Planning my first EF for Corpus Christi
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    We can learn the introit and sequence and sing a Latin ordinary. It's a low Mass. Now what?

    Also, do we need a dispensation to do this on the Thursday?
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    > It's a low Mass

    Beware: if it is an EF low Mass, no part of the Ordinary or the Proper can be sung... Check Psallite Sapienter, §§ 188-189.

    To sing the ordinary and those two items of the proper, you'd also have to sing the rest of the propers (all of them, even if only recto tono!!!) and the priest would have to sing his parts (and you'd have to sing the responses).

    If it were an OF Mass, then yes, singing only the ordinary plus some of the propers would be fine...

    > do we need a dispensation to do this on the Thursday?

    Since it is an EF Mass, no. (There was a PCED letter saying so some time ago.)
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    My dumb, I meant Missa Cantata. Thanks for the link, d.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    > I meant Missa Cantata

    Then you just have to learn the responses (pretty easy and they'll do for all masses) and sing all the propers somehow. If you are unable to sing them from the 1961 Graduale Romanum, you can sing them on a psalm-tone (using Rossini's settings, or Ward's settings, or those from the Gregorian Institute of Guam), or you can sing them recto tono. (Don't forget to check these psalm-settings for the Gradual and the Alleluia.)
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    what about the ordinary? is it "allowed"?
  • WGS
    Posts: 297
    ordinary - "allowed"?

    yes, required. The Latin (and Greek) texts are standard. However,it's your choice of tune - traditional Gregorian chant or other unison or part setting accompanied or not.
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    Great news for the neighborhood, sorry I won't be able to make it. You even get to sing the wonderful Corpus Christi sequence! There are also the Rice simplified Gradual/Alleluia here on the CMAA site. These get extensive use in our area. Is this the first 1962 Missa Cantata at your parish?
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    dvalerio - Discussing the introduction of music into the EF, our local liturgist told me that it would not be improper to follow what he referred to as "progressive solemnity". This would allow the congregation to sing the familiar elements of the Ordinary and the choir appropriate Latin hymnody without requiring the priest and choir to sing the complete Propers for a time. The Mass is offered only on First Friday, and we will begin in July using a standardized votive Mass for the balance of the year. (This month the Mass within the octave of Pentecost takes precedence.) His comment on Psallite Sapienter is that it is precisely accurate, but that one need not be paralyzed by an "all or nothing" approach into doing nothing.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Such questions make me ask myself "WWTEDCD":
    that is, what would the Ecclesia Dei Commission do?

    They'd grant permission, of course.

    Some of the rules about music weren't even followed strictly in the old days, so it's understandable that people with rigorist interpretations of the rubrics get worried at any deviation. Like most of them, I wasn't around in the 1950s either, but enough of my local colleagues were there, and they remember what was actually done; so they keep me from having unreasonable scruples.
  • m_kramer_2004
    Posts: 24
    Congrats! Check out my blog www.molatinmass.com I just posted the music we will be doing for our Corpus Christi Missa Cantata. If you have any questions about the music I chose or want additional advice/help feel free to email me as my contact info is right there on the site. God Bless!
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    priorstf, the problem with the "progressive solemnity" approach is that it paralyzes you into a hodge-podge state. The factors that lead to the compromise of convenience do not go away, especially if the first Mass is considered successful. Rather, the same "formula for success" is repeated until it becomes the norm in a location. This means dissonance with the worship aids and dissidence from those who might be considering "coming home" out of one of the chapels or faraway indults. I would encourage priests to take a hard line. As I've wrote earlier ad nauseam, I don't think there are any prescriptive universal laws prohibiting the singing of Propers and Ordinary at a Missa Lecta, but the law of custom should not be discounted (especially as some of these customs are over 100 years old and thus legally binding!). The Ecclesia Dei Commission, when actually asked its opinion rather than conjured in a mirror, recommended Psallite Sapienter to musicians at the EF. Even if custom does not bind, prudence does. The High Mass is loved for its wonderful solemnity, the Low Mass for its wonderful silence.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    > progressive solemnity

    As far as I know, progressive solemnity cannot apply to the EF. It is spelled out in the 1967 instruction «Musicam Sacram» §§ 7 and ff. So it does apply to the OF but not to the EF. I have never seen any indication whatsoever that the rules laid forth in §§ 261 and 513-514 of Bl. John XXIII's Codex Rubricarum are no longer in force for the 1962 Missal.

    But if I am wrong about this I will gladly stand corrected.

    > one need not be paralyzed by an "all or nothing" approach into doing nothing

    Sure!!!!! Yet I'd say singing recto tono makes up for that without twitching the requirements...
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    dvalerio, I agree that all the Propers, Ordinary, and appropriate Responses and priest's parts must be sung at a Missa Cantata. This is a matter of prescriptive universal law, as well as immemorial custom.
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