How to get from modern mess to Catholic heritage
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    I've been reading and learning about the incredible richness of the Catholic musical heritage since I swam the Tiber a few years ago. Chant, Chant Masses, psalmody, tones, tracts...it's incredible. I already knew about Palestrina, of course, but 'Asperges Me', and "Vidi Aquam'...I'm hooked.

    I'm lucky enough to be in a parish where the Pastor wants some return to tradition. The problem is that we have a completely Protestanized Mass with Hymns at the Open, Close, Offertory and Communion. I inherited OCP, a true mess with binders and hymnals that don't match and the constant expense of Missals and music editions.

    One of the first things I learned was that OCP was not on the side of plainsong. I actually had to go back to the Sarum version of some things to find them. We hadn't used the proper Sequences required. Etc., etc.

    My first step was to use the Sequences, no excuses. and Asperges and Vidi in their seasons. I added the missing Latin descant to the Heritage Mass. Then we shifted to Jeff Ostrowski's inspired and traditional Chabanel Psalmody. Cautiously, we began to use Chant Mass XVII at Lent. This is really going to pay off in Advent.

    Here I am, now, at Ash Wednesday. I look over the offerings from OCP and they just disappoint. The old hymns are good (and being a convert, I grew up with them), but there aren't enough that deal with real repentance to go around, and some of the OCP things are just bad music but the congregation knows them, so we start where they are and go....where?

    What's the next step?
    Thanked by 1RedPop4
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Wow, good intuitions here! There are tons of resources available but it is true that you have to know what you are looking for. The first step is to go to the Gregorian Missal to see what is supposed to go one during Lent and Holy Week. Once you see that, you can decide what is possible and where you have to step back from this and use vernacular and easier chants. The next step is to look at the Anglican Use Gradual (it seems to me). Then also you can see the St. Louis Gradual (recently posted). And the Simple English Propers too. And Palmer/Burgess. And so on. At each step you have to make an assessment of how far you can go forward and at what point you have to stop on the way to the Graduale Romanum. It is a massive undertaking but there is the huge payoff that you are constantly making things better.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Musically, start singing a Latin Agnus Dei while the priest receives with your choir or a small schola group. Pick one that you would like the people to begin singing after hearing it for 6 weeks or so.

    Consider abandoning misalletes totally and using a weekly bulletin for Mass. Have them handed out before Mass and then collected at the door when they leave for use at the next Mass. The thought of having to do a weekly Mass guide sounds like a lot of work - so make it a seasonal one, enough hymns, antiphons and music for 6 weeks at a time - that way you only print 10 times a year.

    You are going to save the parish a LOT of money. Make sure you get to spend a portion of it.

    This way YOU and the PASTOR get complete control over the liturgy and music. People do not need the readings. Omit them and get people listening to the readings again instead of reading along with their noses buried in books.

    To gently wean them off all the music they like you may need a one year license from OneLicense.com to print certain hymns - To Jesus Christ Our Sov. for example.

    Get rid of the final hymn. When Father says, The Mass is Ended, it is. There is no reason for it, let the organist play and the choir sing if you like, but send people on their way.

    Go to: http://antoinedanielmass.org/kyriale/ to find the Agnus Dei you would like and also use the audio teaching files for your singers.
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    Whoa, Jeffrey! Take pity on a convert - what Gregorian Missal do you mean? I have a 'Liber Usualis' and a 'Kyriale'. Looking in the Liber was what depressed me - I saw the chants appointed and thought, 'Oh, no, more treasure lost.' But I do have to move slowly. My pastor is not an Extraordinary Rite afficionado. I'll look up the resources you suggested as time permits - thank you for your suggestions!

    I like the idea, Noel, of leaving out the final hymn! Wish I'd thought of that as a Lenten discipline (something to give up!). The parish seems willing to endure new things for a known season (like Lent). But you are right. It's been an awful struggle to get them to stay for the final hymn. Now they actually sing two verses and some (mostly homeschooled families) are there in little pockets enduring to the end - which is great. I never use verses that mean nothing, but I agree that 'The Mass is ended' ought to mean ENDED. (As in, no announcements?)

    We are thinking about buying a permanent Missal for all years. Our church office is already overwhelmed with copy requests and with 1500 families, it's expensive. But my Pastor liked the idea of not having to buy the paper missals and the labor to put them all in, so I may get there by devious (in the old sense) ways. Obviously getting just the right Missal is going to matter - it will define our worship for a generation.
  • Jeffrey CogginsJeffrey Coggins
    Posts: 360
    Gregorian Missal PDF.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    The way that Catholics buy----substitute GENERATIONS!
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Concurring with Noel on the Agnus Dei 17, but strongly recommending that you also use Kyrie 17 and, most importantly Sanctus 17. If these are a stretch, then do Jubilate Deo settings of at least those three, with emPHAsis on the Sanctus being part of the mix.
    Just a reminder, do not schedule organ preludes or postludes (subbing for dismissal hymn) during Lent, Linda. Suppressed the pipes are as solo instrument during the season, as it were. Choir/schola can sing, we do just for ourselves anyway, always have.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    But the guitars and drums are ok!
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    It would be enlightening if the guitar masses actually dig sing everything without accompaniment, as they should during Lent.

    This would make singing some songs of that style stronger and others impossible to sing. Make a list....
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    Thanks, Charles for reminder. We have strict guidelines - no preludes, descants, free accompaniments or postludes, and I'm making them play Mass XVIII in unison for a few weeks. Ideally it would be sung, but we don't have a choir or schola for all Masses.

    Noel, what do you mean by substitute generations on the Missal?

    The trouble with guitar masses is that they're based on a 'star and his band' model rather than the true Christian choir ideal where the voices blend so well you can't tell where one ends and another begins. This takes humility and a constellation of other Christian virtues (as well as a desire to attend rehearsal...)
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    The purchasing of a hardbound hymnal for a Catholic church pretty well establishes that it will be used for many generations - until the covers begin falling off...it's a major decision that ties the hands of those who follow you!
  • don roy
    Posts: 306
    amen noel. i followed a director who insisted on gather comprehensive. i curse that guy pretty much every day because of the crap inflicted on the parish by this hymnal
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • don roy
    Posts: 306
    oh and by the way, that guy is now in an episcopalian church going high anglican music while i get to pick from gather comp o goodie!
  • Francesca
    Posts: 51
    Oh, dear! I hate the OCP stuff I've inherited and there actually are Gather books in the pews, but we don't use them.

    I was thinking of a MISSAL, not a hymnal, although a permanent one might have the basic seasonal hymns in it. Saving all those paper missals ought to free up money for something else in the music resources realm.

    Noel, if I stack the Gather and OCP stuff in the boiler room for posterity, would I be playing fair? Thanks for the anthem - will look at it as soon as I recover from today's Masses.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,768
    I'm still trying to understand the widespread relish for the idea of 'killing' the last hymn, since it doesnt make room for chant or polyphony.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Killing the hymn leaves a vacuum.

    One that can be left alone, or filled with chant or polyphony.

    The more you try to make people sing when they do not want to, the more that they will stop singing.

    People have just received the Body and Blood of Christ, they may want to sit after the final exchange of dialogue with the priest. They may want to leave, if they have not already bolted out the door at communion or, even worse, just after having received communion.

    We have prayed and sung in prayer to greet and accept the Body of Christ. The Mass is ended, as it has been for centuries. Why sing a hymn?

    The entrance hymn, the Introit was also added to the Mass, years and years ago. But there was a reason for that.
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    relish for the idea of 'killing' the last hymn

    Because the GIRM does not call for it.
    Because it is only mentioned in Musicam Sacram (1967) as "on occasion".
    Because as soon as the priest gets past a pew, the people in the pew feel strongly inclined
    to leave, or to start talking with their neighbors, or to start applauding,
    while the musicians try to continue the music with a few hangers-on.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    Why spend time trying to find a fourth hymn that "fits" the liturgy...when there is nothing in this section of the liturgy to match it to.

    IF you have a parish in which 60 out of 100 people sing the final hymn and 95 out of 100 stay in the church until the hymn is over, it's a different story. Iy this is true, you are probably in the Church of Gods across the street where, according to the AGO president in this month's magazine, music is 80% of worship.

    I couldn't believe it. And people wonder why some people think we AGO members have our heads in the ivory towers.
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