Arguments, please: to tailor music for non-secular holidays
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Is it proper to tailor music for particular non-secular events?

    For example, is it acceptable to inquire of a choir member, cleric or other person, what music he would like the choir to sing on a given feast, say, an anniversary of an ordination... or is entirely improper, ASSUMING, that the choices do not include an Alleluia in Lent, or something heretical or vernacular?

    In favor
    It's not a secular observance, so we're not bending the calendar to Ceasar.
    Sometimes, he writes your check.
    Choirmembers have favorite pieces, and nodding to them can boost morale.


    Opposed
    While it's not a secular observance, we're bending the liturgy itself to the whims of a particular individual.
    Who writes the check shouldn't matter to how faithful one is to ones duty.
    Boosting morale, while not an evil, can and should be done other ways than this.

    What think ye?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,822
    Me thinks keep YOUR and EVERONE ELSES personal preferences out of the liturgy.

    Prelude and postlude are perfect for those choices.
    Thanked by 1hilluminar
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    If/where there are choices to be made, what other criteria are possible? Even in sources like the Liber usualis the words ad libitum occur.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Hawkins,

    For once, for perhaps the very first time, I think you've put your finger squarely on the point: words such as ad libitum do show up there, so if one is free to choose ...... on what basis is it permissible to choose one of those options?

    In the Ordo of Paul VI, there used to be words (I don't know if they're still there) which announced, 'in these or other similar words', which court improvisation and instability. In that Ordo, the basis seems to be what the founding fathers of America would call "light and transient causes", but what is it in the EF?
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    VO - Clearly if 'sacred polyphony' is commended, there is discretion to choose musical settings of the ordained texts. And where motets at communion or offertory are customary there is scope for texts in addition to those provided.
    NO - Chris, not wishing to derail your original question I will just say that this flexibility does not apply to any of the prayers uttered by the priest..
    Thanked by 1Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Hawkins,

    Thank you for a concise answer.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    I take requests. They may or may not be fulfilled.
    If I know somebody might like something, I might take that into consideration. I'd never ask "What do you want on Your Special Day?" But it would be a consideration secondary to the liturgy.
    Thanked by 1cesarfranck
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