Replacing propers with other propers?
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    I got an email today from a colleague at the parish where I am DM. He intended to do a two-part and organ version of "Perfice", the offertory for the Fifth Sunday per annum, but rehearsal is cancelled because of the snow. He made mention that it can be learned later, saying that we can substitute one proper antiphon for another. I have never heard of this before, and to me it is contradictory to the whole point of the propers as being part of a specific Mass formulary. It this some rubric from the Graduale that I've never seen before, or is this just Option 4? (Please don't comment about the Graduale Simplex or the Ad Lib. Communions, those are not the issue.)
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,451
    It seems not only to be option 4, but the first accurate practice of it:
    "...another suitable liturgical chant..."
    Thanked by 3donr Gavin Aristotle Esguerra
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    That's what I was thinking, but don't tell that to the USCCB!
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    Adam is right on.
  • Adam Bartlett
    Posts: 533
    There is permission to do this in the introduction to the Gradule Romanum, itslelf, also known as the Ordo Cantus Missae:

    "For pastoral reasons also there is an
    option regarding the chants for the Proper
    of Seasons: namely, as circumstances
    suggest, to replace the text proper to a day
    with another text belonging to the same
    season."

    This should surely not be a norm, and proper texts should be sung properly, however "for pastoral reasons" such as the one described above this can be done. It seems like the perfect opportunity to invoke this permission.
  • RobertRobert
    Posts: 343
    This is actually a sub-option of option 1, not option 4. See the note on p. 13 of the Graduale: "In omnibus Missis de Tempore eligi potest pro opportunitate, loco cuiusvis diei proprii, alius ex eodem tempore."

    In the per annum cycle, the introits and often the offertories neither reflect nor bestow any particular theme for the day--they ended up where they are according to other criteria. As far as the text and its suitability for any particular day are concerned, their place in the calendar is effectively random.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    So, if Perfice were to replace another antiphon it can only do so in the time Per Annum, since that's the cycle it came from. Makes sense.

    My Latin is not that good, unfortunately. Does the introduction to the Graduale exist in English, and if so, is it downloadable? (The Gregorian Missal doesn't have this.)
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I have known that you can use "another suitable chant" from the same liturgical season. I generally avoid the practice since I don't want to go from a 4-hymn sandwich to singing the same tiny group of chants over and over.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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