Music after readings at Easter Vigil
  • bcb
    Posts: 36
    This year is the first time our schola is singing for the Easter Vigil (Ordinary Form). For the psalms after the readings, we would like to do some with responsorial psalms and some with the Gregorian chants found in the Gregorian Missal.

    1. Is this permitted in the Third Edition? Does GIRM 61 apply? Are the Canticles allowed to be substituted for the indicated psalms?
    23. Then the readings follow. A reader goes to the ambo and proclaims the reading. Afterwards
    a psalmist or a cantor sings or says the Psalm with the people making the response. Then all
    rise, the Priest says, Let us pray and, after all have prayed for a while in silence, he says the
    prayer corresponding to the reading. In place of the Responsorial Psalm a period of sacred
    silence may be observed, in which case the pause after Let us pray is omitted.


    GIRM 61. ... In the Dioceses of the United States of America, instead of the Psalm assigned in the Lectionary,
    there may be sung either the Responsorial Gradual from the Graduale Romanum, or the Responsorial
    Psalm or the Alleluia Psalm from the Graduale Simplex, as described in these books, or an antiphon and
    Psalm from another collection of Psalms and antiphons, including Psalms arranged in metrical form,
    providing that they have been approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop. Songs
    or hymns may not be used in place of the Responsorial Psalm.


    2. If yes to above, would it then be possible to substitute a polyphonic arrangement? I was thinking Palestrina's "Sicut Cervus" after the 7th reading.

    3. If yes to both, then do I need to do both parts of the Palestrina (i.e. include the "Sitivit" and "Fuerunt" verses)? If I'm worried about time, could I omit them, or do them as a psalm tone after the polyphony (as anticlimactic as that would be...)?

    I'm probably overthinking it, but I thought if anyone would know, I'd find the answer here. Thanks in advance for your help!

    BCB
  • Earl_GreyEarl_Grey
    Posts: 905
    Not claiming specific expertise, but I would concur that all the options you propose would be licit. I would be inclined not to omit any text, so if timing is an issue, then perhaps a psalm tone for the verse after the Palestrina. However since omitting the psalm altogether in favor of a time of silence is permitted I don't see why you couldn't just sing the antiphon.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    As long as the text of the responsorial psalm or gradual's chant is sung, you're good to go.

    In your case, I'd probably do the psalm tone. I may be wrong, but can't the antiphon be repeated after the verse? That may sound better, musically speaking.

    The girm doesn't really say you can sing anything, it says silence or prescribed chant, so I'd go with the exact text.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,229
    The chants in the Gregorian Missal are copied from the Graduale Romanum, so they all qualify under GIRM 61. When the documents say "psalm" in reference to the Easter Vigil, they do intend to include the canticles also.

    Additional instructions on the Easter Vigil are in this document on the Triduum.


  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    We've done your option 2 for decades' worth of vigils, FWIW, pars prima only (sigh).
  • cjlansberg
    Posts: 11
    We have sung the first part of the Sicut Cervus for several years at the Vigil, and I received permission from the pastor to do so. I was concerned about leaving out text, and that the congregation wouldn't understand why we would suddenly sing in Latin, but I think the beauty of the music conveys the text, no explanation needed.
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