Unfortunately, that’s not the worst I’ve seen.

The Easter Vigil is *the* liturgy of the year, and sadly, it makes some people think they need to get creative with it.

Our deacon just read it last night. In spite of the fact that there was lots of singing and chanting the rest of the time.
Do you think temporary deacons get instruction in chanting it in seminary?

Two years ago I helped our deacon with some of the difficult passages, but he mostly learned it himself by listening to a recording I linked him to. He's not perfect on every single note, but he does a pretty good job. It also gives me a little break for the Easter Vigil, so I'm thankful for that.

With all due respect to Florence Foster Jenkins, she could have done much better, far better - but then of course there would be the question of gender. The saddest part of it was that the people actually sat through it without so much as a raised brow, a cough, a white eye, or a pained stare at neighbour. They just go to mass and whatever happens happens - so long as it isn't chant, anthems, and Latin.

I think this thread is in extremely poor taste.

Pandemic response means that many priests are agreeing be live streamed to YouTube etc, because it's the only way that many people can participate at any level at all - even though they are well aware that they don't have the talent or resources to do a broadcast-quality job.

We have NO idea what else is going on for the people involved.

But I know another parish, with the liturgy on YouTube, where the Exultet sounded worse. The priest who chanted it is old (semi-retired), ill, and currently covering for three parishes. He is allowed attendance of about 20% of the building capacity (it's complicated). He cannot afford a professional music director. He knows the tune better than the man in the video linked above - but his voice wavers and he simply cannot produce it so well any more. But he did the best he could. If viewers find it "hilarious" - well that says more about the viewers than it does this priest.

The parish is in Ladera Ranch in South Orange County, CA, one of the wealthiest areas in the state. They have a brand-new $12 million church. If they have lousy music it's because they've chosen to have lousy music, not because of hardship.

Exsultet as composed by Leonard Cohen

https://holytrinityladera.org/serve/liturgical-ministries/music/

Instrumentalists of all kinds are needed to serve at the weekend liturgies at Holy Trinity. If you possess a level of mastery of an instrument, have both music-reading and improvisational skills and love to play in a band setting, then please consider using your skills to serve the Holy Trinity parish community.

Nuff said.

I was thinking about the Exsultet this weekend. I think the most important thing is for the priest/deacon to sing confidently what they can manage well rather than to worry about singing something more complicated and correct that they are not confident about singing successfully. I am still uncertain what the true value of recto tono chant is over well spoken reading except to be able to say it was "sung." I will now retreat to a safe bunker.

Also, the Mass at my parish is now available for online viewing. I have not listened to myself because if I did I might never go into the choir loft again.

This year, the choir did a new version of the Easter Sequence, so no one was able to sing along because we didn't know the melody.

Somehow, at 11:59, he managed a mode IV ending on "gloom and darkness."

Pandemic response means that many priests are agreeing be live streamed to YouTube etc, because it's the only way that many people can participate at any level at all - even though they are well aware that they don't have the talent or resources to do a broadcast-quality job.

"No" is a complete sentence. There are other parishes streaming, catering to every level of mediocrity and, occasionally, goodness and beauty, so there's no need for a pastor to agree to stream anything, let alone everything, particularly when something like this is going to be a problem.

Do you think temporary deacons get instruction in chanting it in seminary?

My dislike for the terminology employed notwithstanding, some do. If not officially, then they find it.

What do we want from a live stream?
As I am currently in lockdown, I want the nearest thing to attending Mass, audibility and a static view (I do not take opera glasses to Mass).

From Sing to the Lord:

23. In accord with their abilities, deacons should be prepared to sing those parts of the Liturgy that belong to them. Deacons should receive training in singing the dialogues between deacon and people, such as those at the Gospel and at the dismissal. They should also learn to sing various invitations in the rites, the Exsultet, the third form of the Act of Penitence, and the Prayer of the Faithful. If they are capable, deacons should be trained in the practice of chanting the Gospel on more solemn occasions. Programs of diaconal preparation should include major and compulsory courses in the chant and song of the Liturgy.

If deacons have not received good training, training that enables them to sing the chants as they are written in the Missal, then the bishop has been negligent in his duty as the chief liturgist of the diocese.

Also from Sing to the Lord:

35. Persons designated for the ministry of psalmist should possess “the ability for singing and a facility in correct pronunciation and diction.” As one who proclaims the Word, the psalmist should be able to proclaim the text of the Psalm with clarity, conviction, and sensitivity to the text, the musical setting, and those who are listening.

The standards for someone to chant the Exsultet should be at least the same as those for a psalmist. I think we can agree easily that not everyone has the ability for singing needed to chant or sing solo the Word of God or the chants of the Missal.

Look, parishes these days have very strict policies for "safe environment" about who can and cannot teach or supervise children. Maybe the USCCB should come up with "safe liturgy" policies that ensure no one unqualified to sing has a liturgical leadership role. After all, we should want to avoid abusing the ears of God's children. Yes, "safe liturgy" programs in every diocese to avoid aural abuse.

The bishops care earnestly about "safe environment" because they got sued for lapses in the past and don't want to be sued again.

I think if bishops could be sued for liturgical abuse as well as sexual abuse, the Church's liturgy would be celebrated with much more solemnity and reverence and beauty.

If liturgy is celebrated poorly, it's because the bishops have decided to accept poor liturgy, and if they have accepted poor liturgy, it's because they don't care about liturgy celebrated well, and if they don't care about liturgy celebrated well, what does that say about their faith?

My husband has been heard to mutter "musical malpractice" at Mass. Fortunately, I am the only one who could hear him. We have a new & better organist so he hasn't been provoked to that point lately.

At the very least, this is the Exultet. I know many parishes who sing paraphrases of it, with congregational refrains (some of them being even officially approved by the bishops, in France).
But yes, that's still silly.

moved to another post

Horrifying. ...parishes still using Glorias with refrains. sigh.

Pssssst!!! (I don't want our pastor to become a bishop)

In fact, I basically think that for as much as livestreaming is interesting, particularly when it is of high-quality, though that does not mean perfect or highly stylized: I'd rather watch Saint-Eugène-Sainte-Cécile than the suburban parishes with AV experts and a TV-style broadcast, we nevertheless need to rethink it, because the disciplina arcani might not be enforced, but broadcasting the Mass in a more or less permanent way seems off to me. The Divine Office is aalso sincerely neglected.

I don't mean to downplay connections to parishes, but this is why the pope ordered Roman churches to remain open, and I'm glad that in France they mostly did during the second lockdown; there were unfortunately many closures in March 2020, but that depended on the local priest more than anything else.