Received a memo from the Diocesan worship office with reminders about changes in the rubrics for Holy Week in the new Missal. Of course nothing is new this year, but a few things jumped out at me.

“After the Epistle…the Priest solemnly intones the Alleluia three times,
raising his voice by a step each time, with all repeating it. If necessary, the
psalmist intones the Alleluia.” (The traditional melismatic chant setting is
provided.) “Then the psalmist or cantor proclaims Psalm 118 with the
people responding Alleluia.” The former Sacramentary had similar
directions, but the chant notation was not provided, and there was no
mention of the alleluia being sung three times, each starting on a higher
pitch.

Does this mean that the Alleluia should be sung 3 times before the first verse of the psalm with all singing on the 2nd and 3rd repetition despite the modulating pitch, or (more likely, I think) that it is sung 6 times before the psalm begins--intonation and response in each key? I would assume then that the pitch remains constant for the chanting of the psalm with the alleluia response once after each verse. Should the pitch be raised literally by one tone or a semitone each time? I confess I missed this one last year and just sang it straight through as a responsorial psalm with only one repetition of the Alleluia before verse 1. With 3 psalm verses that would make for a total of 9 Alleluias which seems to make sense! I suppose one could simply begin each psalm verse in a progressively higher key, but that doesn't seem to be what it indicated.

On a related issue: Raising the pitch of "Behold the wood of the cross" on Good Friday and "Christ our Light" during the entrance procession for the vigil is not indicated in the new Missal as it was in the Sacramentary. Does this mean it shouldn't be done? Is there any historical precedence for this practice?