I was just reading through Pray Tell’s vast comment thread on the Fr. Ruff’s post on GIA’s hymn-stuffed Worship 4, which, as I’ve noted, contains no settings of propers, which are the actual liturgical texts of the Mass. A few points here.
1. It’s a great development that this issue is finally being discussed. A few years ago, one could hardly find any discussion of the most peculiar liturgical development of the last half century: the near complete abandonment of Mass propers as the source of music.
2. Several commentators plea for diversity and a “take your pick” approach of hymns or propers. Problem: there are hundreds of hymn-only books in print but there is not a single book in print that provides music in English for all the Mass propers, except of course the Anglican Use Gradual (of which I’m an advocate, knowing full well that there are reasons why this book cannot become standard in parish life). Otherwise, the only in-print resource for sung propers is the full loaf and the ultimate achievement of the ideal: the Graduale Romanum. It should go without saying that there is a vast gulf between current practice and that ideal, and that we need some stepping stones along the way. My point is that it’s hard to have diversity without choice.
3. In about two weeks, the situation described in #2 will changed, with two very important books: the Simple English Propers (Bartlett) and Simple Choral Gradual (Rice). They will come out within days of each other, be seen for the first time at the Sacred Music Colloquium, and be available on Amazon shortly thereafter.
In general, there is nothing wrong with making the intellectual and liturgical case for propers and why they should not be replaced by hymns. In the end, however, the way all this settles out will really depend on parish experience with various models. We will soon be in a much better position to judge.
This is the biggest news I've seen on this point:
"The GIRM for England & Wales (for the Roman Missal which comes into force in 2011) does not permit vernacular hymns to be sung at the entrance, at the preparation of the gifts, or during the distribution of communion."
Thanks for the heads up. I just posted about this. I'm really amazed actually.
This is a serious breakthrough! Imagine a music director buying SEP and thinking, "I hope I can get my parish's liturgy committee to let me do these once in a while." Then imagine a music director going to the liturgy committee with copies for everyone of the SEP and the GIRM. "These are the new rules," the DM says. "But what will we sing?" the LC cries. "Well, I was thinking we could start with the Simple English Propers," the DM replies. "Here, why don't we try one!"
By the way, Ben Whitworth, who posted the comment on Pray Tell, is a scholar of Latin hymnody and no enemy of hymns. But there is a time and a place for everything.
What i don't understand is why I didn't know this. This GIRM has been out since 1985. Are we Americans just hopelessly in the dark?
Jeffrey, I was assuming that it's the Bishops' conference's decision. I would imagine that they can further restrict the Latin GIRM for the needs of the faithful of their jurisdiction.
For the past two years I have used both the Proper chant for the Entrance and Communion in addition to the customary hymn…Chant first and then the hymn. It works pretty well and has the effect of getting that "sound" of chant out there. People comment to me frequently about the chants (positively in all instances) but I have yet to hear someone speak of the hymns in the same way.
What does this mean to me? It means that people like what they're hearing, and that's a major victory in the effort to re-introduce sacred music in any meaningful way. Perhaps it will take something along the lines of a major document on music stating the preference for the propers to make the move to eliminate the hymn and keep the chants…but that would be far easier in my parish now than it would have been two years ago. Perhaps it could happen eventually without the need for such a document as the new generation of seminarians and priests become pastors. The key is to be ready for that change when the opportunity arises.
As for the GIRM in the UK… it seems that they simply interpret "a psalm or antiphon from another collection" in the same way that we interpret "alius cantus aptus"…it's an open ended permission to do whatever one wishes. Absent a prohibition, permission is assumed.
What a depressing thread that was.
Why anyone thinks that droning the first two verses of Gather Us In instead of the Propers is worth fighting for is beyond me.
Just got through wading through the comments on P/T about the Worship 4 index. I had forgotten how depressing some of the comments there can be. Such wonderful things are happening in Church music, but the majority of people in music ministries are still misunderstanding how music is supposed to work in the liturgy.