Annibale Bugnini's "Consilium"
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    I am not trying to start any negative comments I would just like to be reminded of something I believe was said on this forum a week or two ago. If I remember correctly someone (I do not remember who), referenced an answer given to a direct question asked of the "Consilium" back in the 1960s or early 70s. I think the question asked was whether the New Mass would retain the Proper Chants. And, I believe the response ran something like "If we rid the Mass of the Propers we would be denying the People their Mass." I wish I could remember who on this forum referenced this quote and I do so wish they would again because I would like to reference it myself. Thank you so much if you can help.
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    Ruth, check the first paragraph to this book:

    http://musicasacra.com/books/sep/094_SEP_Introduction.pdf
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Dr. Ford also quoted this in his plenum lecture at the NPM Convention.

    It was a very surreal moment to be surrounded by 2000 NPM'ers hearing a plenum speaker yell and shout about the Simple English Propers, the Graduale Romanum, Simplex, etc... Still looking back, it seems like it couldn't have possibly been real.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    The helpful Notitiae responses index leads to a comment in Notitiae 5 (1969), p. 406 (my translation):

    SING THE MASS; DON'T SING DURING THE MASS

    From various parts we have been asked whether the formula of the Instruction on Sacred Music and the Sacred Liturgy of Sept. 3, 1958, in n. 33 is still valid: "The faithful may sing hymns during low Mass, if they are appropriate to the various parts of the mass."

    The formula has been superseded.

    It is the Mass, the Ordinary and the Propers, which is to be sung, and not "something", even if it is "appropriate", which is imposed on the Mass. Because the action is one, it has one face, one accent, one voice, the voice of the Church. To continue to sing motets, if they are purely devotional and pious (such as the Lauda Sion at the offertory of the feast of a saint), but extraneous to the Mass, in place of the texts of the Mass being celebrated, represents the continuation of an unacceptable ambiguity: giving bran instead of good wheat, watered-down wine instead of fortified wine.

    Because not only is the melody of interest in liturgical song, but the words, the text, the thought, the sentiments clothed in poetry and melody. Now, these texts must be those of the Mass, not others. Thus, sing the Mass, and don't just sing during the Mass.
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 997
    I like the original strong Italian wording rendered here in the English translation: "giving bran instead of good wheat, watered-down wine instead of fortified wine", instead of the weaker "it's to cheat the people" that is in Documents of the Liturgy. It gives a sense of urgency.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    I am continually amazed to read of people who pick and choose which propers they will sing on the basis that they "like" or "do not like" how the propers fit the readings of the Mass in their opinion.

    Really, we have become a people who refuse to accept that anyone in the past knew better than we what is to be done. A wonderful quote like that above is passed off as not being "pastoral" and denies the people their right to sing so it should be ignored.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    Thank you all.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    "the people's right to sing" -- that one's a hoot! Talk of "rights" always makes me see red, as the word is so ill defined; in common usage, "I have a right to because I want to". Did the right to sing exist before the Mass? Do we have a right to sing during the Homily or Elevation? When and how did God give us the right to sing during Mass? Why did God give us a right that some are physically incapable of exercising?

    We end this threadjack and return to regularly-scheduled programming.
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