it may be uttered outside of antiphons and the propers. When Easter falls in its somewhat typical range, the word is found of Prime of April 4 at the Marytrology, and it is always said in Lent in a reading of the second nocturn of Matins, on the feast of Saint Gregory.

Good points! A general avoidance of alleluia in the context of motets and hymns, either from Septuagesima or during Lent, is noted in any number of handbooks and commentaries, but I'm not sure I've seen any official rubric or regulation forbidding the use of motets or hymns with alleluia, which leads me to wonder whether it's a tradition so well known that it didn't need to be documented, or whether there is indeed no such prohibition regarding supplementary texts sung in the liturgy. To the OP, I find it a bit silly when choirs substitute something else in rehearsal to avoid uttering the forbidden word, but as long as they don't take it too seriously in a way that tends toward scrupulosity, I see no harm in it.

I do not use it if I can help it, in everyday life or otherwise (from after first Vespers of Septuagesima until Easter Vigil). When we are rehearsing Easter music, I do sing it, out of obedience to the directors' preferences. But my preference would be to practice the music with the vowel sounds only (just drop the L's, they're not hard to add in later, there's no hard consonants that need cutoffs). Or just sing the melody on the vowel A. I agree that most substitutes sound tacky. I've heard Avocado, but would not want to sing that, even for practice.

I immediately roll my eyes at the people who get scrupulous about it during Lent when we rehearse music for Holy Saturday and beyond, and we practice appropriately.

Me too. I've had both choir members, and especially school children clutch their enormous pearls when I've dared to utter the word during rehearsal. It is utterly foolish to put so much stock into this prohibition.

Can you imagine: "no organ except to support singing" ... so you never get to practice your Easter Morning postlude until the morning of...? Of course not! And you should rehearse your Easter choral rep just the same. Don't practice it 15 minutes before Mass for Palm Sunday, to be sure... but goodness me. People take this all too seriously.

I tell my young singers that we got "special permission" to practice the Alleluia during our Lenten rehearsals. They love the feeling of doing something no one else is allowed to do at school!

Now, to Serviam’s point: the organ tuners did not finish when we had first asked them to finish (enough work, not just the perfection parts) and so they wanted to come back during the Triduum during a time when the church was open to the faithful for adoration, and I was like “Absolutely not” (it’s a long story as to why they were completely off-schedule and ignorant as to the three days before Easter being a bad time). Sigh.

Anyway Liam is very right about the problems.

to Patrick’s point: I would avoid it in motets and hymns, but my thought was that if it’s even merely uttered then saying it at all is obviously not the intent of the liturgical rubrics.

In choir practice when practicing for Easter we still sang the “alleluias”. I experienced a certain dissonance with it, but understood why it needed to be practiced that way. Other members of our choir who were far more rigid than I seemed to have conscientious objections about it outside of choir. I used to find myself talking people down explaining that it’s not a sin to sing or say alleluia during Lent, that it’s important to practice singing the actual word because when you perform it, you’re more likely to fall into the habit of how you practiced it for weeks prior.

I remember a few years ago on the Feast of St. Joseph during Lent our MD accidentally listed “For All the Saints” as the recessional hymn. He had a sub filling in for him, though. I caught it just before Mass was about to begin and debated whether or not to take it upon myself to point it out to his sub, whom I wasn’t sure if they would pick up on the forbidden alleluias. I did so discreetly, and it got changed, but it has left me wondering what if I hadn’t. Do you just go with it? Improvise a new chorus? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

@trentonjconn This stuff happens, but I love seeing/hearing about people thinking on their feet to make the best of it.