Liturgical Arcana: Wedding Tract during Lent in OF
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    I notice in the Graduale Romanum (1979), under the list of Propers for the wedding Mass (Missa rituale pro sponsis, p. 646), no option is given for a Tract. Is it assumed that weddings will not be celebrated during Lent? Or is there a rubric that indicates the Tract be taken from the closest Sunday? Or is it dropped altogether? My quick research suggests some confusion about weddings proscribed during Lent, which may be local custom, but which is not canonical per se. Has anyone experienced OF Latin Nuptial Mass during Lent?

    Another curiosity in the modern Graduale: For the funeral Mass (Missa pro defunctis, p. 671), the (modern made-up) Alleluia has four options. Three are borrowed from other Masses, but the printed fourth option sets (yet again) the Requiem aeterna text, using the standard Mode VIII Alleluia (First Sunday of Advent, Christmas Mass at Night, etc.). As it turns out, this is the very same Alleluia used for the Nuptial Mass. Would you say this is coincidence, expedience, or a subtle commentary on the realities of married life?
    Thanked by 4Paul F. Ford tomjaw CHGiffen igneus
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    Well, the 1903 LU had some other settings available, which is interesting.

    I keep waiting for a chance to use these, as opposed to the well-known settings.
    Old Nuptial chants (1903).pdf
    326K
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CHGiffen
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,789
    @CCooze As a Votive Mass to celebrate a wedding anniversary?
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    That might be nice.
    Also, though, if people can sing the proper texts to psalm tones, choral graduals, polyphony, etc., then why couldn't they also sing those texts to these settings in other modes? They must have been used, as set above, at some point.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,050
    @CCooze - Looks like the chants you posted are the same as the common settings with the exception of the introit and communion. The Introit is a "contrafactum" of the introit "Statuit" (common of confessor popes); the communion is reminiscent of the communion for Palm Sunday, "Pater." I have heard that the votive mass for marriage is "neo-Gregorian" (except the offertory, which is borrowed from the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost), so this isn't too surprising.
    Thanked by 1Richard Mix
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,478
    The EF Alleluia Mittat vobis, and the Offertory In te speravi, Domine have good pedigree, and appear in GT with neumes, the Gradual Uxor tua is also in the OF edition. One principle of revision was to eliminate neo-Gregorian, except for feasts devised recently, I deduce that the other OF propers were banished for that reason.
    Thanked by 1rich_enough
  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    My quick research suggests some confusion about weddings proscribed during Lent, which may be local custom, but which is not canonical per se.
    It's probably a holdover from the old rite. De anno et ejus partibus in the front of the old Missal has the following:
    CONCERNING THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGES
    Matrimony can be celebrated at any time of the year. Let the solemn blessing of marriages be forbidden only from the first Sunday of Advent to Christmas, inclusive, and from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday inclusive. The Ordinaries of places nevertheless can, during the aforementioned times and under sound liturgical laws, permit it as a substitute for ordinary time under just cause, if the spouses are notified to abstain from too much pomp.
    N.B. "ordinary time" here means outside of Advent and Lent, not just the time after Epiphany and Pentecost. Although there may be local restrictions on nuptial solemnity, there appears to be no general prohibition against nuptial Masses during Lent in the new rite. In the old rite, the tract "Ecce sic benedicetur" (which is not in the OF chant books) is used from Septuagesima until Ash Wednesday, and also during Lent when allowed. If there is only one reading before the Gospel, I believe the Gradual alone could be used at an OF Nuptial Mass outside of Eastertide, since the Alleluia or Gospel Acclamation is optional.
    Thanked by 2Richard R. igneus
  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    PS - I have NOT personally experienced OF Nuptial Mass during Lent because they were not allowed in any diocese I've worked in.
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