worry about that! I honestly appreciate your advice. In fact, we are taking a somewhat slow approach in introducing sacred music, chant and polyphony in our Parish as you have been doing with your schola, although you are much further along. Therefore, you have the vantage point to see more clearly where certain paths will take. So, in fact, it is a help if I can avoid a problem in the future. We don't print programs...yet... but maybe on the one Sunday a month that we sing (we also sing one Sat. a month and weekday Solemnities) we could start doing that. None of the other groups are doing that. We did print a program for Midnight Mass, however. Then we could happily sing a gregorian proper from time to time. We are going to attempt the Communio Joseph Filii David today...with a small group. Happy Feast of St. Joseph to everybody! Thank you to everybody who has contributed to this thread.