I am curious about what alternative chant melody you have found ... there are several in that meter.

Thanks, everyone! I am going to use the Lalemant version, because I like the straightforward translation, I like the way it is set, and I like that it is relatively short.

I also looked at the Chaumonot version, but I prefer the Lalemant translation.

GerardH, I can't access the score you posted. Could you help me know how to do that, please?

Thanks !

The Lalemant setting is a psalm tone. Setting and singing this well-known sequence to a psalm tone would be a shame, in my opinion. I would encourage you to learn and sing the authentic melody.

It's in the Hymnal 1940 to the original melody.
I don't recommend singing it to any other than the original melody. A new melody. no matter how worthy, Catholics should experience as not the right tune, and foreign. They have been robbed of so much of their heritage already! Perhaps you could use your good new tune for something else? What is it?

I would appreciate hearing your opinion as to why vernacular psalm tone propers are distasteful?

Psalm tone propers exist as an emergency measure to technically fulfill the requirement of a proper being sung with the least musical preparation possible. They are a fall-back for cantors or choirs which are incapable of performing the authentic melodies. This is the case regardless of whether one is dealing with Latin or the vernacular. Sequences are part of our liturgical heritage as Catholics (as are the melodies of the propers in general). They are distinctive and unique. Setting them to a psalm tone completely destroys the musical uniqueness of a particular sequence. The prospect of the sequences of Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, etc. all being to the same psalm toned melody is rather disheartening. Imagine singing happy birthday to a dear friend, but instead you sang it to a psalm tone. It would be unusual and awkward, and you would not be using the melody which traditionally accompanies that situation. Imagine singing Jesus Christ is Risen Today, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Forty Days and Forty Nights all to the same psalm tone. Unthinkable!

Psalm toned propers are the equivalent of serving granola bars for dinner. Yeah it's food, and your stomach might be full, but...

If I am not going to hear or sing the traditional melody, I will take Richard J Clark's version:

https://archive.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/14/06/02/16-06-35_0.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvb_-PU7dow

I just found this in Sing to the Lord, USCCB 2007. I'm not a fan of this document, and I think it was not approved by a vote (or was that the previous one?) but this information helps a bit:



The Sequence

165. The Sequence is a liturgical hymn that is sung before the Gospel Acclamation on certain days. On Easter Sunday (Victimae Paschali Laudes) and Pentecost Day (Veni Sancte Spiritus), the Sequence is required. On the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord (Lauda Sion Salvatorem) and Our Lady of Sorrows (Stabat Mater), the Sequence is optional.

166. The Sequence may be sung by all together, or in alternation between the congregation and choir and cantor, or by the choir or cantor alone. The text from the Lectionary for Mass may be used, or a metrical paraphrase may be sung, provided that it is found in an approved collection of liturgical songs.

davido,

No need to be condescending. I happen to love Gregorian chant, as well as a whole host of other music. I do not agree that the vernacular can easily be "fit" into existing Gregorian melodies. Sometimes vernacular chant is lovely; sometimes it is cringeworthy. That is my personal opinion, which I would not insist that you share, in order to be a member of the "professional musician's club," which, by the way, I am.

Every parish has its own strengths, inadequacies, and difficulties. Every music director has to make choices to fit his or her situation.

Are you a music director who also plays the organ while cantoring every single Mass? Do you choose the music for a parish who has an extremely limited repertoire? Do you print a worship guide for every Mass? Do you have only 2 extra voices who may or may not be available to sing on Sundays and may or may not make it to rehearsal each week, who also have an extremely limited repertoire? And do you work for a priest who has to rush out the door on Sundays after Mass in order to get to his next Mass on time? Has your priest requested that you never sing more than two verses of any hymn nor sing the Our Father? Do you have a priest who never incenses the altar at the Introit and who did not incense the Blessed Sacrament at the transfer on Holy Thursday? Do you have so few people at Mass that it's difficult to sing everything you know you SHOULD sing and everything you WANT to sing?

I'm here looking for solutions to the above problems I face in my music ministry in a tiny Novus Ordo parish. My first and foremost concern is that I do things correctly according to the rubrics. After that I make my choices based on the severe limitations of my situation.

I enjoy hearing other people's opinions but what works for you in the EF might not work for me in the OF. The chants your parish has been familiar with for years, are completely foreign to my parish. Like I said earlier, I'm waiting to hear if they even know the Salve Regina.

As the last good traditional priest I worked with used to say, "The people don't have an 'ear' for chant melodies yet." (I believe the odd-idea'd Ostrowski has also said the same.)

It is 100 percent true. Surely you have worked in chant-deprived parishes before, davido? What you think is beautiful is NOT beautiful to them, the majority of the time. With these kinds of parishes you have to be very conscious about the amount of foreign-sounding music you expose them to each week, or they will totally turn off. You don't just play it and sing it and assume they will love it, understand it, or even know what the heck it means.

Many, many, many NO parishioners have no clue what a sequence is or when it is sung or why. After Mass Sunday, a parishioner I was chatting with told me she dordn't know what Pentecost is.

I have to make choices based on this situation. For the good of my parish. For the growth of my parish. For the musical and spiritual education of my parish.

And it ain't always gonna be chant. And sorry, but I happen to love psalm tones. They work for me when I need to use them instead of another chant melody. AND they are an excellent way to introduce chant to a parish who has no ear for it yet.

At the gorgeous TLM I attend when I have time, in a major southern city, the VERY PROFESSIONAL schola (who is the best schola I have ever heard, for many many reasons, but mostly because their pitch is dead-on, their voices are crystal clear and not operatic, and most of the time you have no idea how many are chanting at once, because they are so perfectly, perfectly matched in timbre and timing and breath control - a totally awesome young schola!!) Anyway, the director there will use psalm tone propers sometimes for the communio, and it sounds great. I hum along with him very quietly and I love it. Other than that, they are singing complex, difficult, gorgeous chants from the Graduale Romanum and lovely polyphony if they have time at Holy Communion.

Let's be charitable to eachother, shall we? I welcome everyone's opinion but I do not welcome any sort of insinuation that I am not a true musician, or that Jeff Ostrowski has odd ideas. Totally uncalled for.

I am needed at the parish so I will not walk away. We're lucky the parish is even open, given that there are only 30 parishioners. I am there to serve God and to grow the parish. I have already made progress.

The only thing I ever use psalm tones for is something like a sequence, which is long and doesn't sound good in English.

I do not sing the propers to psalm tones. I have several resources which I use, but most often it will be Ainsle, with a pedal drone. The people do not know what the propers are but they like what I am singing.

As I mentioned, we have time constraints, and I understand that. Father drives an hour to get to us and an hour wherever else he goes afterward. I'm not going to stomp my foot and insist we sing more hymn verses. THAT is dumb. We have to understand these situations and adjust accordingly.

Please cite where you have read that psalm tones are not an ancient form of Gregorian Chant

I use the Greek Kyrie, the Latin Marian antiphon, and any other Latin hymns I want to use on any given Sunday. I started out in Lent with the Jubilate Deo ordinary in English. We will switch to Latin at Advent.

I have made GREAT strides since Ash Wednesday, and the people are responding well. Before I arrived they were singing "Sing to the Mountains" and "Let There Be Peace on Earth," to recorded accompaniment blasted into a microphone. No Kyrie. No sung psalm. No sung alleluia. No sung amen of any kind. No sung sequences. No propers. No Latin. No Marian antiphon.

They are hearing and/or singing more music now than they ever have.

That's what I'm there for. If I have to use a psalm tone once in awhile, I will

Btw, just so I know, do y'all organists also cantor every single part of the Mass every Sunday?

No need to get defensive either. The claim is that using Psalm tones for other than psalmody a la Rossini is newfangled, not that the tones aren't ancient. But I don't understand why one would think a psalm tone is faster than the sequence melody.

Psalm tone sequence 1:42, Chaumonot (original melody with a few nuances) 2:02. You are correct, Richard Mix.

The Lalemant translation does not rhyme but the Chaumonot does. Either are much better than what appears in our hymnal.

Awesome response, trentonjconn, thank you.

The Lalemant text is actually a direct translation of the Latin, so no rhyming, not very poetic.

A great TLM d.o.m. friend of mine sent me a syncopated version of the original chant, with a nice translation. LOL.

I'll just do the original with accompaniment.

You know how it is regarding the rushing: a shorter homily could fix everything. Just sayin'. But I don't feel rushed, really. Just with the sequences. I'll time it to see how long it takes to recite it versus sing it. It's probably equal.

I did not mean to be condescending. It seemed like you were approaching this subject from an uncommon angle and I thought maybe that was the reason.

You clearly are passionate about your position and bringing traditional music to your parish. Best wishes for your success.

Samuel Webbe the Elder made a strictly metrical paraphrase of Veni Sancte Spiritus. It has remained popular (even with other translations) in Anglican congregations that are intolerant of Plainsong.
https://hymnary.org/hymn/CP1998/page/763

Here's an English to the official plainchant version in case it helps.

Thank you, everyone, for the many resources you have suggested!

In the end I went with the original melody as set to an approved translation and accompaniment by the Chaumonot Composer's Group, which was very easy and straightforward, also easy for me to read while singing. It was about 2 min 15 sec, and turned out fairly well at Mass.

Of course the lector just gave me a blank look when I told her before Mass that I would be singing the Sequence. Sigh. But an older lady said to me after Mass, "It sounds way better than what we had before."

Thank you, Lord.