Did you bring your beekeeper's netting, gas, gloves and other attire?
[the singing of the faithful] should first of all include acclamations, responses to the greetings of the priest and ministers and to the prayers of litany form, and also antiphons and psalms, refrains or repeated responses, hymns and canticles.[16]
(b) Through suitable instruction and practices, the people should be gradually led to a fuller—indeed, to a complete—participation in those parts of the singing which pertain to them.
(c) Some of the people's song, however, especially if the faithful have not yet been sufficiently instructed, or if musical settings for several voices are used, can be handed over to the choir alone, provided that the people are not excluded from those parts that concern them. But the usage of entrusting to the choir alone the entire singing of the whole Proper and of the whole Ordinary, to the complete exclusion of the people's participation in the singing, is to be deprecated.
V. The singers
By this it is not to be understood that solos are entirely excluded. But solo singing should never predominate to such an extent as to have the greater part of the liturgical chant executed in that manner;
IV. External form of the sacred compositions
10. The different parts of the mass and the Office must retain, even musically, that particular concept and form which ecclesiastical tradition has assigned to them, and which is admirably brought out by Gregorian Chant. The method of composing an introit, a gradual, an antiphon, a psalm, a hymn, a Gloria in excelsis, etc., must therefore be distinct from one another.
12. With the exception of the melodies proper to the celebrant at the altar and to the ministers, which must be always sung in Gregorian Chant, and without accompaniment of the organ, all the rest of the liturgical chant belongs to the choir of levites, and, therefore, singers in the church, even when they are laymen, are really taking the place of the ecclesiastical choir. Hence the music rendered by them must, at least for the greater part, retain the character of choral music.
the solo phrase should have the character or hint of a melodic projection (spunto), and be strictly bound up with the rest of the choral composition.
13. On the same principle it follows that singers in church have a real liturgical office, and that therefore women, being incapable of exercising such office, cannot be admitted to form part of the choir. Whenever, then, it is desired to employ the acute voices of sopranos and contraltos, these parts must be taken by boys, according to the most ancient usage of the Church.
14. Finally, only men of known piety and probity of life are to be admitted to form part of the choir of a church, and these men should by their modest and devout bearing during the liturgical functions show that they are worthy of the holy office they exercise. It will also be fitting that singers while singing in church wear the ecclesiastical habit and surplice, and that they be hidden behind gratings when the choir is excessively open to the public gaze.
Since the congregation is encouraged to sing, and women are in the congregation, a choir of the faithful can contain women!100. Wherever such a choir cannot be organized, a choir of the faithful, either mixed or consisting only of women or girls, can be permitted. But such a choir should take its place outside the sanctuary or Communion rail. The men should be separated from the women or girls so that anything unbecoming may be avoided. Local Ordinaries are to issue precise regulations about these matters, and pastors are to see to their enforcement (Decr. Auth. SCR 3964, 4210, 4231, and the encyclical Musicæ sacræ disciplina: AAS [1956] 23).
We have a mixed schola, and people have complained, well all of two, I told them where to go
That kind of thought process is not theology - not philosophy - not logic - and certainly not Catholic. It is not a precursor to women priests. It is quite simply the height of stupidity. Period.
Anyway we are lucky if our ladies are singing on their own or alternating with the men we will always get compliments, I think they sound like angels.
Sometimes there are so few men available to sing the propers that if I wasn’t part of the schola, there couldn’t be a high Mass for many feasts. Sometimes the young men in our schola are needed to serve Mass. As a celibate, woman with no children and a life that revolves around attending Mass, and the the God-given ability to sing in the tenor range, it just makes sense for me not to sit on the sidelines from the schola, especially for such a lame reason as being a woman.
The idea that we can have have a 'liturgical' choir of clerics may be natural to those who govern the church, and are surrounded by many clerics. It is the reason why we have a Liturgy of the Hours suited to Monasteries and Cathedrals but not one suited to Parishes.
part of the reason we run into the issue of whether women may sing in the EF is due to the fact that musical talent in boys is not sufficiently cultivated in our times. And it seems to me that musical liturgical pi
You do realize that in the secular world as well, music is a male dominated field...
This May be true, but every voice’s timbre is different. My voice, despite being a woman, blends well with the men. It adds a richness that is lacking when I don’t sing.Women's voices are different from men's voices in timbre.
6) Women may not serve within the Sanctuary, because this is an area reserved to clerics. (See #4)
After all, sung or psalm toned Propers do not make a sung Mass.
3. There are two kinds of Masses: the "sung Mass" and the ''read Mass." . The Mass is called a .. sung Mass" if the priest celebrant actually sings those parts which are to be sung according to the rubrics. Otherwise it is a "read Mass."
Furthermore, if a sung Mass is celebrated with the assistance of sacred ministers, it is called a solemn Mass. If it is celebrated without the sacred ministers it is called a "Missa cantata."
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16. Gregorian chant is the sacred chant, proper and principal of the Roman Church. Therefore, not only can it be used in all liturgical actions, but unless there are mitigating circumstances, it is preferable to use it instead of other kinds of sacred music. ...
17. Sacred polyphony may be used in all liturgical functions, on condition, however, that there is a choir which knows how to perform it according to the rules of the art. ...
18. In the same way, modern sacred music is permitted in all liturgical actions, if it is really in accord with the dignity, seriousness, and sanctity of the liturgy, and if there is a choir capable of performing it according to the rules of the art.
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