The composition and liturgical use of new monodies
  • AlVotta
    Posts: 41
    I have for some time been interested in the composition of monodies in both Latin and vernacular (which for me is Portuguese). I have used vernacular monodies at OF Masses, which I compose for every Mass I play at.

    Generally I understand that the composition of new monodies in Latin (to texts already set to Gregorian pieces) was not done in the past for two reasons:

    1 – Gregorian is a model
    2 – Available choirs attracted composers to the interesting possibilities of polyphony.

    As to writing monodies, it’s not only something I like. It allows me to offer other people music that will be more readily available, especially if we consider the small amount of choirs in my country (as well as the little interest there is for them).

    Well, my questions are:

    1 – Is it strictly forbidden to use new monodies in Latin for the EF? Of course: approved music is Gregorian, polyphony and psalm tones. Still I ask this question.

    2 – If new Latin monodies are not acceptable at the EF, are they suitable for an EF Low Mass?

    3 – Do you think vernacular monodies could be used at EF Low Masses?

    There is no EF Mass in my diocese at the moment, so the questions are somewhat theoretical. I haven’t attended any EF Mass so far.

    My questions are not an indirect way to state opinions – they’re rather questions from a student to teachers.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,161
    Some quick responses:

    1: "Modern sacred music" is permitted, according to the 1958 De musica sacra, and that seems to leave the door open to new compositions, provided they are judged suitable.

    18. Modern sacred music may also be used in all liturgical ceremonies if it conforms to the dignity, solemnity, and sacredness of the service, and if there is a choir capable of rendering it artistically.


    2: Yes, provided that those monodies are not settings of the Mass propers or the ordinary.

    3. Yes. The same document allows vernacular hymns in Low Mass, and I think the Church's intention includes vernacular works in other styles as well.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    #1. I would say that monophony is not acceptable for compositions of the Mass Propers or Ordinary at any EF Mass, because it would have the effect of replacing the authentic Gregorian melodies. The same document chonak quotes defines modern sacred music as:

    7. Modern sacred music is likewise sung in many voice-parts


    ...while forbidding the replacement of the melodies in the approved chant books:

    21. c) But if for some reason a choir cannot sing one or another liturgical text according to the music printed in the liturgical books, the only permissible substitution is this: that it be sung either recto tono, i.e., on a straight tone, or set to one of the psalm tones.


    With regards to #3, as a reminder the law forbids singing vernacular translations or paraphrases of the Mass Propers or Ordinary at Low Mass, because it would have the effect of a backdoor vernacularization. The only exception, based on approved local custom, is for the Mass Ordinary to be sung in the German language at German national Masses. This holds true for all styles of music.

    As regards #2, I don't think they should be used for Latin renderings of the Mass Ordinary or Propers at Low Mass, because it would have the effect of a backdoor de-Gregorianization. Others would say that you can't sing Ordinary or Propers at Low Mass at all, and there is some good reason for avoiding doing so, but as discussed and proven many times before on this forum, it is not forbidden by any law of the Church for a choir to sing the Ordinary or Propers at Low Mass.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    Two threads on Propers/Ordinary at EF Low Masses:

    Question on EF Mass procedures
    What music is required and/or appropriate for an EF Low Mass?
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    Chrism wrote: #1. I would say that monophony is not acceptable for compositions of the Mass Propers or Ordinary at any EF Mass, because it would have the effect of replacing the authentic Gregorian melodies.

    Would your statement exclude Chants Abreges from the extraordinary form Mass? This book uses simple Gregorian type melodies in combination with psalm tones for Graduals, Tracts, and Alleluias. My understanding it was prepared for choirs who couldn't master the full Gregorian chants, but wanted something more than psalm tones.

    As to AlVotta's original question about newly composed monody, if newly composed polyphonic ordinaries and propers are permitted, I don't see why monody would not be.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    I think the reason behind the rule against unauthorized, non-Gregorian monophony is simple to understand.

    Would it be a deformation to replace Mozarabic chant with Gregorian chant in the rite of Toledo?
    Would it be abusive for an Oriento-supremacist to replace Gregorian chant with Byzantine or Znameny chant?
    Would it be out of order for an ecumenical Protestant music director to replace Gregorian chant with Taizé?

    Each of these things would have the effect of changing the liturgy, because plainsong is integral to liturgy. This is why it is regulated in the first place. Polyphony is not as regulated, presumably because it is what the people listen to, not what they sing.

    The Chants Abregés was a Church-approved attempt to create a Gregorian-style alternative chant for the Graduals, Tracts and Alleluias, which were not always being sung, even at High Mass, in contravention of the law, because they were simply considered "too hard" (they are not too hard). The book was written before the 1958 restatement of the law against deviating from the Graduale (cited in my post above). I believe Solesmes did not consider Chants abregés abrogated by the 1958 instruction. Whether their work is authentic or merely innovative, it represents a move towards an official change in the rite, a change codified universally a few years later in the Vatican's call for a Graduale Simplex.

    Looking back in history, there were many attempts at "simple" or "parochial" versions of the Kyriale and Graduale, which were condemned by the predecessor of the CMAA and apparently by Rome. Today only Psalm-tone works like Rossini, and the Abregés, are widely considered licit.

    Now the argument could be made that the Novus Ordo permits all sorts of monophone settings, and some of them are good, and indeed that's the whole point of the Chabanel Psalms. While that's all true, a) that does not mean that it is permitted at the Tridentine Rite, b) the permissiveness has caused liturgical disunity to the point that Catholics often don't know what will be expected of them when they walk into a Catholic church, and c) the promotion of good modern monophony is made necessary by the widespread use of bad modern monophony (e.g., Haugen).

    I've argued on this thread why I think the Tridentine Rite should not be subject to arbitrary changes and modernizations.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    While I can understand someone wanting to compose...the moment that this is done for EF you are headed down the path of the mess we are in with the NO.

    Every piece of music that is to be sung at Mass should be approved. That would solve the problem. It has preserved the EF form.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    I should add, Mr. Votta, that I listened to the recording of your Kyrie in honor of St. John Bosco and found it quite beautiful.

    If it were available in a 9-fold version, it would also be one of the shorter choral Kyries I've heard worth singing, and thus particularly useful for Low Mass or Sung Mass without Incense.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    Alvotta: you said "Generally I understand that the composition of new monodies in Latin (to texts already set to Gregorian pieces) was not done in the past . . . "

    This is true for the propers of the Mass. Even in the Gregorian repertory, a new composition on a text already set in that genre is very rare; I can think of only one—the offertory Ave Maria, which occurs on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, occurs in a new setting on December 8, but that new setting is quite new.

    This is, however, not true for the Ordinary. One finds new settings of the Ordinary throughout history. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, one finds in Germany new, semi-mensural monophonic melodies in the printed graduals. I remember seeing a Dutch gradual of the eighteenth century with all the familiar Gregorian propers and quite a few of the familiar Ordinary melodies, but also with a number of evidently new monodies for the Ordinary. They were characteristically eighteenth-century melodies, and could easily have been supplied with a simple tonal organ accompaniment, yet they were printed in a gradual alongside the traditional melodies. From the seventeenth century, we have several Mass ordinaries by Henri Dumont, including Credo III, some of which you can occasionally find in the Ordinary section of an edition of the Liber Usualis.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    Dr. Mahrt,

    If I remember correctly, the Du Mont Masses fit within the Gregorian modes and seemed to follow the traditional genre for each particular chant (e.g. melismatic Kyrie) ...do you know if the same can be said for the settings found in the other printed graduals?
  • AlVotta
    Posts: 41
    Thanks to all who have responded to my questions and commented on them.

    Chrism - I would just like to clarify that the Kyrie in honor of St John Bosco is a composition by Jeff Ostrowski. I have simply written an adapted version to my language (Portuguese), something that didn't require but very few adjustments.

    Noel, this comment of yours:

    "While I can understand someone wanting to compose...the moment that this is done for EF you are headed down the path of the mess we are in with the NO. Every piece of music that is to be sung at Mass should be approved. That would solve the problem. It has preserved the EF form."

    ... is hard to disagree with. And I say this as someone who is so much willing to compose for the Liturgy, and actually has composed for the Liturgy. Do you think about Roman or diocesan approval?
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    i know that pius x made the solesmes chant the official chant of the church, but i think it is still possible to examples of individual chapels singing versions of the chant from their history. i think even the sistine did this from time to time. i take it to mean that although the official chant books were set, still it was not forbidden to sing, for example, a variant reading of the introit that had been used at one's cathedral years ago, or a heinrich isaac or william byrd setting of the PROPERS which used chant snippets not taken from the liber usualis....
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    frogman: Every piece of music that is to be sung at Mass should be approved.

    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1252#Item_24
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    frogman: Every piece of music that is to be sung at Mass should be approved.

    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1252#Item_24

    Yes, my sentence is just my condensed version, as easily ignored as the original document, for some reason of other!
    Thanked by 1eft94530
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