Easter Vigil - how to 'sing' 5th OT Reading
  • PeterG
    Posts: 36
    My new parish priest, who has so far demonstrated strong support for our choir and chant, has asked that the Fifth Reading (Isaiah 55: 1-11) at the Vigil be "sung". (And presumably also the Responsorial Psalm.) How should I tackle the 'sung' reading? (I am very much hoping he is not thinking of the Frank Andersen song "Come to the water" which, to my mind, would be a highly inadequate substitute for the Isaiah reading.) I would be glad of help to devise a better way of singing the scriptural text.
    Grateful for the assistance of the many experienced people on the forum.
    Peter G
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Here's the tone to be used for Old Testament readings, copied from the 1961 "Graduale Romanum". Can you read the Latin and follow the examples enough to make sense of it?

    Prophetiae.pdf
    637K
  • Chris HebardChris Hebard
    Posts: 124
    The Roman Missal 3rd ed. has a tone for Old Testament readings p. 1427ff.
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Here's the music from the Missal:

    http://www.icelweb.org/musicfolder/openpdf.php?file=OTTonesExamples.pdf
  • PeterG
    Posts: 36
    Many thanks for these suggestions.
    I should have said that my question relates to the Ordinary Form.
    I guess I could have the choir men and women sing alternative sentences to the RMIII tone that Chris suggested but wouldn't it sound odd alongside the other spoken readings?
    J think perhaps I amgroping for a solution somewhat along the lines of Richard Rice's Simple Choral Gradual (verses rather than antiphons). Anyone see a way of achieving that?
    Peter
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    The Old Testament tone indicated above is a distinctive pattern, and it's OK that it stands out. Its characteristic ending (an interval of a fifth) reminds us of the sound of a trumpet, which is appropriate for readings from the Prophets such as Isaiah.

    In this area, there's no difference between Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form; the reciting tones for reading the Scriptures have not changed.

    If you're not certain, try out the patterns a little on a couple of sentences, post the result here as a PDF, and people can tell you that you've got it right.


    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,187
    Peter, it could perhaps be added (is it clear?) that all the answers above presuppose that "singing the reading" means a single voice, singing (chanting) instead of speaking.

    The rubrics do not envisage a "choral reading", even if sung. It should be a single voice. It is possible for the reading to be sung on one, single note, but as mentioned above there is a "usual" way of singing it that involves a single note with decorations.

    The psalm, on the other hand, can be "sung" in a number of ways, choral or solo or as usual by a solo and the congregation. It would not be very appropriate to recite the psalm, since the Vigil is the most solemn service of the year.
    Thanked by 2Chris Hebard CHGiffen
  • PeterG
    Posts: 36
    Thank you, Andrew. You are, of course, absolutely right: a single voice (reading or singing) is what the rubrics envisage. The only problem with that is that I only have two people capable of singng it. (A third is currently nwell.) Both of them will have more than enough to do in this liturgy without having to learn and sing a reading as well. Hence my search for a choral solution, which I doubt I will find.
    My main concern was to dodge a congregational solution - possibly in the form of the Frank Andersen 'hymn' 'Come to the Water' which, to my mind, should never be substituted for the scriptural reading.
    If I can't find a solution, there will be no alternative but to try to talk my parish priest out of having the reading sung, and I have no idea how that will go.
    PeterG
  • Andrew_Malton
    Posts: 1,187
    Perhaps there's a lector already who might be keen to learn just how to chant a reading?
  • PeterG
    Posts: 36
    In that case Andrew, I want that person in the choir!
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 470
    In this area, there's no difference between Ordinary Form and Extraordinary Form; the reciting tones for reading the Scriptures have not changed.

    Very sadly, that's not true. The ICEL Old Testament tone has a different flex and a different concluding formula than the old Gradual/Liber's prophecy tone (as is illustrated by the PDF's above.)

    Is the ICEL tone binding? I'm inclined to think not.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    I have a hard time believing that, in a parish of ANY size, there should be but 3 people capable of singing a lesson.
    Thanked by 1Salieri
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Even in the EF the tone isn't binding. I've heard priests cantillate the readings recto tono except for questions and the conclusion. Surely, there ought to be more than three who cound do at least that!

    Perhaps slightly off topic, but : The chanting of lessons and prayers shouldn't solely rely on the quality of the voice of the chanter. I have a CD from the Trappist Abbey in Spencer (remake of a disk from the 50's), and when Fr Abbot intones the Ambrosian Gloria he sings, in a ... watery? ... tone : Loia i e'[sh]eli eo. When we focus too much on things like "Oh, Mr O'Toole can't sing the prophecy because he doesn't sound like Bryn Terfell" we're turning the liturgy into a performance. We should say "Mr O'Toole will chant the prophecy; he's not Bryn Terfell, but so long as he does his best for God, that's what counts."

    Frankly, I think this was accomplished much more effectively in the EF : [Rev] Mr Tweedle chants the Epistle because he's the SubDeacon; not because he has a particularly good voice.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 470
    Even in the EF the tone isn't binding. I've heard priests cantillate the readings recto tono except for questions and the conclusion. Surely, there ought to be more than three who cound do at least that!

    I don't have books handy, but I believe allowing the Epistle to be sung recto tono is a relatively late development (which isn't to say it wasn't widely done regardless). On the other hand, a completely recto tono epistle (no interogatories and no concluding cadence) is actually at this point the normative way of singing the Epistle in the EF, I believe, and the "Epistle Tone" is ad libitum.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Jahaza, I wasn't thinking of the ICEL tone; but of the Ordinary Form tone in the Graduale Romanum 1974. That hasn't changed from the Graduale 1960 tone, has it?

  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I can check in my Gradual when I get home, but I don't believe it changed in the '74 graduale.
  • PeterG
    Posts: 36
    Thank you to everyone who took an interest in my little problem. You may recall I was deeply concerned that I was about to be instructed to substitute a congregational song - of very modest merit - for a passage from the word of God at the Easter Vigil. That would have greatly exercised my conscience. (I have no objection to all the readings being chanted properly but am sure that was not what was being suggested.)
    I am very thankful to be able to report that the priest (very supportive) who suggested this possibility has now agreed that the reading need not be sung, but read in the normal fashion. Potential problem over, conscience at rest. Deo gratias.
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