Confusion about how to sing the Gregorian Alleluia
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I am thinking of expanding on this, since it can be confusing:

    http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2012/may/14/how-sing-gregorian-alleluia/

    But at least I have a start!
    Thanked by 1veromary
  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 160
    I'm trying to get sung Masses going at our local EF - we used to go to a place with sung Masses all the time, but I wasn't in the choir and didn't pay that much attention to the music (having several small boys to take outside all the time didn't help). Things like this are Very Helpful!
    Thanked by 1Ragueneau
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    JMO, curious that Johner and the Vatican preface have slightly different methods. I've never heard the Vatican method of having the full schola sing only the jubilus of the last alleluia.

    In my schola during Eastertide, we sometimes have the full schola begin the second alleluia; it depends how smooth the transition is from the first to second. For instance, Ascension was pretty straightforward. Even though the mode shifts from IV to VIII, the first verse ends on fa-mi, then the second Alleluia begins on fa-sol.

    veromary--for musical directions, I'd recommend the short book "Psallite Sapienter" by B Andrew Mills. It covers the musical rubrics for the traditional Mass and is very reliable.
    Thanked by 2Ragueneau veromary
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    I've never heard the Vatican method of having the full schola sing only the jubilus of the last alleluia.

    I have not either, that I can remember. Maybe a few of the Gajard recordings. However, I have seldom heard choirs repeat the first part of the Gradual, and the Vatican method also recommended that. I think the Colloquium does this sometimes, especially on the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (for textual reasons).
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    From the introduction to the Graduale Romanum of 1974 (Novus Ordo):
    The second reading is followed by the Alleluia or the Tract. The Alleluia chant is arranged in this way: Alleluia is sung completely, with its melismatic neume, by the cantors and is repeated by the choir. If appropriate, it can even be sung by all. The verse is presented by the cantors, up to its end; after that is done, Alleluia is repeated by all.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Thanks, Mark P. !

    You're probably aware that the Introduction in the Graduale Romanum simply reprints the rules from the "Ordo Cantus Missae." As I mentioned in that blog, there is certainly nothing wrong with singing according to those principles, just as the traditional method is also allowed.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    I don't want to be argumentative but isn't the "Ordo Cantus Missae" authoritative? Although it may be customary to sing the Allelulia in the OF in the traditional way (i.e., cantors singing the incipit and the entire choir repeating the incipit and then the melisma), wouldn't it be more desirable to sing it according to the current rubrics? And, again, not to belabor the point, but by what authority is the traditional manner allowed in the OF?
    Thanked by 1SkirpR
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    The OCM gives some fairly relaxed indications in paragraph #1 of "De ritibus in cantu Missae servandis". It says that the asterisk at the start of the intonation is only advisory (solummodo indicativum), and that "its intonation may be shorter or more protracted, as is opportune".

    These words appear in the paragraph on the introit because it comes first; there's nothing to say that they don't apply to the other propers as well.
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