Author: Adam Bartlett

Andrea Tornielli at Vatican Insider reports that in the coming weeks the Congregation for Divine Worship will establish a new “Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission…whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses. The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of mass.”

A few months ago Pope Benedict released the motu proprio Quaerit semper which reorganized the CDW, relieving the office of the duty of handling cases of the validity of priestly ordinations and marriages, and now we see a reason why this may have been done. The new Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission is now freed up to be able “to promote the training of priests, clerics and catechists, starting from the bare basics,” and it will aim “to revive a sense of the sacredness and mystery of the liturgy.”

The last instruction on sacred music to have come from the Vatican was Musicam Sacram in 1967, which contains many aims and directives that are still unfulfilled. Should we expect to see a new Vatican instruction on sacred music from this new commission with the CDW? 

Tornielli closes his article recalling that 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and 2013 the promulgation of Sacrosanctum Concilium. Has the time come for an official clarification on the council’s true vision of sacred music? You can be sure that we will be following the work of this commission very closely. We should all pray for the successful establishment of this new commission, and for its success in helping guide the new era of liturgical renewal that is before us, especially as the English speaking world embarks forward this coming week into the new translation of the Roman Missal. 

Read Tornielli’s piece in its entirety here.

Msgr. James Moroney, executive secretary of Vox Clara, has posted the first in a year-long series of reflections on the Sunday collects as found in the new translation of Roman Missal at his blog Dignum et Iustum Est. 

Having been so intimately involved in the process of the translation of the Missal, he is sure to offer some powerful insights into these newly translated texts.

Something to consider is that for those who have been attending Mass celebrated in English according to the Missal of Paul VI for the past several decades, next Sunday is the first time that you will hear the ancient collects of the Roman Rite with clarity and integrity. The collects, in particular, were one of the most poorly translated portions of the liturgy in the 1973 ICEL translation, and many times even these were not heard because of the use of the composed “alternate collects” of the old ICEL.

Many graces surely await us on the First Sunday of Advent when the texts of the liturgy will shine forth with clarity and purity, emanating spiritual depth and theological truth.

I would love to see a similar effort take place with the sung propers of the Mass, another part of the liturgy that has been largely neglected and obscured in post-conciliar era.

As I continue to work on and talk with people about the Lumen Christi Missal, I continue to hear requests for covering the needs of Daily Masses.

Many people subscribe to seasonal and annual missalette services for nothing else but the Sunday Lectionary readings and for daily Mass antiphons. So many pastors, musicians and parish administrators who I’ve talked with absolutely loathe the idea of continually having to purchase and dispose of these booklets not only for the continual cost that it is to their parish, but also because it makes a common practice of habitually destroying the printed Word of God.

So I’ve been asking myself, “what do parishes really need for daily Mass?” The common practice suggests that what is needed are the texts of the Entrance and Communion antiphons and of the Responsorial Psalm, all of which are customarily recited at daily liturgies.

We have now decided to include these daily antiphons for all daily Masses throughout the year in the Lumen Christi Missal and find that this will be a relatively painless task and could ultimately save parishes loads of money while enabling them to upgrade the dignity of the resources they place in the pew.

The Church is asking us at this moment in history to increase our singing of the Mass. I wonder if the simple chanting of daily Mass antiphons with a parish’s most dedicated membership, students, and so forth, might not only heighten these daily celebrations, but allow for the fruits of this prayer to begin to influence Sunday Masses as well.

The Lumen Christi Missal will include simple, through-composed Responsorial Psalms for every liturgy throughout the year, and we’re considering pointing the daily antiphons to be sung to simple psalm tones, a la the methods used in the Mundelein Psalter. The MP has a track record of proven success. Do you think that a similar approach to the antiphons of daily Mass would be a welcomed upgrade to our current practice? Feedback welcome!

Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth was recently interviewed on the local Catholic radio station in Boston with Fr. Jonathan Gaspar, the director of the Office of Worship in the Archdiocese.

The interview was mostly on the new translation but half-way through there is an interesting discussion on music in the missal and beauty and truth in music.

You can listen to the entire interview here.

We’re very excited here at Chant Café to be able to share with you an exclusive preview of a new and forthcoming chant book from Solesmes.

It is entitled Singing the Mass: Sung Order of Mass in English and Latin is edited by Mr. Christopher Barlow and expected to be released immanently.

Mr. Barlow has shared with us some of the details of the book and some sample contents. Here’s an overview:

Singing the Mass is a collection of the chant dialogues and settings of the Mass Ordinary in English and Latin for use by the people. It includes, on facing faces, the English Order of Mass (2010) and the Latin Order of Mass (2002/2008). It includes all possible alternatives (e.g. Greetings A, B and C), and both the simple and solemn tones. It includes a shorter Kyriale, but only in Latin, with the only English Mass Ordinary setting being as found in the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal.

Singing the Mass also contains chant settings for the Alleluia, Lenten Gospel Acclamation (in Latin and English), the Asperges Me (in Latin with an English adaption) and alternative settings of the Lord’s Prayer for Australia, England (Rimsky-Korsakov) and the US (Snow).

Singing the Mass can be seen as an extension of the Gregorian Missal and includes vernacular chant where that is sympathetic to the Latin chant and contained within an official book of the Roman Rite.

It is also important to note that the book is only intended for use in the Ordinary Form of the Mass, and includes the four Eucharistic prayers.

Singing the Mass is 306 pages, is being printed on high quality ivory paper, has a gold embossed hard blue cover, and is expected to be available for purchase on the Solesmes website shortly.

Mr. Barlow has also shared with us some sample contents for download.

And following is the Table of Contents:

Singing the Mass – Table of Contents

We will make available ordering details as soon as they become available. And we thank Mr. Christopher Barlow for his fine effort that will surely be of great use to parishes and musicians throughout the English-speaking world.