Ok smarties: Here's a question: In the Roman Missal, there are psalms (and antiphons) for the procession to the church. in the RM there are asteriks * and crosses that seem to indicate the pointing for a psalm tone. However, I cannot find this psalm tone in the RM. Any ideas where this might be found?
In these psalms, the asterisk indicates the end of a half verse; the dagger indicates the place of the flex. It's a common practise, which is also found in chant books.
So, it's not really about pointing (i.e. indicating the preparatory and accented syllables), but more about making clear where the flex (if needed) and mediation of the psalm tone are sung.
The psalm tone to be used depends on the mode of the antiphon. As the Roman Missal doesn't give any music for the antiphons of Psalm Sunday, just have a look at the Lumen Christi Missal, which has the antiphons set to music, as well as the psalm tones associated with them ánd pointed psalms.
But, if I remember correctly, some of these flex and mediant marks for Palm Sunday are in unusual - even impossible places - in the new English edition of the Roman Missal...
I didn't look into this. Might these marks in the Roman Missal just follow the end-of-lines of the Revised Grail Psalms? I know from experience that copy right holders can be nitpicking about these things.
No, if they did that, it would have been fine. (For example, the recent Kenyan Liturgy of the Hours has the Revised Grail Psalms versed in a fairly intelligent manner - although this edition is not quite the same as the official Revised Grail Psalms before they came back from Rome with some additional edits - but they're fairly close.)
It seems possibly the versing in the Roman Missal may have been trying to stick too closely to what was in the Latin by someone who didn't understand what the verse marks actually mean!
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.