Most everything we say about parish conventions is a guess based on whatever inputs we have but my guess is that 9 in 10 parishes this Good Friday will not sing or say the Improperia/Reproaches (“My people, what have I done to you”). There are a number of puzzles in my own mind concerning why this is so. They are just an integral to the Roman Rite as any part of the liturgical season and yet today they are mostly entirely neglected so far as I can tell.
Oddly, this is not because they are absent in the Missal. In fact, they are very much present in the current Missal, not just as a text but as notated music, and not in the appendix where you find other music but right there as part of the Good Friday liturgy. Their neglect might be due to the fact that they appear in the Missal but, so far as I know, they are mostly absent from the Missalettes that the choir uses. This means that they are available to the priest but this priest is not the one doing the singing. They are not available for the choir, which is doing the singing. Hence, they are not said or sung.
Why are they in the Missal? This is another oddity. Mostly the Missal contains the parts for the celebrant and not the choir. This is why, we are told, that the offertory propers are not the Missal. But if we applied that rule consistently, the Reproaches wouldn’t be in there either. Apparently, however, in the pre-Tridentine usage, matters were different. The priest and servers would in fact sing this portion of the liturgy in procession. The old Trent Missal did not make a distinction between the priest and choir parts, and perhaps the Reproaches were somehow grandfathered in to the current Missal. Maybe someone can shed light on this puzzle.
Regardless, it hardly matters because most parishes just pretend they do not exist at all, and this is very sad. The text gives new meaning to the word drama, for it so clearly lays the blame on the evil of the crucifixion on our owns sins and our own faithlessness. The narrative is historical but the theology behind the narrative is deeply personal and present. It strikes you as no other texts.
Aristotle Esguerra as taken the current Missal texts in English and produced two beautiful editions:
1985 Sacramentary (lacks Greek and deviates from the traditional order of choral declamation)
and
1985 Sacramentary with Greek and traditional choir divisions restored
In my own parish, we’ve usually sung Victoria’s setting of the text.
This is a ten-year old practice. This year, for the first time, we are going to the source and singing the texts straight from the Graduale Romanum. We are very excited about this.
A reason I have heard about this not being sung is that the text is considered to be anti-Semetical, thus offensive to the Jewish people. This is despite the teaching of the Church and especially in light of what Pope Benedict XVI has written in his latest book. The text is about all humanity and the sins which called for this sacrifice. Again, another example of poor catechesis
One reason they are not used more is that O's of W in certain diocese in this country actively suppressed them, instructing that they were inappropriate.
In my chant- and tradition-phobic parish I used them from the very first in a super simplified English chant, ( modern notation,) despite the strenuous objections, (and I might say scheming,) of one lay "minister", and they were instantly effective. (The parish had been used to singing a spiritual during the Veneration.)
Priest, congregation and choir repeatedly told me how moving they were.
NO one imagined for a second that "my people" referred to anyone but themselves.
An article on the subject, from 200:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1141/is_20_36/ai_61184931/
"At an even deeper level, some critics believe the reproaches undercut the spirituality of the Good Friday liturgy. Good Friday, they say, is about the "joy of the cross" — a paradoxical celebration of Christ's crucifixion that points forward to Easter and the resurrection. It is not, they say, a time to wallow in sinfulness and sorrow."
"[Alan] Hommerding said that even setting aside the question of anti-Judaism, the reproaches don't fit the spirituality of Good Friday.
'The language of the prayer is celebratory,' he said. 'It's not a celebration the way we popularly understand it, with balloons and clowns, but Good Friday is part of our celebration of the passover from death to life. In that context, an examination of conscience is not appropriate.'"
Celebrating the Eucharist always had the text – not sure about now, or any other disposable.
The reproaches are a tragic love song from our crucified Lord to His cherished Chosen People, a people who repaid his provision and loving-kindness with rejection, cruelty, and crucifixion. To pretend this is generically about humanity's sins is to disregard the Old Testament, salavation history, and the faithful love and deep sorrow of our Lord.
Brian, as with most aspects of Christianity, there are many levels of meaning to events and liturgical prayers.
Jeffrey,
That there are many levels of meaning to events and liturgical prayers is undeniably true; we have all betrayed our Lord; our sins nailed him to a cross.
We have no right, however, to sweep the plain meaning of this ancient liturgical prayer under a rug, no matter who might find it offensive. To do so, would be to violate the truth of the Word of God and to drain the Improperia of their poetic and spiritual power. God chose, cherished, protected, and nourished the Jewish people for this very moment, to receive the Savior of the world, and they betrayed their Messiah and crucified Him. Every verse of the prayer sings poignantly of this betrayal and of our Lord’s undying love for His people.
That being said, it is exciting to learn that you will be chanting this ancient prayer straight from the Graduale Romanum. It is one of the most beautiful and moving chants of the liturgical year.
I highly recommend the English translations by Palmer/Burgess paired with the Victoria Refrains, posted lasted year to the musicasacra forum:
Refrains
Verses
Many thanks to Mr.Esguerra for all the work on this, especially on an English text that will soon be replaced.
If I may suggest, in his next version with the new text, he could also include the Latin as well as the Greek.
I say this because we are fortunate to have been able to do the Healey Willan version of these reproaches, and for a few years now, which has the Greek, Latin, and English. Using these 3 languages has a certain symbolism that connects us with the communion of Saints, past and present. We had to change the English text a bit to make it conform more to ICEL, by the way, but Willan had some very fine musical ideas here.
I find the Victoria without the verses make a very effective ostinato (especially if you can separate a smaller schola to do the Latin Trisagion as a true echo of the Greek). Way better than Taize….
I composed a setting of the Reproaches based on the Missal chants back in 1995, blissfully unaware of any controversy. I have used it every year since, and it has become something of a favorite of my choir.
I'm actually glad that the commercial composers have avoided this text… Hearing some of the settings of the Exsultet, I shudder to think of what the Reproaches might become…
How fortunate are those parishes that have such music as this web site promotes. I use to be a member of CMAA but had to cancel my subscription. It was too hard for me to read all about the great choral and chant going on all over the country and being forced to sit through Steinway Grand piano Masses at my parish. I have given up as the music director there insists on Broadway tune type of hymn arrangements with an operatic Tenor, with heavy vibrato, Belting out the words in a microphone.
Meanwhile, up in the choir loft is a magnificent pipe organ. All I can do when the Mass starts and the piano bangs incessantly is to repeat over and over in my head" Intoibo ad Altare Dei…." and hope that I can make it through the Mass without feeling anger and frustration with all the noise that now as more and more music and singing is part of the Mass.
"How to Go to Mass Without Losing Your Faith" will be available in English soon (right now it's available in Italian.
It is sad. I can't go to parish Mass anymore myself. I drove a long distance to go to a Traditional Mass on Sundays.
I first heard the Victoria Improperia at the London Oratory some 35 years ago, along with the Crux Fidelis of King John of Portugal; the congregation is so large that the Veneration takes best part of an hour. The choir is divided and sings from opposite sides of the nave. Quite apart from the "achingly beautiful" Victoria setting (alternating with the Chant) the sudden irruption of the Greek "Hagios O Theos" in the context of an otherwise Latin liturgy is striking.
Holy week demonstrates how the liturgy and the Chant grew alongside each other and cannot be separated.