Propers - Final Days of Advent
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    My schola and I will be doing sung Vespers according to the modern LOTH from December 17-23 for the "O Antiphons." On the weekdays, these will follow the regularly scheduled evening daily Mass at the church.

    I thought that since we'll be at Mass anyway (where there's usually no music), we might as well sing the Introit and Communion. When I looked these up, I found there were truly proper Propers in the Missal for each day, but the Gradule Romanum gives them for Monday-Saturday during December 17-23 repeating half way through! - so they don't really line up with the collects and readings at all. I realized there was no real sense of "heightened" Advent for ferial Masses in EF, and so I guess that's why the chants for this period in the OF appear a little "thrown together."

    So, if I was on the fence before about whether to use Graduale propers in Latin, or Missal propers in English (at least for these days), I'm now leaning pretty strongly on the Missal propers. I figure we'll sing them to a psalmtone. Only question is - how should I choose the mode? Any ideas on that? Or any better ideas for singing Propers for these days in English (which harmonize nicely with the readings)?
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    My suggestion--which is only that--I don't know of any rules for this, would be:
    1. If the Missal text exists as a chant, use the mode of the chant for that text;
    2. If not, use the mode of the Graduale chant for that same part of Mass.

    I would like to think there is some wisdom or at least custom behind the selection of modes for the propers, although with the post-Vatican II reordering of things, that may be wishful thinking. (I never cottoned much to the Rossini method of using the same mode for the whole Mass.)
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    Thanks David. That was my thinking as well.

    The funny part is, since the Missal Propers here don't really seem to correspond to any of the Graduale chants, if I were using the same mode as the chant for the same part of Mass in the Graduale, it would change from year to year! The Missal Propers are given proper to each calendar day, while the Graduale chants are given based on day of the week. For example, the Missal Propers for December 17 will be the same every year (except when it falls on Sunday), but this year, the Graduale chants for December 17 will be "Friday during the time December 17-24." Next year, it would be "Saturday during the time December 17-24" - completely different Propers!
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