Do you sing the Mass Ordinary in read Mass?
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 136
    I had an argument with a few of my choir people regarding singing the Mass Ordinary. They told me they almost never sung the Mass parts and only did the 4-hymn sandwich. I tried to convince them that the Church asks us to sing the Mass rather than merely sing at the Mass. I'm re-reading the Musicam Sacram and I cant find anything to substantiate that.. It talks about the distinction between solemn, sung and read Mass, and all our Masses are low/read, which means anything goes...(Musicam Sacram 36.). Do you sing the Mass Ordinary in read Mass?
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 391
    Am I correct in thinking you are talking about the TLM?
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • francis
    Posts: 11,218
    Prof Mahrt answered this question years ago on this forum. Let’s see if I can remember the order of importance. I might be able to dig it up because I’m not sure he answered a whole lot of things on the forum. However, here it is from memory…

    1 Priest chant his dialogue parts
    2 People/choir chant their responses (prob includes RP in NO)
    3 People/choir sing the ordinary
    4 Choir sings the Propers
    5 Hymns and other polyphony.
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • AbbysmumAbbysmum
    Posts: 143
    I think you're talking about sung degrees, which is discussed at https://churchmusicassociation.org/sungdegrees/
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • francis
    Posts: 11,218
    Hmmm… my observation is not directly answering your question but addressing which parts are most important to be sung. Singing hymns st mass is actually the last addition to what should take presidence.
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 1,095
    Please keep in mind that the degrees Musicam sacram (1967) lays out, are mainly about degrees of participation of the people.
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 78
    I am in a similar quandary, because neither of our two priests sing ANY of their parts at Mass, ever.

    In reading and wracking my brain over the sung degrees I have come to the conclusion that if the priest doesn't sing his parts, we should not sing anything st all, either, not even hymns. Someone please correct me on this if I'm wrong, but it sure seems that way when you read the passage about sung degrees.

    However, we are a small church with only one Mass on Sunday, and I feel very strongly about having a sung Mass with all the propers, sung ordinary, and Marian antiphon. We usually also sing three hymns but not always. No hymns during Lent.

    So I know I"m not following the theory of the sung degrees but I would find it sad to not have a sung Mass on Sunday. And I think people might leave the parish if it were a low Mass every Sunday. Personally I love low Mass but not everybody does.

    This is the disaster of the NO.
    Thanked by 1Lars
  • LarsLars
    Posts: 136
    Sorry about the confusion @fcb . It's a NO.
    It's exactly the same as @TLMlover . Priests do not chant anything.
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