Schola dress
  • frater
    Posts: 16
    We are starting a Gregorian chant schola and need some advice about what to wear. We are all guys from ages 17 to 62 and we need to know what to wear. We want to wear black cassocks with surplices (do we use square necks or round necks, or doesn't it matter.)? A few are against the cassock because they believe it diminishes the nature of the cassock if a: too many people are vested in it outside of the sanctuary or b: it's a liturgical garment only to be worn by clerics or altarboys. Does it matter from where we sing, sanctuary vs choir loft in back. Mostly we will be in the loft. Any other newbie advise would be appreciated. I'm very open to hearing about any potential pitfalls that we could avoid.

    All you advice is most welcomed.

    Jim
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    I would strongly recommend cassock and surplice, which are in fact 'choir habit'. They are worn universally by Anglican Use Catholic choirs, and by numbers of Roman Rite Catholic choirs. There is this to be considered, though, namely that these are considered strictly clerical dress by some Catholic authorities and there are several pronouncements in print stressing this view. I would say that if you wanted to wear this traditional choir habit and your priest approves then you should wear it. Otherwise, there are alternative 'choir robes' that one can consider - I suggest you get a catalogue from C. M. Almy, or J. Wippell for other ideas, which would include alb-like garments with or without scapulars, and a variety of other garments. You would want to avoid the ones that look like academic gowns and are widespread in the Protestant world.

    As for the style of your surplices - round necks are more traditional, particularly in Anglican usage. The squared yokes seem to be almost universal in Roman usage of the last few decades. These are usually pleated as well, and I have heard them referred to as 'Florentine surplices'. How 'historic' or traditional they are I do not know. But, whether to wear rounded or squared yokes would be, I should think, a matter of taste. If you do decide on surplices, though, be sure to get full length, real, surplices which should be long enough to fall at least 3-4 inches below the knee, if not 4-6 inches above the floor. Do not get those absurd chopped off surplices called cottas.

    Congratulations on your new schola.
  • Pes
    Posts: 623
    And if you do happen to buy cottas, make sure they're not cream-colored. You wouldn't want your schola to be called the "panna cottas."
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    As an aside to this matter - while talking about cassock and surplice. It is interesting that the current vesture of choice for acolytes or servers amongst conservative Catholics is cassock and surplice (often that silly, dinky, vestige called a cotta) when the more appropriate and ancient garment for those serving in the Sanctuary is alb and amice, preferably apparelled. There is nothing finer looking nor more steeped in history than apparelled amices and albs going about their sacral duties around the altar. This more ancient garb, though, seems for some reason to be eschewed by conservatives (most assuredly by Tridentines) who abandon it to the contemporary crowd.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    "It is interesting that the current vesture of choice for acolytes or servers amongst conservative Catholics is cassock and surplice (often that silly, dinky, vestige called a cotta) when the more appropriate and ancient garment for those serving in the Sanctuary is alb and amice, preferably apparelled."


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  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Am I wrong in assuming that this IS a Roman Rite group? Or did I get off the train at the wrong stop.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    > it's a liturgical garment only to be worn by clerics or altarboys

    And that's precisely why you should wear it, because the role of the liturgical choir is just as clerical and ministerial as that of the altar server.
  • frater
    Posts: 16
    Pes: I can't wear my cotta as it has a big rip in it. Call it a "terra cotta", if you will.

    Frogman: You're correct this is a Roman Rite Extraordinary form.

    I don't know if this matters but we will be singing for the Requiem funeral Mass for a priest, whenever Our Lord calls him home. There was just so much pent up energy to sing chant, that we decided to start a separate (from the regular choir, that is) Schola. We have a really good director who studies at Eastman.

    Thank you all for your help and please if you can think of anything that I should know and haven't asked, let me know.
    God Bless,
    Jim
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    How right Chrism is! How very, very right!
  • frater
    Posts: 16
    Does anybody have a lead about where to buy online cassocks and surplices? I would like us all to have the same styles of both cassock and surplice. Thank you so much.
  • urli
    Posts: 35
    Seeing as cassock and cotta are clerical garments (that your schola is all-male is a simplifying factor here :) ), shouldn't they only be worn if the schola is singing from the Sanctuary?
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    An all-male schola *should* sing from the Sanctuary. Deficiencies in American church architecture, or the need for the schola members to perform double duty as the male section of a mixed motet ensemble, do not change the clerical and ministerial character of the liturgical choir. Wearing street clothes does not complement the architecture but compounds the architectural defect. The liturgy is deformed when the schola does not treat its office with the appropriate level of respect.

    Often at large Masses, or in churches with particularly defective sanctuaries, some altar servers and clergy will be bumped to the front pews, yet they will remain vested. Nobody demands their disvestment, why should they do so for the choir?
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