EF Schola singing from the Sanctuary
  • sacristanus
    Posts: 11
    Hello everyone,

    Would someone be able to show me where I can find the proper rubrics and ceremonies for a schola cantorum singing from the sanctuary?

    Thanks!
    sacristanus
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Sacristanus,

    "Singing from the sanctuary" is problematic, but there are some similar concepts which aren't.

    Jeff Morse, for example, used to have a school scola which sang from the transcept.

    In places where such an architectural piece exists, singing from the quire is not problematic.

    I think there are some church buildings (probably monastic at some point) in which the choir sings from behind or beside the sanctuary... there's a Carmelite convent in San Francisco where the sisters sing from within their enclosure, for example, which is at right angles to the nave.

    IN the sanctuary, I should think, would be problematic in every case when the choir is not composed entirely of male clerics, independent of other issues.

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  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    See rubrics 520-524 of the Missal.
    https://divinumofficium.com/www/horas/Help/Rubrics/Missal1960%20rubrics.html
    To the best of my recollection, in churches with choir stalls (seminaries, monasteries, etc.), only the cantors who sing the verses stand and come to the middle for the gradual and alleluia, and the rest of the schola sits.

    If the sanctuary is large enough to accommodate the schola cantorum in addition to the servers, it would seem to be not only permitted but preferable to singing from the choir loft or elsewhere. There is no more need for a parish schola to be composed entirely of clerics than there is for the altar servers to be clerics or at least tonsured.
    Therefore, laity of the male sex, whether boys, young men, or adults, when appointed by competent ecclesiastical authority to serve at the altar or to perform the sacred music, and when they fulfill this office in the manner, and form prescribed by the rubrics, exercise a liturgical ministry which is direct, though delegated. If they are singers, they must be a part of the choir or schola cantorum. (De musica sacra et sacra liturgia, 93c)
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  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,760
    The Rubrics for the choir is that we stand to sing, if you have a choir with stalls you could move to the centre to sing but if you are on one side (Gospel) it may be better to stay there. Whatever happens the choir need to keep out of the way of the other ceremonies. The other Rubrics that would also be applicable is to follow the rubrics of those in choir as to sitting standing or kneeling.
    We occasionally sing from the Gospel side of our Sanctuary, we stay on the Gospel side out of the way, we vest in Cassock / Cotta. Of course any ladies cannot sing with us on the sanctuary.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Hang on....

    Sacristanus,

    What do you understand by "sanctuary", where you're placing the choir?
  • sacristanus
    Posts: 11
    Chris, I guess I mean in choir (quire) rather than sanctuary.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    That's easy, then: you put them in the choir stalls. They're designed to accommodate choirs, so no new adaptations are necessary. Where the choir director places himself is a different question, because he needs to be obvious to the choir members and unobtrusive to everyone else.
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