More "Lively" Entrance Required
  • SpeakNSpirit
    Posts: 45
    I'm the Director of Liturgical Music in a religious community and have successfully implemented the use of the "Simple English Propers" for the Offertory and Communion at Mass, but the superior wants something more "lively" for the Entrance, which is fulfilled by the use of a Hymn.

    Any suggestions to get something closer to the Propers, while still being "energizing"?
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    Kathleen Pluth's Hymn Tune Introits may be one way to go; here is a calendar of the Advent antiphons and a PDF with notation.
    Thanked by 4Ben CHGiffen Gavin SpeakNSpirit
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    One can still select a hymn text close to the Introit, as well. Or there is the option of using an Introit immediately before the procession.
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    You could sing the SEP antiphon after a verse or two of a "more lively" hymn.
    Give them something lively to skip in to during the procession, and then sing the proper Introit once the priest, deacon, and servers are at the altar.

    At my parish, all that I can do right now is use an ad libitum proper during Communion ... but for everything else, I'm looking to the propers as a reference and trying to choose hymns that reflect the same idea.
    You might just go for that ... read the proper Introit text and find something
    "lively" that conveys a message as-similar-as-possible.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Gavin,

    Simple curiousity ... why do you think that the Introit should be sung before another hymn? My experience with priests who even care to read the propers has been that they do so once they are at the altar ... after the entrance hymn has been sung.

    We all know the the "entrance hymn" is actually the Introit, but we also all know that most of us aren't in a position to be using that material exactly as prescribed. I wonder if it a better reflection of the timing of spoken propers to wait until the priest is at the altar to sing the antiphon. That sets up a "processional hymn" and then the Introit is sung as the mass begins, with the priest ascending the altar?

    Just "thinking out loud." Everyone please correct me if these thoughts are misguided or flat-out wrong.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Ryan,

    I don't think it should be sung BEFORE another hymn... I just think it CAN be sung with a hymn. Doesn't matter to me what comes before or after what, but I assume that the priest wants, as you aptly pointed out, "something to skip in to," namely a metrical hymn. And singing an introit after he's already done the Rite of Skipping might anger people (and the priest!) who don't want anything to "unduly delay Mass."

    I've seen people pour forth all sorts of justification, liturgical or otherwise, for the Introit before the hymn, or the Introit after the hymn. I just think the Introit should be sung, even if some compromise has to be made to please the boss.

    EDIT: I should clarify, in case it's unclear, that I'm referring to singing the Introit as a prelude - before the procession even begins.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    SpeakNSpirit,

    If you can get away with it, I would sing the hymn as normal, then after a verse or two (or as Ryan says, as the priest reaches the altar), sing the antiphon from SEP.

    It will probably take 30 seconds or less, and then you will have the proper chant sung. By Flowing Waters also has short antiphons that you could use effectively in a case such as this (I can send you an example or two if you'd like). If incense is used, extra verses can be added to the introit to fill it out.

    This is what I just did at a youth retreat this last weekend, and it worked quite well.
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Possibly singing the entrance song chant in a more robust, faster dramatic way with interspersed organ sections as they do in Paris might "solve the problem".

    Groups of singers doing chant often get into a habit (pun intended) that exemplifies exactly how it should be sung in their minds...as a result all the chants begin to sound alike, as they try to achieve this tone...explain that they need to be able to bat right handed and left handed, that's all!
    Thanked by 1SpeakNSpirit
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Just a thought, assuming you're using the Missal of Paul VI: Have an organ processional, and sing the Introit (even Recto Tono if necessary) as Father reaches the Transcept. That way, you can make your processional as lively as you wish... and time it perfectly.

    Thanked by 1noel jones, aago
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Do you have a big-ish church? In smaller churches it is often the case that you are pressed to be able to fit in 3 verses of a hymn in the entrance processions.

    Also, does your parish use incense on Sundays? When incense is used, it can be quite helpful. Technically, the hymn should be sung during the procession, and the introit during the incensation of the altar.

    A "more lively" entrance isn't always appropriate.

    I have generally found the following works well in the Ordinary Form Mass:

    1.) Suitable Hymn replaces Introit

    - I find it best to look to the text of the introit for inspiration. Other aspects of the liturgy may inform your decision. eg. Trinity Sunday "Firmly I Believe and Truly" or Sundays during Advent "Come, O Come Emmanuel". Hymns can be chosen according to liturgical season.

    2.) Chanted Offertory followed by suitable Motet

    - Sometimes it is possible to find a motet which actually uses the text of the offertory, such as Franz Xaver Witt's "Ad Te Levavi" which is Advent 1 and I think Ordinary Time 15. You can use any polyphonic setting of the Ave Maria for Advent 4.

    - At masses where no incense is used, I sometimes just play a quiet organ interlude, usually improvised on an offertory or communion hymn or even a hymn for the liturgical season.

    3.) Chanted Communion then Communion Hymn

    - This is useful as you send most of the choir except for a small chant group for communion. Then when they have returned you send the small group for communion and sing a communion Hymn.

    Good suggestions for the Hymn are: "See Us, Lord, About Thine Altar", "Let All Mortal Flesh", "The Lord is My Shepherd", etc

    4.) Recessional:

    I am generally in favour of using the Marian Antiphon for the Season. However, I am also known to just go straight into an organ postlude. On other occasions I have felt that a Te Deum is appropriate, so this may be chanted by the choir. However, I often use "Holy God We Praise Thy Name" which is really just a hymn version of the Te Deum.

    Of course, pay attention to liturgical requirements. Organ Solos during the liturgy are forbidden during Lent, and should be of a subdued nature during Advent.
    Thanked by 2ryand R J Stove
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    Hartleymartin writes: "Organ Solos during the liturgy are forbidden during Lent, and should be of a subdued nature during Advent."

    I once had the dubious privilege of being present during Lent (Tridentine Mass) where an amateur - very amateur - organist of psychopathic personality, neo-Nazi convictions, a criminal record for ethnically motivated violence, and near-total absence of musical talent, stomped over to the choir-loft's console and insisted on "playing" a solo at the Elevation. When certain gentlemen in the choir tried to dissuade him, he flung himself bodily on one such gentleman, with such overwhelming rage that it required four able-bodied tenors and basses to drag him away. Ever since then, my liturgical experience has been a bit anticlimactic ...
    Thanked by 1Gavin
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Obviously a man following the letter of the law if not spirit; he was, after all, subdued and then suppressed.


  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,978
    Don't you just love those EF people? They are so intense. LOL.
    Thanked by 1Gavin
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