Organ silent during Advent?
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    I can't remember how this goes. The organ is silent during Lent, right? Does this apply to Advent as well?

    I know that in either case, its a rule very often ignored. I won't be able to get my parish to follow it, but we can do a little bit more a capella material.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    The organ should be subdued during advent, and should not be used for any instrumental at all during lent, only to support the singing. Here's the pertinent passage from the GIRM:

    313. [...] In Advent the use of the organ and other musical instruments should be marked by a moderation suited to the character of this time of year, without expressing in anticipation the full joy of the Nativity of the Lord.

    In Lent the playing of the organ and musical instruments is allowed only in order to support the singing. Exceptions, however, are Laetare Sunday (fourth Sunday of Lent), Solemnities, and feasts.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    I don't play preludes or postludes, just offertories for Advent Sundays when the choir doesn't sing, usually based on Advent carols. As the above text indicates, the organ can be used in moderation. Advent is not Lent.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    @Ben, doesn't that bit about "only in order to suppose the singing" belong specifically to Lent?
  • Chrism
    Posts: 872
    At the EF,
    83. c) the organ only may be used at Mass, and Vespers for the sole purpose of supporting the singing. (De Musica Sacra)


    Exception: Gaudete Sunday (Third Sunday of Advent)
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Chonak,

    Yes, you are correct. I over edited my post...it's fixed now.
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 904
    GIRM 313 does seem to allow for organ use beyond vocal accompaniment providing it is done in moderation, but as Chrism points out there is a precedent for Advent to be like Lent. I don't know of anyone who follows that rule in either season, and as I recall the ordo even mentions something to the effect that the rule is not meant to be taken literally. Of course why state the rule if it wasn't meant to be followed?

    Still there is the debate of whether or not preludes and postludes fall under the same restrictions.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I believe the argument for preludes and postludes is that they are not part of the Mass, although it would seem that decorum and respect for the season should prevail.
    Thanked by 2Earl_Grey Chrism
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    They do bookend the mass though. I don't think it would be fitting to play a dubstep record after the dismissal, although at that point it is not technically part of the mass.

    Decorum, as you said.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen E_A_Fulhorst Ally
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    I think if you take the spirit of the text they want us to lay a little low during Advent so that full glory can be expressed during Christmas. It should be an even greater separation during Lent into Easter.

    At least that is how I read it.
    Thanked by 3CharlesW francis Earl_Grey
  • lautzef
    Posts: 69
    We do not use the organ during either Advent or Lent and I am sure there other traditional masses where this is not done either. There are plenty of chant pieces and also short polyphonic pieces that can be used as preludes and postludes for the Tridentine mass. There are beautiful pieces from the breviary that people don't otherwise hear, such as hymns ('Conditor alme siderum') or responsories. There is polyphony that is not liturgical but is fine outside the mass proper, such as Lassus' Prophetiae Sibyllarum. We often choose a couple of the Sibylline pieces for a postlude and a piece of chant for the prelude. The Iberian composers wrote a lot of short pieces that are directly related to the Gospels or other propers of the Sundays of Advent. Cardoso wrote at least one for each Advent Sunday, such as 'Omnis vallis implebitur" (a welcome change from Handel, perhaps), or 'Erunt signa' for the first Sunday of Advent.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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