The unifiying power of chant
  • Dan F.Dan F.
    Posts: 205
    I had a wonderful experience today that I'd like to share. I've sung a monthly Saturday morning mass with a small group of men for the past 3 years at a local parish. Our small schola was invited to sing today at the Baccalaureate mass for the Ave Maria University Institute of Pastoral Theology. They have classes here in Minneapolis, MN as well as other cities around the U.S. A friend of one of our schola members is a graduate this year and this connection was how we were invited to sing. Otherwise, none of our singers is involved with this program.

    The communication organizing this mass was slow and poor. We planned the propers for a Saturday Marian mass, the Jubilate Deo ordinary and selected a few hymns (post communion and recessional). We understood there would be an organist for the hymns, but due to a misunderstanding (we were supposed to call the organist) we were on our own. Plus, only three of us were available today.

    So, just before mass we were a bit worried. Without the organ, we dropped the post communion hymn (Panis Angelicus) and replaced the recessional (Hail Holy Queen replacing O God Beyond All Praising). Thankfully, we used a chanted responsorial psalm by Aristotle Esguerra. I used the refrain from Chabanel Psalms (4th Sunday of OT Year C) and set the verses for today's psalm. So the lack of organ didn't hurt us there.

    There were about 150 in the congregation, many more than our usual 15-20 for Saturday mornings. We came in as "strangers" to this parish and the University program. But the mass went well! We are far from a "professional" schola. However, the simple ordinary chants really drew in the congregation and they sang! The chanted responsorial psalm was dignified and beautiful. The local auxiliary bishop was there, and a number of the dialogues were chanted in English and Latin. It left me with a profound experience of the truly catholic nature of a chanted liturgy. We "strangers" were really brothers and sisters in Christ who could draw upon a common liturgical heritage of prayer.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    God be praised !
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Jeff Tucker on chant as a unifying force
  • don roy
    Posts: 306
    at the saturday mass we did the usual suspects (yawn) but after communion my schola sang the ave verum chant. i find it interesting that with all the contemporary "full and active" participation that this quiet moment of chant was by far the most prayerful moment of the entire hour.
    you could hear a pindrop and feel the praying.
    chant has muscle!
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Such an interesting story. I wish more people would just unplug and sing the chant. This method almost always works.
  • Dan F.Dan F.
    Posts: 205
    Thank for link, Jeff O. (And Jeff T. for the commentary!)
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 966
    Our little schola sang this afternoon at a different parish. We had been invited to sing for the 1st Mass of a newly ordained priest. [this was organized by another young priest, for whom we had sung during his ordination last summer]. The parish where we sang is a very large parish (maybe 4000 families); the church was packed with about 1200 people today -- a big difference from the usual number for whom we sing at our own parish each week.

    Now, the entire Mass was in Spanish, except for the music, which we sang (unaccompanied) in Latin. The priest who invited us to sing said that all Latin in our music would be just fine. So... we sang our usual unaccompanied chants in this [much larger] church for the first time. It went fine and we received many nice compliments.

    But, the thing that struck me [and made me think my little comment would be appropriate here] is what the priest who invited us said to us afterwards. He told me that at that parish, at that Mass time each week, the people are so very noisy (babies crying... kids wandering through the aisles, etc.) that he was very concerned about it for his friend's (and now fellow priest) first Mass. He said that our music made a huge difference in the feel of the Mass and that it really made it special. I noticed myself that there were several times when we were singing our chants that it was [very nearly] silent out there in the pews with the people "actively" listening.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    Singing chant can definitely be like dimming the lights...they sense there is something different and solemn and they know how to respond. Maybe they learn it from movies? I don't know, but I have heard this happen over and over again, especially when music is usually accompanied. We sang an anthem to a packed church the other evening and when the organ dropped out for the center unaccompanied section SSA in Latin, the church went deathly still.
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    What anthem, Noel?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    Something I wrote for them...I attribute the silence to the dropping out the organ, not my writing.
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    Cool. I'm curious, though… was this during Mass? At what point? I'm just trying to get a sense of how a new composition (an "anthem," as you indicate) can fit into the structure of the liturgy.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    NO Mass at the offertory.

    Text: Veni Creator Spiritus

    [it replaced the chosen music, the OCP Blessed Are They]
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    When Kevin Allen composes a latin motet, may it be sung at an EF without further ado?
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    If it is a motet worthy of the EF Mass, why not?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    So Mark, I am wondering why you asked: " I'm curious, though… was this during Mass? At what point? I'm just trying to get a sense of how a new composition (an "anthem," as you indicate) can fit into the structure of the liturgy." I assumed that you thought this was during an EF, since most people are very cautious about what is correct and what is not, while the OF seems to range from chant to yodeling. :<)
  • Mark M.Mark M.
    Posts: 632
    Noel, I think my question simply stemmed from me being unclear what you meant by "anthem"… I'm just not familiar with that term in a liturgical context. I didn't assume that it was an EF Mass. I did assume that if you wrote it, and that if you programmed it to be sung during the liturgy, that it would be appropriate (and beautiful).

    Alius cantus aptus… very aptus! :)
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    Loose use of words by me...what is the term for a motet that is accompanied?
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Accompanied motet. Anthem usually refers to a motet in English.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    Makes sense...so what we sang was an anthem with a motet section in the middle. ;)
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Yes, anthem is essentially what the English began calling motets in the 16th century. By the 17th, two types emerged, but a "full anthem" was still essentially an extra-liturgical text set for choir, often unaccompanied, but sometimes with organ. A "verse anthem" featured soloists, choir, and instruments (even if just organ). If anyone has trouble inserting motets or anthems during an EF Mass, they are ignoring centuries of practice.
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