I'm trying them for the first time on the 4th Sunday of Lent, as the antiphons seemed more fitting than those in the Simple Gradual.

http://www.litpress.org/psallite/default.htm

Johannes, are you using the RCIA option, "You Are Light in the Lord" or the Year C communion song, "Come, Come to the Banquet"?

Dr. Ford,

Yes, we sang "Here Is My Servant, Here Is My Son." All comments were positive. We did the round in two parts between SA and TB. We'll definitely be using more from this collection.

I just received a mailing from LitPress, and it includes a new addition to Psallite, "Celebrate, Remember" for Weddings and Funerals. It almost looks as if Psallite: Sacred Song for Liturgy and Life, has enlarged into a series, where the books don't take the title Psallite, but rather fall under its program of liturgical music. Here's the website as it stands now:

litpress.org/psallite

'...(though they often fit with the architecture of many 20th century church buildings).'

This is an interesting notion: that of the complimentarity of style between music and architecture. As one who is notoriously conscious of aesthetical consistency it makes for some self examination. The implication is that modern music is fit only for modern architecture whilst only older musical styles are appropriate for historic architectural styles. I cannot, though, agree that this should be a guiding and legitimate principle. For one example, English choirs have no trouble singing Howells, Vaughan Williams, and Britten in their marvelous mediaeval buildings; and, if this principal were followed religiously, much good modern music could never be heard in church because it didn't match the architecture. Further, by this logic, one could not sing Tallis and Palestrina in mediaeval churches because they 'don't match the architecture'. Likewise, one could not, for the same reason, sing Gregorian chant in a modern church. Likewise, we could only sing Victorian hymns in XIXth century faux-Gothic churches, and could sing only Gounod or Faure in French churches, and only in French churches of the late romantic era. I, for one, would not want for us to be so restricted. Poulenc and Stravinski sound marvelous and are spiritually beneficent whether sung in Durham cathedral or the austere late XXth century Phillip Johnson chapel of St Basil at Houston's UST. If this principle had been followed, why, organum and discant could never have been sung in pre-XIIth century buildings and only des Prez could yet be sung in XVth century buildings. But wait! We could never allow XXIst century people in XVth century architecture because they wouldn't 'fit'. Etc, etc.

I even once approached a man who served at a Saturday mass at St Basil's and remarked that he should have been vested. His innocent reply?: wearing a cassock and surplice 'wouldn't fit the architecture'. Strange reasoning, n'est ce pas?

Glorious architecture should have glorious music - bland shapeless boxes should have bland shapeless liturgy... oh wait, that's about what happens..

Magnificent traditional church architecture and art aren't by themselves enough to preserve the Catholic faith. They are the framework and ornaments for the traditional Catholic liturgy and are like a hollow shell or empty frame without it.

It tears me up to see stories of beloved Old World churches being closed in New York City, but it's happening every where. In the Netherlands, thousands of Catholics leave the Church every year---a grim outlook for Catholics the world over since it was the Dutch Church that was held up as the glittering paradigm of success for the reforms of liturgy and catechesis.

From Gloria TV News comes this sobering account:

In an interview during the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, Utrecht Cardinal Willem Eijk, used frightening words about the state of the Church in the Netherlands.

Quote: “If we continue like this, the Church will be like a Christmas tree. At some point all the needles will have fallen, and that’s it, the Church quietly passes away.”

After Second Vatican Council the Dutch Church was considered the great example for implementing the Council. Now, it is on the verge of dissolution.

The fading Christmas tree analogy is exacting symbolism for the Incredible Shrinking Dutch Church, esp. when you continue the analogy and think of how a Christmas tree is cut off from its roots and begins to die from that point though it continues to look fresh and healthy for some time.

The Church in some places was almost completely cut off from its roots, its traditions and culture after Vatican II and we are seeing the tragic results of the "hermeneutic of rupture" more and more every day.

Over history, the church has been through far worse than it has in the last 50 years. Yes, life has changed dramatically in some Western countries. But the church's roots are Christ and the Holy Spirit, not magnificent architecture, exquisite music, intricate liturgy. Faith will flourish again in the west, as it is doing in some parts of the east now.

The Church's roots are indeed Christ and the Holy Spirit, but when the "received and approved rites" generated over the centuries which had transmitted the Faith from one generation to the next were jettisoned in favor of an ecumenically-based, artificially contrived liturgy, that was an enormous blow.

What was the result of that ecclesiastical earthquake? Martin Mosebach in The Heresy of Formlessness, The Roman Liturgy and Its Enemy:

"Initially it must have felt like a deathblow when the old liturgy was driven from the magnificent old churches that had been created for it. Then, however, it became clear that it was the churches that died, once the spirit of the sacred vanished from them; the liturgy itself stayed alive, albeit in lamentable circumstances. For it is the liturgy that produces all that is solemn and festive---art can contribute nothing essential to it."

Does nobody wonder why the Offertory is left out, or do they assume, because the Roman Missal leaves it out, that there is no Offertory proper? Or is it that there has never been an official English translation of the Graduale?

The 1972 Graduale Romanum does contain Off. propers. But the entrance and communion antiphons in the Roman Missal have always been intended to be read (without any additional psalm verses) when the proper introit or communio chant from the GR or a substitute song is not sung. The absence of offertory antiphons in the Roman Missal has a clear meaning: when the Off. proper from the GR is not chanted, there is no recited text.

There are no approved vernacular translations of the Graduale Romanum because the Apostolic See never called for such translations. That was also the case with the Graduale Simplex when it was promulgated in 1967. The introduction (praenotanda) says nothing about translation. Only later did the Consilium issue norms for its translation "at the request of many conferences of bishops" in the Jan. 23, 1968, communication (Instantibut pluribus) to presidents of the national liturgical commissions. Those norms are found at document no. 120 in Documents on the Liturgy 1963-1979. They are also contained in the (ICEL) English translation of the Graduale Simplex, available, I believe, from the CMAA in PDF format.

Adam, I thought I downloaded the document from CMAA. Perhaps I am mistaken.

If it is not there or at CCWatershed, it may still be found at Dr. Paul Ford's dropbox. He posted this link a couple of years ago:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7331043/Simple Gradual ICEL 1968 translation.pdf but I get an ERROR message when I try that.

It is just news to me that there is an ICEL translation of the GS.

Is this news to anyone else?
Was it approved and promulgated or just provisional?
Was it published?
Did it have music?

1. No, but it's obscure enough.
2. It was approved in 1968 by the Consilium.
3. Yes, but apparently its dissemination was limited to inner-circle/circular-file.
4. No. But Dr. Ford used many of the antiphons for By Flowing Waters, as did I for the Choral Graduale Simplex.

The Processional currently available from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales http://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Missal/Music/ProcessionalBook.pdf is presumably approved for use at least here, and includes ICEL GS translations. All the texts have attributions noted, and have been made accessible for musicians to set in 2012.