Musicam Sacram
  • deo27
    Posts: 15
    How much teeth does Musicam Sacram have? It seems like parts of it have been ignored by most or not done because some priests think chanting is only for certain ‘special’ Sundays/Holy Days throughout the year. Alternatively, you may have a priest that knows the rubrics but requires you to not follow them due to an insecurity with silence. I remember the big push for music directors to know and promote the USCCB’s ‘Sing to the Lord’ but I never experienced the same push for the rubrics below. Notice part of the rubric says ‘may never be used without the first.’ According to this rubric, we should not be singing the Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei unless the following are sung as well:

    -Entrance Rite/Dismissal
    -Acclamations at the Gospel
    -Preface with its dialogue, followed by the Sanctus
    -Final doxology of the Canon
    -Our Father
    -Pax Domini

    27. For the celebration of the Eucharist with the people, especially on Sundays and feast days, a form of sung Mass (Missa in cantu) is to be preferred as much as possible, even several times on the same day.

    28. The distinction between solemn, sung and read Mass, sanctioned by the Instruction of 1958 (n. 3), is retained, according to the traditional liturgical laws at present in force. However, for the sung Mass (Missa cantata), different degrees of participation are put forward here for reasons of pastoral usefulness, so that it may become easier to make the celebration of Mass more beautiful by singing, according to the capabilities of each congregation.

    These degrees are so arranged that the first may be used even by itself, but the second and third, wholly or partially, may never be used without the first. In this way the faithful will be continually led towards an ever greater participation in the singing.

    29. The following belong to the first degree:

    (a) In the entrance rites: the greeting of the priest together with the reply of the people; the prayer.

    (b) In the Liturgy of the Word: the acclamations at the Gospel.

    (c) In the Eucharistic Liturgy: the prayer over the offerings; the preface with its dialogue and the Sanctus; the final doxology of the Canon, the Lord's prayer with its introduction and embolism; the Pax Domini; the prayer after the Communion; the formulas of dismissal.


    30. The following belong to the second degree:

    (a) the Kyrie, Gloria and Agnus Dei;

    (b) the Creed;

    (c) the prayer of the faithful.


    31. The following belong to the third degree:

    (a) the songs at the Entrance and Communion processions;

    (b) the songs after the Lesson or Epistle;

    (c) the Alleluia before the Gospel;

    (d) the song at the Offertory;

    (e) the readings of Sacred Scripture, unless it seems more suitable to proclaim them without singing.

  • Liam
    Posts: 5,606
    well, parts of it have been superseded by the later editions of the Roman Missal.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,228
    The schema of teaching the most basic things, those which change little or none, first, is sound, and CMAA recommends it all the time. (For example, in our "Frequently Asked Questions on Sacred Music".)

    But note that Musicam sacram presents them thus:

    different degrees of participation are put forward here for reasons of pastoral usefulness,


    that is: they are a model that the Sacred Congregation of Rites (the author of MS) was proposing; they're not a mandate.
    Thanked by 4deo27 hilluminar tomjaw Liam
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 573
    I think the general issue with this, at least in my experience is that most of the time it is the priest indicating what is sung and what is not, not the Liturgist.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,606
    Because few if any bishops were ever going to make their priests' singing the dialogues and orations the effective norm for at least Masses on Sundays and other days of precept; the SCR anticipated that result by issuing a mere model rather than a mandate, and thus did not obstruct or displace the inertia of long-time liturgical minimalism.
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