Alleluias
  • soli
    Posts: 95
    I was wondering if anyone could suggest which gregorian alleluias would be most suitable to use for the alleluia and verse before the Gospel? We have 2 of the most common ones in our Catholic Book of Worship II (Canada), but it would be nice to have others. Suggestions are most welcome. Thank you very much!
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Look at the ones in By Flowing Waters, which are taken from another source.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Ok three words that everyone is tired of hearing: Parish Book of Chant.

    by the way, I hate to say this but there are only some 20 copies left. We've rushed into a reprint but there are limitation of the physical world. They won't be in until October 31. Gulp.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Dear ancilla,

    This site, although it is in its infancy, has some chant-like Alleluia's you might like.

    If not, please ignore this post! Thanks!
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Actually, I thought the Alleluias in the PBC were the weakest part. It should have contained all the Liber(?) Alleluias. And ditch the O Fili et Filiae alleluia, we can use an OCP missalette if we want to sing that. Nor do I know the practicality of a melismatic alleluia for a congregation.

    Do the Liber (I don't know if that's where they are) Alleluias. All of them. And nothing else. It seems there was a PDF somewhere with those and the corresponding psalm tones. Where is it?
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    Bingo, Simple Gradual:

    http://www.musicasacra.com/media2/alleluias-simplex.pdf All the alleluias you will ever need.
  • soli
    Posts: 95
    thank you very much, everyone! I appreciate all your comments. An abundance. I knew I was asking the right people. May God bless you all! Are there more in the Liber Usualis? Thank you again!!
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,204
    Jeffrey,

    My copy of the PBC arrived in the mail Wednesday. I was meeting with the school music teacher to plan the music for school Masses when I was looking at it. She asked what it was and I gave her the full explanation. When I mentioned the word "Kyriale" she said, "yeah, somebody gave me a copy of a kyriale." It was clear she didn't know what it was or what it was for.

    Unfortunately any little opening I may have had with her slammed shut when she wanted to schedule "You Are Near," which I had to say "no" to, explaining the recent decrees from Rome and the USCCB. Her eyes literally welled up with tears as she sighed, "but that's such a beautiful song."

    Kyriale, anyone?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    I can't blame her, david andrew; it's probably one of the few decent, reverent-sounding songs in Glory 'n' Praise. The text is no longer usable, but if you want to console her, play it as an organ interlude some time.
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    David - You seem to bump into a lot of slammed doors. Why not get one of those Dutch doors that let you keep the top open for communications while still keeping out the riffraff at the bottom.

    If the teacher really wanted to have the children sing "You Are Near" it would have been a perfect time to discuss the date on which the children's choir will perform a non-liturgical program. That could give room for her feel-good music while keeping it outside of the Mass. From a teaching perspective that would provide you an excellent platform to demonstrate the difference between sacred and pop Catholic music. I'll bet the kids figure out the difference before the teacher does!
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,021
    I think one of the simplest is the tone IV that appears in "Hymns, Psalms & Spiritual Canticles" and is taken for the Mass of Pentecost. It is a simple melody, and the jubilus is one of the shorter in the Graduale.
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    "ditch the O Fili et Filiae alleluia, we can use an OCP missalette if we want to sing that."
    Gavin, one of the points of the PBC is NOT to need to resort to another book. And despite the frequent dismissal (not from you, I mean generally, ) of "oh, everybody knows that...." when discussing such dribs and drabs of music, everyone does NOT know what by all rights should be a Catholic's common musical language.
    (I confess right here to wanting to reach through my computer screen and pop people in the nose when in a similar vein they bemoan some worthy piece of music. e.g., the Missa de Angelis, THAXTED, that is "done to death" -- they're not done to death in parishes that forbid Lain Ordinaries, or that are still enraptured by the contents of the first Glory and Praise...)

    Save the Liturgy, Save the World
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    To be fair, I speak from my own convictions and with NO authoritative voice. But still, wouldn't it be great if every Catholic knew every Alleluia in the Simple Gradual? MY objection to the O Fili et Filiae Alleluia is that I don't like "parody Masses". I get the idea that its beginnings were in every parish like this:

    (dark smokey room) Pastor: So the bishop says we have to have the congregation sing the Alleluia now. What music can we do?
    Low Mass organist: Gosh, I don't know
    High Mass organist: I don't know either, the choir only knows the Rossini settings.
    Low Mass organist: Hey, what about the refrain from that song we use all throughout Easter? O Philly or whatever?
    Priest: Use the same boring, borrowed music over and over? .....Brilliant.

    Also I have strong associations of that Alleluia being sung at my home parish with a STRUMSTRUMstrummastrummaSTRUMSTRUMstrummastrumma backdrop. Altogether I find it too pedestrian and overused. Let's give the congregation something new that doesn't get old... like the Simplex chants!!! (and by the way at my last parish I never used the "common" chant Alleluia, in mode 6, except in Easter)
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    G, that is really true and easy to forget. I always try the mental experiment of imaging myself dropped into any medium sized town in the US and attending a random Mass at the closet parish. what would we hear? I think we all know that it would not be THAXTED or Gloria VIII.
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