For the OF, too, GIRM states that “say”/“read”/etc. are to be understood as interchangeable with “sing”.

CGZ - many (most? all?) of the instances of 'these or similar words' concern those elements of explanation to the congregation which were never (in my experience) supplied by the celebrant or somebody else designated by him, but which were called for by Trent.

the holy synod charges pastors, and all those who have the cure of souls, that they frequently, during the celebration of mass, expound, either by themselves or others, some portion of those things which are read at the mass, and that, amongst the rest, they explain some mystery of this most holy sacrifice

Felipe,

I'm being obtuse, apparently.


One of the great tragedies of the Pauline Missal is that the context invites creativity. If it says "He turns toward the people, saying, Orate fratres..." but the priest is already facing the people, the rubric is correct but not do-able. So, people come up with other things to do, such as inviting the laity to gather round the altar -- that way, Father can turn to them, too, and say "Pray, my sisters and brothers".

Is it possible to violate a rubric which doesn't bind in the first place?

At Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans all Seminarians are invited, encouraged, and welcome to join the Schola Cantorum. Select members may then be invited to join the Schola Polyphony which is a more advanced group that rehearses even more than the Schola Cantorum, and which performs more complex music. In addition, ALL seminarians are taught to sing the presidential chants and orations.

Many who say they can't sing are probably correct. However, they can chant which is not the same as belting out a selection from Wagner . Most folks can chant.

Our new pastor arrived Sunday, chanted all the parts he is supposed to chant, and is liturgically solid as a rock. He couldn't sing operatic arias if he had to, but he chants well enough. We have lucked out again.

Felipe,

I'm not lamenting that GIRM doesn't necessitate singing. Rather, I'm lamenting the fact that (as someone has worked out) there are literally thousands of ways legitimately, following the rubrics to say the OF.

Francis, you reminded me of a time I sang Edelweiss into the ear of an 8th grade boy every day, trying to make him able to sing at least a chorus of it passably for a production of The Sound of Music. There were very few boys with the look to be captain and he was the best we had for speaking. He got barely good enough by show time and as soon as others joined in, we turned his body mike WAY down. Our Maria was glorious, however!

Charles W, tell Fr. Bill I said hello.

Music is part of human nature... ALL of them humans!

Time to blow my cover. I am the director of music at St Mary's cathedral, Aberdeen, and I thank fcb for the kind comments. I will pass them on. SInce the start of this year we have been working hard on congregational participation, so, thank God, it seems to be paying off.
The cathedral choir is currently on holiday, and I was playing the organ at another parish last Sunday so wasn't at that Mass, but we had arranged for the ICEL chant Mass to be used over the summer and the bishop always sings. Normally we would have had the introit and Communion antiphons also, and I hope they sang the Salve Regina.
The 6 o clock Mass group is the contemporary music group.
There is also a Gospel choir that sings at the Saturday vigil Mass once a month, and the Aberdeen African Catholic choir sings at the 11 15 Mass once every other month. There is a large Polish community that has its own Mass and also a Spanish Mass once a month. It really is a diverse community (my husband and I are English!).
We do need more choir members though; Aberdeen is a rather transient community. If anyone is in the area, do join us.

Jackson,

Thank you for your derivation of the word mariachi.

I'll let Viola speak for herself, but I came across a Scotish-Mexican connection in a piece of American literature recently, and I'm wondering if there may, in fact, be a transit between the two which goes back more years than I had imagined.

[I have an aunt in Edinburgh and an uncle who campaigned to have more Gaelic on television.]

Spanish Masses: well...
The Spanish speakers we have here are a mixture of Spaniards and South Americans. Many of the Spaniards are connected with the university, the South Americans tend to be connected with the oil industry.
I have never heard mariachi music live and it would not be tolerated in the cathedral, but alas, the Spanish Mass music is not Victoria, Morales etc it is guitar-based modern stuff, not particularly Spanish as far as I can see. The Poles, for instance, use similar material, though they also have a more serious choir, Musica Caeli, that sings polyphony.
In the main cathedral choir we have a Spanish couple from Seville, she is a professional cellist and sometimes plays solo pieces during the Offertory for us. Most of the Spaniards are Castilian speakers, though we have at least one whose native language is Catalan.
We have a tenor in the cathedral choir from Venezuela who was educated to a very high standard in music, possibly at a seminary; he is a chant enthusiast and also keen on polyphony. Unfortunately he has been working off shore, but when I see him again I want to ask about South American polyphony. I did enquire about it on this forum and we have so far tried out one piece. We also have a soprano from Columbia, married to a Scot.
During the penal times Scottish priests had to be trained abroad, many at the Royal Scots College in Valladolid, Spain, which in the 18th century was the only foreign college to offer students instruction in church music. Several priests brought back Masses and other church music from Spain after their ordination. I've done research into this, as part of a PhD I did after we moved up to Scotland. There was one particular Mass, written in 1736 by Jose Myr y Lusa, called Misa de Trombas, which was hugely popular in 19th century Scotland, and I also learned (from an American researcher) that it exists in the Philippines, so Spanish musical culture is very widespread. I'm not aware of a Scots/South American link, except for a Aberdonian doctor/composer called James Reid who emigrated to Chile in the 1830s by way of Australia, and composed operas there.
Finally (sorry, this has been a long post) Gaelic. The north east of Scotland has never been a Gaelic speaking area, people here spoke Doric, and the attempts of the Scottish government to promote Gaelic don't really find favour in these parts. Nor does the SNP which has more appeal in the Central Belt.

I will tell you, that a lady from Columbia has said she can not take the awful mariachi music the Guatemalans and Hondurans do at their mass. She's Hispanic and is a native speaker of the language. Not all Hispanics go for mariachi masses.

Aberdeen is certainly cosmopolitan, though less so than it was when the oil boom was at its height. But I find that most large cities have an interesting mix of nationalities these days, all with something to offer. There are a lot of Nigerians here including several seminarians who intend to serve in this area after ordination. Those who are members of our choir certainly liven things up. And they have a good grounding in plainchant.
(Actually with a population of just over 207,000 Aberdeen might not qualify as a large city by the stadards of some forumites. Things tend to be on a smaller scale here.(

A nice panoramic 360 orb shot by drone over the abbey grounds on a sunny July day 2 years ago:

https://tinyurl.com/y32j5y4n

making them sensitive to pitch matching

A trick I learned from the Symphony Chorus' maestra: have the singer close one ear with a finger. They will then hear what they are singing MUCH better, and usually can more easily match pitch.