Organ supplying liturgical texts (1962 MR)
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 529
    Page 177 of Fortescue/O'Connell/Reid refers to the practice of the organ providing verses for the Ordinary and Proper that otherwise cannot be sung. It notes, however, that 'while the organ plays, the text must audibly sung recto tono by a cantor or the choir.'

    I'm having trouble imagining what this approach would sound like. Does anyone have any sample recordings?
  • davido
    Posts: 1,167
    I doubt there are any. Only really obnoxious sticklers would have done that.
  • francis
    Posts: 11,226
    I can easily imagine this in my mind, but I’m wondering if you can give us more details on exactly what this is and why we would do it.
  • FSSPmusic
    Posts: 452
    There was a discussion about this practice two years ago:
    https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/20530/does-tra-le-sollucitudine-actually-allow-organ-alternatim/

    I doubt any recordings exist. As I wrote in the previous thread:
    It would be interesting to see a comprehensive history of regulations requiring recitation of texts supplied by the organ. Was it a recto tono chanting or a spoken reading of the text, and did it take place before or during the organ verset? Keeping in mind that the practice spanned more than five centuries, how much variation was there in different times and places? Is it safe to assume that there was no recitation in the absence of a local regulation requiring it?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,926
    I would look for French recordings perhaps asking our Friends in Paris at St Eugene and Caecilia.

    I am sure I have heard this being done at ND de Paris and ND de Chartres, for hymns but not as part of the liturgy e.g. Vespers.

    N.B. How audible to recto tono will be will depend on the church and the Organ!
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,302
    As I said in the previous linked thread: Stercky provides the requirements as of the last edition in 1935.

    The requirement is Roman. But whether anyone did it is not the same question.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
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