Organ during the Last Gospel
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 398
    Can anyone provide any authoritative sources on the playing of the organ during the Last Gospel?

    I’ve seen opinions in both directions - but without any sources to back them up.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,073
    It is customary. De Musica sacra does not prohibit it if you follow strict Pius XII/1962 rubrics. I much prefer organ, or silence when solo organ isn’t allowed, to the Marian antiphon, as the celebrant and ministers cannot pray that and the Gospel at once. I will check when I get home to see if Stercky says anything. But it is most certainly allowed.
  • OMagnumMysterium
    Posts: 219
    It is customary.

    In some places certainly, but not at our parish, or most others that I've be to.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,073
    Yeah it’s not well-known in the US, but outside of it, silence during the Last Gospel (including the Marian antiphon, which I dislike, as I said) is far from the norm.

    We didn’t have organ today, and it is a very bad habit to read the Last Gospel out loud, which comes out without the organ there.
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,168
    We sing a vernacular hymn if Sung, and stand (with genuflection) if Low. The hymn continues as a recessional.

    (Father does not read it out loud. I can't imagine how the Vikings are supposed to hear it, even though Father is facing North.)
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 398
    And here we are, yet again... No actual authoritative sources addressing the specific point!

    The scan of Fortescue's instructions for his organist is not authoritative either, having no proper references for its instructions.

    I can see contextually how it might be appropriate to play the organ during the Last Gospel on the basis that a bishop celebrating Pontifical Mass is permitted to recite it privately in procession, rather than at the altar - but was hoping for something stronger than this as an authority in either direction.
  • OMagnumMysterium
    Posts: 219
    Yeah, sorry that I don't know any real sources.

    The idea of organ during the last Gospel is rather novel to me, but I would imagine that if the organist is really good at improvising and playing off the liturgy so to speak, it could fit really nicely. Just a gentle interlude, perhaps starting with referencing the tone of the Ite Missa est just used, then it gradually wanders into more open teritory, perhaps referencing whatever other ideas are expressed by the Propers and particular to that day. Then as the priest finishes the last Gospel, the organist transitions toward the mode of the Marian Antiphon, and ends with a little intro from which the choir can easily begin the antiphon.
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 492
    begin playing softly after "ET VERBUM CARO FACTUM EST,
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,073
    And here we are, yet again... No actual authoritative sources addressing the specific point!


    The obvious answer is “there is a lacuna”. I understand your frustration, but “asked and answered, counselor”. There is always more to say, perhaps, but if even the legislation on sacred music doesn’t mention it, it’s hard to get a definitive answer, as the AAS are hard to find and search, for a number of reasons.

    The working assumption really does seem to be that, at least before 1957, if the choir wasn’t singing, you could play the organ unless it was prohibited, and there were rubrics governing organ replacement of parts of the ordinary, Vespers etc.
  • 32ContraBombarde32ContraBombarde
    Posts: 133
    Perhaps ubi lex non distinguit, nec nos distinguere debemus applies?

    I'm open to being proven wrong in liturgical law, but as far as I know there is not any authoritative source (as observed by the OP). Therefore, I say it can be decided at the parish level unless a higher authority passes down a ruling. I personally prefer organ during the Last Gospel at a Sung Mass, and like to improvise building up to the Marian antiphon or other hymn/piece for the final procession.

    I have also worked under pastors who forbade the practice, but without any citation of liturgical law.
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