Music for Rite of Baptism

MatthewRoth

I think that “proper” has to mean “you have to do it” (even if it is shared with another feast, Sunday, ceremony). Otherwise it’s not a meaningful term. No other use of “proper” At least before the NO came out allows this pick and choose from an absurdly long list. There’s only one occasion in the TLM where you have an option for chants, between two, on Palm Sunday during the blessing. You don’t have to strictly do all of the antiphons of the procession, of the Mandatum, the chants on Good Friday after you get through (some of) the Reproaches. But doing none of them in favor of something else or nothing isn’t a choice.

Chant_Supremacist

In my own words, a rite is an act of worship combining sacred words, actions, intentions and matter that are (a) required to effect a sacrament and (b) mandated to scaffold and identify that sacrament, which extends to spiritual preparation of participants for its graces. In a broader sense it includes important non-sacramental rituals like the Divine Office and Eucharistic Adoration.

When we're talking about music, integral means (b): mandated to scaffold and identify the sacramental celebration, though not required to effect the sacrament. When I earlier said "proper to the rite" I should rather have said integral, it would have been more clear.

Propers are the integral texts, spoken and sung by the priest but also some sung by the choir or even the people, which are specific to the feast day. They're distinguished from the Ordinary, which together are distinguished from devotional music (non-integral, non-mandated, but can assist with spiritual preparation).

In passing, participation is centrally directed to the integral, so that unity is felt and expressed not merely with each other, but with each other in and through the rite. Expression of unity via devotional singing is valuable, but a manifestly lower ideal.

I'm not a theologian and I can't write a book here, so I'm sure these explanations and definitions are wanting in one way or another. It's an honest effort to give you my thoughts.

From what I can tell, for you integral and proper are fuzzy, if not utterly non-cognizable terms when it comes to sacred music. The church has asked for singing and active participation, anything sung by the people (governed only by a general sense of aptness) is active participation, and ergo just as "proper" and "integral" as the texts mandated, or in any case nobody can really say otherwise given the aforementioned fuzziness. By rendering clear and traditional organizing concepts useless, this point of view winds up nullifying efforts to refurbish the scaffolding and identities of the rites, to say nothing of singing excellent and beautiful music to God. It's alius cantus aptus all the way down.

Andrew_Malton

Proper means “belonging to”, “specific to”, “appropriate for”, “its own” -- nothing much about “have to”. The opposite for the most part is neither “improper” nor “ordinary” but “common”.

a_f_hawkins

The official books did not help by titling "Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults" a book which, apart from discussing a great deal of non-liturgical matter, covered rituals from a diocesan enrollment of catechumens before Lent to a diocesan celebration with neophytes three months later, with many parochial and private ceremonies between. The revision to "Order of Christian Initiation of Adults" is helpful.

smvanroode

To me, a rite is the interplay of texts, prayers, chants, and gestures that allow the celebration of a sacrament. It is not an end in itself, but a means by which the participating community is transformed, transfigured. This transformation, a divine-human exchange, comes about per ritus et preces, which some call ‘Christian maturation’ (see James Leachman osb) and others ‘theosis’ (see Jared Ortiz and Norman Russell). Through the rite, the community is drawn ‘into ever more perfect union with God and with each other, so that finally God may be all in all’ (SC 48).

‘Proper’ as an adjective means to me something that is fitting or suitable. In the context of the liturgy, it is determined by the rite and its purpose. It’s therefore restrictive, but doesn’t necessarily designates one single, correct, absolute thing. For example, when the rite offers the option for another song, ‘aptus’ and ‘congruus’ (see GIRM 87) limit the choice, making sure that the ‘alius cantus’ meets the requirements that are laid out by either the purpose of the chant or by the texts and examples that are to be considered normative. To me, ‘proper’ has much to do with what Joseph Swain calls ‘semantic range’.

I’ll come back later to the term ‘participation’, which links to the process of transformation the celebration of a rite brings about, as well as to ecclesiology.

francis

“The Rite” is that which is founded on the rock of venerable tradition… not the sand of whimsical innovation.

It’s as simple as that.

I think we can easily spin the definition of words to make a case for our opinions, and what would be most convenient for our situation and our preferences. There are some interesting articles on what defines a Rite, but I will leave it to you all to Google it out.

He is like to a man building a house, who digged deep and laid the foundation upon a rock. And when a flood came, the stream beat vehemently upon that house: and it could not shake it: for it was founded on a rock.

But he that heareth and doth not is like to a man building his house upon the earth without a foundation: against which the stream beat vehemently. And immediately it fell: and the ruin of that house was great.

Luke 6:48-49

GerardH

I think we can easily spin the definition of words to make a case for our opinion

“The Rite” is that which is founded on the rock of venerable tradition…

Ironic

francis

It’s not ironic at all… it’s very simple… The Rites develop slowly over time and are guarded with a passion.. (btw… pope’s most important responsibility) well, until modernism infected the purity of our Rites in recent times.

Dig this thread up in 10 or 20 years and let’s revisit it again.

LOLC

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_orandi,_lex_credendi

smvanroode

“The Rite” is that which is founded on the rock of venerable tradition…
The Rites develop slowly over time and are guarded with a passion

We should also talk about what we mean by ‘tradition’, then. For some, it’s a given, a fixed heritage from the past that has to be preserved. Also, it is often used as a conversation stopper.

But tradition, to me (but also see Johan te Velde osb), is a proces. In the context of the liturgy, tradition is the way in which God offers his salvation in Christ to humanity. Hence, tradition is a proces of receiving, appropriating and passing on the living reality of this gift from God. I recommend reading Johan te Velde, Evaluating Liturgical Reform. Four Criteria Derived from a Theological Concept of Tradition (Louvain, 2022) to get the full idea.

smt

Thanks for this discussion, although it reads indeed as you were sometimes talking past each other. Thanks especially to you @smvanroode for the hint to Johan te Velde, which seems to be an incredibly rich book but unfortunately also pricy. We are preparing also a baptism currently, our son (4th child) must be just a week older than yours, Steven! But probably we will recycle the program from the last baptism, I could paste it later if you are interested.

Chant_Supremacist

The discursion into definitions, valuable on its own terms and which I contributed to taking us down, has diverted away from what I, at least, had become interested in focusing on, namely the partial loss of a distinct identity and signification in the new rite of infant baptism. More fully, the partial collapse of that identity that results from importing a mass-like liturgy of the word while removing, downplaying, or rearranging prayers and actions that aimed at a more specific spiritual preparation for the sacrament of baptism.

I'd also like to introduce the wrinkle that the new rite's focus perhaps spreads excessively from the child and parents'/godparents' preparation and instruction to the idea of communal celebration. Of course welcoming a child into the Church is a cause for celebration and expression of unity, but I again feel a certain ritual reductionism at play here, where a lazy reliance on a one-size-fits-all notion of communal celebration and (misunderstood) active participation results in a fuzzier rite.

Johan te Velde's book is very discriminating and precise about evaluating additions and subtractions, and in his case studies (which don't include infant baptism, as of course he can't include everything), he looks separately at a criterion of enduring sacramental identity and assigns negative marks to some post-V2 changes. I'm really noticing and arguing nothing different here, although with less knowledge and specificity, that on the criterion of ritual identity at least this homogenization deserves a bad grade and reforms intended to include Scripture and introduce music should have been done differently.

francis

Just stumbled on this article and it immediately reminded me of our discussion here.

https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/7937-swiss-bishop-calls-vatican-ii-a-ruthless-disruption-says-the-proclaimed-springtime-never-happened

smvanroode

Also a must read: Johan te Velde, ‘What problems did the liturgical reform intend to remedy’. Questions Liturgique 98 (2017), 81-101

Just stumbled on this article and it immediately reminded me of our discussion here.

There’s a lot to unpack here: generalizations, sweeping statements, correlations confused with causalities, straw mens, misrepresentations, etcetera. Sure it’s working for readers of The Remnant, but it doesn’t do much to me.

Liam

For future reference, this might be a live link to that text:

https://archive.org/stream/what-problems-did-the-liturgical-reform-intend-to-remedy-libre/WHAT_PROBLEMS_DID_THE_LITURGICAL_REFORM_INTEND_TO_REMEDY_libre_djvu.txt

That said, the proper topic of this thread is about music for the rite of baptism, not yet another more general re-hashing of the folly vs wisdom of liturgical reform, as irresistibly addictive as those re-hashings apparently can become .

PLTT

We have regular singing at our (communal) baptisms, and the following is a sample. It is not very "grand" because we usually just have a cantor and whoever has come for the baptism.

Gathering/Reception of the Child: (we don't sing anything here - we just begin directly)

Procession to Ambo for Liturgy of the Word: The most common is Psalm 41, or a hymn based on it

Acclamation: one of the Alleluias in common use in the parish

Song after homily: (nothing here)

Intercessions: we have sung responses, usually taken from Paul Jernberg's set (commonly the Eastern-inspired "Lord, hear our prayer")

Litany of Saints (sung, chant melody)

Procession to Font: A hymn based on Psalm 23

Blessing over Baptismal Water/Acclamation: we use one of Jernberg's intercession-response melodies, adapted to the blessing text, Option 2.

Acclamation after baptism: Celtic Alleluia (outside Lent).

Because we have group baptisms, the other rites take a bit of time and so we do songs to cover them though that is not foreseen in the rite:
-- Anointing: Come Holy Ghost, or another hymn to the Holy Spirit to the tune of "O Filii et Filiae"
-- White Garment: "You have put on Christ" (Walker)
-- Candle: Christ be our Light

Conclusion/procession back to altar: several options:
(a) "These are the lamb newly baptized" (Isti sunt agni novelli, translated); or (b) a couple of other baptismal hymns either to 'Christe Sanctorum' , or 'Ellacombe'; or (c) another piece based on the appendix ("Stretch out your hand, Church of God"), that was set to some kind of Eastern chant melody; or (e) "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ" (Orthodox melody).

Our Father: sung

Song of Praise: any metrical hymn paraphrase of the Magnificat. We have done Quinn's "My soul proclaims"; and Dudley-Smith's "Tell out my soul". We have also an English hymn to the tune of "Concordi Laetitia".

smt

What do you think of the communio "Omnes qui in Christo baptizati estis Christum induistis alleluia" with verses for the procession back to the altar?

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