How appropriate is major key music in Lent?
  • briyo2289
    Posts: 2
    Hi, first post here but I've lurked around as a reader for a while

    I'm an amateur composer and a Catholic, with no previous experience of writing liturgical music. I decided to write something to submit for the Notre dame Magnificat Choir "Liturgy Alive" composition contest. The task is to set these verses (in Spanish) to music for an offertory piece:

    The Lord will overshadow you with his pinions,
    and you will find refuge under his wings.
    His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield.

    I wrote a draft that is in a major key and somewhat uplifting, but also at a slow tempo so more contemplative and not over-joyous. Anyways while going back over the brief I realized that this is specifically for the first Sunday in Lent.

    I know from going to Mass that not every piece of music is sombre during Lent but I'm wondering what are the general considerations made when choosing music during Lent? I would consider the text above to be straightforwardly "happy" for lack of a better word. There is no overtone of penitence or sin, it's about being made safe. So in my mind the music should reflect those sentiments. But now I wonder if the tone of liturgical season should override the tone of any specific text read during that season.

    Any thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks.
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 622
    For what it's worth, Attende Domine is a quintessential Lenten piece and (though it is modal since it's chant) it is quite major-sounding.
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  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,886
    Consider last week’s propers. They were all about our Lord’s mercy and forgiveness. This coming Sunday is Gaudete Sunday which is supposed to be exuberant and full of joy.

    While advent is penitential, it is not lent. It is full of excited longing. I don’t think there is anything wrong with major.

    Also, think of other well-known Advent chants: Conditor alme siderum and Corde Natus, to name just two. Also very major sounding. As is Missa XVII, for that matter.
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  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    The parent offertory chant, Scapulis suis,* is in the eighth mode, which has a major-key color to it.† The parent psalm is about being kept safe, but within the context of the surrounding tribulation. These observations and others can inform your composition if desired.

    While there may be primary themes to a liturgical season, that need not limit exploration of related secondary themes, either from the pulpit or the choir. For those who do not attend the (non-obligatory) Mass of Ash Wednesday, this text (if used) would be the first offertory they would hear in the Lenten season. As such, it has the potential for setting the seasonal tone for some of them. We follow our Lord to the Cross, but do we do so in sorrow? joy? resolve? trepidation? all of the above? Can a single Mass capture all of these? Yes, and more. Can a single composition? Maaaaaybe…

    *The same text is sung on the same day at Communion in the third mode, which has a quasi-minor color.

    †In contrast, the Palm Sunday offertory, also in the eighth mode, speaks of being in the throes of affliction.
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  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    Nah, you're good. Major might even help you win.
    There's nothing governing which mode to use in a given liturgical season. If it fits the text which the Church has chosen for that day, you're on solid ground.
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  • francis
    Posts: 10,821
    Modes nor keys have nothing to do with Lent
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  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 268
    Gluck wrote some of his most profound laments in major keys.
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  • briyo2289
    Posts: 2
    Thanks for the replies everyone!
  • Lincoln_Hein
    Posts: 131
    All modes of Gregorian chant express different spiritual affections, but all these prayerful affections are equally suited to any text of holy scripture. Or it would be impossible to sing the office psalmody (dependind on the mode of the antiphon the same psalm is chanted with all modes because the antiphon sets the mode).

    Any text of the scriptures can provoke in a person any spiritual movement of any of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit or even a synergistic movement of several or all of them (in fact this is the most common movement carried out by God in the soul through the gifts of the Spirit : the gifts are born from the integrity of charity which is the bond of perfection between all the virtues and the infused virtues either you have them all or you have none - for more about this read the books of Blessed Marie-Eugene de L'Enfant-Jésus "I Want to See God" and "I am a Daughter of the Church").

    If the modes hold within them (through centuries of accumulated meditation by monks and church fathers who composed the melodies) the expressive potential of revealing prayer movements for those who are moved by the gifts of the Spirit, then what is valid for the synergistic action of the gifts applies to the capacity of modes to arouse movements in the soul. And it is important to note that the melodies "modulate" and, throughout them, they do not remain the entire time heading towards the last finalis of the mode, there are intermediate cadences that express more characteristic aspects of another of the modes.

    All movements, including spiritual joy, may be representative of a penitential attitude, There is an apothem of the desert fathers about this, but I have not been able to find it now in its source. It was about two monks who committed a sin and were both placed in a hole to live doing penance. When the prescribed time of penance was over, both were taken out of the hole, and the other brothers saw one of them haggard and disfigured with sadness while the other was radiant with joy. They asked them how the time of penance was: one of them thought about his misery and sin and was saddened for having offended God, the other meditated happily on how blessed was that austerity and salutary penance that allowed him to return to his primitive fervor. The brothers and abbots agreed that they both did equally worthy penance.
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  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 493
    In the propers: Christsus Factus Est, and Pater Sine mode V and VIII are like major keys. You will find "life and death" themes in mode V. Maybe there was a sense severity in the major sounding modes as compared to the more mysterious sounds of the other modes. Mode Vi sounds major but is frequently used with themes of rest , peace and consolation.
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  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    If one considers the Chorales from the St. John and St. Matthew Passions of J.S. Bach, one finds many (if not most) of them are in Major keys.

    Major key Chorales from St. John Passion:
    11. Wer hat dich so geschlagen (Coral) (A Major)
    22. Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn (Choral) (E Major, tune known as Eisenach)
    26. In meines Herzens Grunde (Choral) (E-flat Major)
    28. Er nahm alles wohl in Acht (Choral) (A Major)
    37. O hilf, Christe, Gottes Sohn (Choral) (F Major)
    40. Ach Herr, laß dein lieb Engelein (Choral) (E-flat Major)

    Passion Chorale settings from St. Matthew Passion:
    (15) Choral: Erkenne mich, mein Hüter (I.II) (E Major)
    (17) Choral: Ich will hier bei dir stehen (I.II) (E-flat Major)
    (44) Choral: Befiehl du deine Wege (I.II) (D Major)
    (54) Choral: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden (I.II) (D minor - F Major)
    (62) Choral: Wenn ich einmal soll scheiden (I.II) (A minor - E Major)

    Other Major key Chorales from St. Matthew Passion:
    (10) Choral: Ich bins, ich sollte büßen (I.II) (A-flat Major)
    (32) Choral: Mir hat die Welt trüglich gericht’ (I.II) (B-flat Major)
    (37) Choral: Wer hat dich so geschlagen (I.II) (F Major)
    (40) Choral: Bin ich gleich von dir gewichen (I.II) (A Major)

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  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Each of the Offertories for Lent by Palestrina is, I think, notated originally in F Major (high chiavette), probably corresponding to Mode V (with flatted ti ).
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