Are Sequences optional in the Ordinary Form?
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    Our Music director/organist sang the entire beast of the sequence today solo. I was impressed. When we sing it in the EF we sang it antiphonally between the Tenors and Basses and the Sopranos and Altos too because it’s so long.

    I noticed on the livestream Masses on my Facebook that multiple parishes just skipped it entirely, whereas other parishes only sang a couple verses.

    What’s the rubrics on sequences in the OF? They’re not optional in the EF.
  • GerardH
    Posts: 460
    GIRM
    64. The Sequence which, except on Easter Sunday and on Pentecost Day, is optional, is sung before the Alleluia.
  • GerardH
    Posts: 460
    Amusingly, the Ordo Cantus Missae 1984 specifies the traditional placement. @chonak's translation:
    8. The Sequence, if there is one, is sung after the last Alleluia, in alternation by cantors and a choir, or by two parts of a choir, omitting the Amen at the end. If the Alleluia is not sung with its verse, the Sequence is omitted.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    Yes. It’s a mess.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    The Corpus Christi sequence is/was optional in the EF at Low Masses in the octave. At our EF we had the Sunday Mass. But the NO sung Mass had the feast and the director sang the whole sequence.
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 621
    It is also licit in the OF to sing an abbreviated version beginning at the verse "ecce panis angelorum".
    Thanked by 2DavidOLGC Liam
  • RomanticStringsRomanticStrings
    Posts: 339
    To summarize, apart from Easter and Pentecost, the sequences are optional. They are sung, according to the latest rubrics, before the Alleluia.

    Additionally, the Corpus Christi sequence can be abbreviated to the final four stanzas. This is what I did yesterday, due to the lengthening additions of a Bishop's Appeal prior to Mass and a Eucharistic procession and Benediction at the end of Mass.
    Thanked by 1Liam
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    They have come out with a new OCO. If the OCM 1984 isn’t meant to control the rubrics, they should amend it. (What I don’t understand is omitting “Amen. Alleluia.” even in that case.)

    Heaven forbid that people spend more time in church honoring the Body of Our Blessed Redeemer on the feast of the very same. I can (just barely, because it’d be disappointing to not hear the full Sequence) understand wishing to cut down the Sequence if the schola’s competence is a question. And there are days where you won’t turn around such that the 8:30 crowd is gone before the people arrive for 10:00 or 10:30. This past Sunday ought to be one of them.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Carol
    Posts: 856
    At our OF Mass we also had only the 4 stanzas, which was notated by OCP as the "Short Form." Our organist/music director sang a contemporary version of this which I do not care for at all! It has this choppy organ accompaniment which sounds like a cross between the theme from Zorba the Greek and Hava Nagila.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 402
    Heaven forbid that people spend more time in church honoring the Body of Our Blessed Redeemer on the feast of the very same


    Not to get get technical, but we’re honouring the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord.
    Thanked by 2Liam francis
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    Well that sort of gets at something that people find cranky if they don’t stop and think about it: the abolition of the feast of the Precious Blood as redundant was was one of the more outrageous claims in Calendarium Romanum given the actual content of the liturgy composed by St Thomas and the way that the feast is celebrated today.

    That is, absolutely nothing changed for 99% of people (or it got worse, but there’s just no way to shoehorn the Precious Blood into this feast).

    Anyway, “Corpus (Domini nostri Jesu) Christi” surely suffices, no?
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 268
    When we are elected Pope, we will restore the sequence to follow (hence sequence) the alleluia, not precede it.

    If it followed the Alleluia, one could have an extended Gospel procession around the church increasing the festivity of the day. Instead, many just sit there while the choir or cantor have a go at the sequence.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 127
    It's difficult to stay motivated when they tell you everything is optional - optional sequence, optional propers, optional ordinary, optional gregorian chant, optional reverence, etc.. sigh.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw LauraKaz
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 268
    @Lars Another way to look at it is the presence of options is empowering. It allows you to do what you want. The only argument against propers and chant are based in taste. And if that is what you want to do, you have documents to cite back that make those the preferred options.
    Thanked by 3Lars tomjaw LauraKaz
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    "When we are elected Pope, we will restore the sequence to follow (hence sequence) the alleluia, not precede it."

    Not that that means anyone will necessarily follow that.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen Paul F. Ford PaxTecum
  • CantorCole
    Posts: 65
    I've seen multiple examples of Parishes chanting them in the traditional order in the Novus Ordo. See this year's Latin Pentecost Mass at St John Cantius and Oxford Oratory. I wouldn't be surprised if it is also the case for the London Oratory.

    It must be one of those rules where "if the propers are chanted using the Gregorian repertoire, the traditional order is observed".
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,311
    This was what I was getting at with the point about revising, or not, the OCM. The GIRM is just not written with chanting a Gregorian Alleluia in mind.
    Thanked by 3a_f_hawkins GerardH tomjaw
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