Gregorian chant and missionary inculturation
  • wisc.gabriel
    Posts: 1
    I am brand new to the CMA forum, not quite as new to the world of Gregorian chant. A friend from my schola told me that I may find some insight into this question here in this forum... so here goes.

    I've recently begun correspondence with someone who categorizes himself as having a "modern" liturgical preference, while I definitely favor more traditional liturgy (i.e. liturgy that follows the Roman Missal, uses the propers, etc.) One thing that is important to him is the inclusion of regional cultural elements in the liturgy, particularly in mission countries. I attended the World Mission Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square in Rome in 2000, and there were many cultural elements, such as an African dance during the offertory procession, that were very universal and beautiful.

    Admittedly, I have not done research on this topic on my own. But any thoughts on the following:

    - Historically (before the 1970 Missal) how was the Mass introduced in mission lands? Were the Latin propers taught? Were sacred songs in the vernaciular ever used?
    - Today, what is appropriate in this regard? Is the inclusion of elements of local culture permissible?

    Thanks for your thoughts.
    God bless you.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    An example of how chant was rendered for the Native Americans in the time of St. Noël Chabanel and St. Antoine Daniel: SAMPLE PAGE (PDF file)

    courtesy of Claudio R. Salvucci's book "The Roman Rite in the Algonquian & Iroquoian Missions"

    Pretty fascinating, huh? Many of those books were printed, because there was an indult for Native Americans to have certain parts of the Mass in their vernacular.



    AN EXCERPT from the PDF:

    image

    Thanked by 1eft94530
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,382
    Many years ago I had an LP of a mass (Missa Luba) as performed by some Congolese which, while in Latin, was quite beautiful and done with much of their own tribal musical language. The creed is particularly memorable in that passus et sepultus est was preceded by a most haunting death dirge on drums and hollowed logs from their own tribal culture. Sanctus, also, was quite sacral and moving. One must observe that such 'inculturation' never fails to have a more sacred and ecclesial ethos than the clown masses and sacro-pop music to which we are subjected by the intellectual clowns in our culture. The fathers (both spiritual and musical) of the Church will be found to have gone out of their way to avoid any hint of pagan and secular influence from the culture in which they lived. Certain people would do well to study their example and teaching.

    By the way: thanks, Jeffrey for the fascinating example above. That is one of my favourite Alleluyas. I am reminded of a similar linguistic trait of the Japanese who, but with great effort, cannot pronounce our sound 'R'.

    Interesting too, is that there seems to have been no reservation in adapting the sacred chant to a language other than Latin. And, it sings well.
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Missa Luba is simply amazing and is available on YouTube. Believe it or not, the record company, Philips, made cassette tapes of it, which made it much more portable. To my knowledge, it was sung in parishes in the U.S. in the 1960s and, perhaps, the 1970s.

    How these hidden treasures get lost or forgotten is almost certainly a sad story.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Doug,
    I have an LP of Missa Luba! Even in the Bay Area back in the day, it never received much attention.
    BTW, the Fairlamb "Te Deum" is a very, very interesting piece, worthy of performance definitely. Thanks,again.
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Good to hear from you, Charles!

    Philips recorded Missa Luba in 1958 or 1959, I believe, and released it commercially a couple of years later. A gentleman named Marc Ashley Foster recently wrote a choral conducting DMA dissertation on it at UNC-Greensboro, and the document has a usable transcription of the piece for modern performances. Maybe it will make a comeback!

    I just wish I could have heard several different improvisations of it while the original choir was touring. Affixing a piece like this to paper, or even to a recording, does it some degree of injustice.
  • Ioannes Andreades
    Posts: 310
    I think I've mentioned on this site that one of the reasons that the Russian Orthodox were successful in Alaska in a way that the Catholic weren't is that the Orthodox allowed for considerably more inculturation. One of the coolest things I heard while in Juneau was a c.d. of Orthodox chant in Tlingit, the local American Indian language. My understanding is that this was not something that Catholic missionaries allowed. I know nothing about the indult mentioned above by Jeff Ostrowski. Since Vatican II, requiring propers in Latin is not required, and I would suppose in mission lands inadvisable.
  • JamJam
    Posts: 636
    building on what Mr. Andreades said:

    there are many different groups of Alaska natives, many of which were converted to Orthodoxy, but some that were not. Interestingly enough, native languages like Yupi'k are alive and well still, since the Orthodox translated so much into those languages, and Yupi'k chant is still sung in Alaskan churches to this day. I've personally met plenty of native speakers of the Yupi'k language. Other languages, such as Athabascan, which were languages of groups farther inland that Orthodoxy did not or barely reached, are dying out or totally dead now.

    The way inculturation worked in Alaska was I think a wonderful example of what inculturation is meant to be... the baptizing of a culture it a way that preserves the holy and sacred and traditional and weaves it seamlessly together, creating a national identity which is distinctly Christian.
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