Noel Jones offers this guest column on the important topic of Anglican tones for the Responsorial Psalm.
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The Case for Singing English Chant Tone Responsorial Psalms
The Anglican Church has perfected the art of singing psalms in English and the suitability for their psalm tones for this purpose has caused them to be adopted for use in churches of many other denominations, including the Roman Catholic Latin Rite Churches, when singing in English vernacular.
For that reason, though they are known as being Anglican Chants, they deserve to be called English Chants as they, like hymns, have escaped the bounds of being associated with one denomination.
Why consider singing these compact and concise psalm tunes for the Alleluia, its Verse and the Responsorial Psalm?
They are eminently adaptable to your musical circumstances. They may be sung by a semi-professional SATB choir but also by a middle school cantor in unison, melody only, unaccompanied. They are English psalm tones for all reasons and seasons.
But even more compelling is that they greatly increase the ability of a congregation to respond in song. In simple terms, this is one way of satisfying the pressure on many of us to get the congregation to participate in the Mass in song.
Why are these easier and preferable to the printed pulp missal psalms that are out there in most pews?
They are written solely to be sung in support of the psalms rather than being musical works on their own, just as the Gregorian Psalm Tones were written to serve the psalms without attempts by a composer to elaborate and adorn the music.
Yes, the Gregorian Tones may be used to sing the Alleluia, Verse and the Responsorial Psalm in English, however, the English Psalm Chant Tones are more suited to English. It is a matter of the structure of accented syllables in Latin versus English. For English, these psalm tones win out.
But the best part is this, they are sung to simple melodies of 10 notes in most cases. And they can be repeated for a series of weeks until people become familiar with them. Do they become boring? No, because the organist traditionally changes registrations to reflect the meaning of the words and the singers also interpret the text and music more so than is common with Gregorian Chant.
Why are they not included in current Catholic hymnals? Some feel that they, like Gregorian Chant, are to a large part in the public domain, meaning that publishers cannot control their use and charge for using them. Others recognize that it is merely because they are not Catholic. This attitude must be confusing to Catholics in Great Britain who hear them commonly, if not in their home church but in broadcasts from Westminster Cathedral, whose choir appears on YouTube singing these English Psalm Chant Tones.
But what’s the best reason for singing them? They are based upon Gregorian Chant as it evolved into a form that suited the English language. One famous Gregorian Psalm Tone, Tonus Peregrinus, survived the transition and it exists as a Gregorian Chant and an English Chant unchanged. What better to sing than Gregorian Chant that has evolved through years and years of singing into a unique form by the work of people that speak the language?
While the Roman Church ignored the centuries of work of putting the liturgy in English done by the English Church, the Roman Church has failed to provide music for English texts just as they have failed to provide authorized translations for singing. There is no rule against using English Chant Tones and common sense says that in the interest of improving music in the vernacular, they are the natural replacement for what most people have in their hands on Sunday morning in the United States and the rest of the English-Speaking World.
I have felt this way for a long time and used these psalm tones at Mass for four years at parish Masses and at high school Masses. As a result of this I am in the midst of finishing a beginner’s guide to singing these psalm tones, pointing (marking) the text of the psalms for singing them and providing many of the psalm tones in the public domain for copying, sharing and use.
How hard is this to put into place and get up and working in a parish? After four weekly school Masses, the high school choir students knew enough to take over the marking and rehearsing of the choir singing the psalms each week and rehearsed the psalms in parts under the leadership of a sophomore and sang them at Mass for the entire semester, also led by the sophomore, unaccompanied.
Curiously, I know of one fairly high Anglo-catholic parish in Canada that would never sing these, their rational being that they are too Protestant in view of the history of the CofE. They always use English "plainchant" instead.
Of course I need not say that these would be just fine for the NO Masses.
That's a great attitude they have in recognizing the supremacy of Plainchant in their tradition as many of us do Gregorian chant.
The idea of preferring plainchant comes from the High Church because until the mid-19th century there was actually little congregational singing in the Broad Church other than metrical hymns. Anglican chants were sung by a choir. The Oxford movement took over this idea of more congregational singing and plainchant was seen to be much easier for the congregation to sing than Anglican chant. I am pretty sure that All Saint Margaret Street still sings the psalms to plainchant at Evensong, where the people participate in the singing.
This raises another issue though. There is generally little celebration of Vespers (evening prayer) in North American Catholic churches where the singing of the psalms by the faithful would be a natural. If there were, I am sure there would be much less of a need perceived for a Responsorial psalm at Mass.
One famous Gregorian Psalm Tone, Tonus Peregrinus, survived the transition and it exists as a Gregorian Chant and an English Chant unchanged
That tone was used by JSBach in his Magnificat.
There is generally little celebration of Vespers … If there were, I am sure there would be much less of a need perceived for a Responsorial psalm at Mass.
Excellent point, Ted. I have seen the Responsorial Psalm justified on catachetical grounds. The argument would have been better applied to a revival of Vespers.