Category: Jeffrey Tucker

I continue to receive this question from Cathedrals, parishes, priests, and directors of music.

Web helper Richard Chonak has set up this page: http://musicasacra.com/ordinary/

From the Office of Worship, Boston Archdiocese, May 9, 2011, we have a model of what should have happened all over the English-speaking world.

During these workshops we have been sharing the resources and best practices that will be helpful in the parish implementation of the Roman Missal, which we will start using on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011. One very important suggestion has to do with the music for the Roman Missal: We are strongly encouraging every parish throughout the Archdiocese to use the ICEL chants that will be found in the Missal and in every participation aid that is being published for use in the Liturgy. These beautiful chants are easy to sing and are readily available online at ICEL’s website.

The ICEL chant setting will be the official Mass setting for use throughout the Archdiocese of Boston. You may choose to use another musical setting of the Mass from one of the major publishers, but we would kindly ask you to begin by using the ICEL chants in November and to introduce other settings later on in the Liturgical year. The ICEL chants put the emphasis on the words, and it would be pastorally beneficial for us to choose the setting that is as uncomplicated as possible, so that the words we pray can become the focus. Upcoming opportunities for musicians throughout the Archdiocese to learn these settings will be announced in the coming weeks.

For all the limitations of the past versions of the St. Michael Hymnal, it was probably one of the better choices out there for parishes. When I had seen a version from a few year back, it struck me as a good effort toward trying to figure out what kind of musical things should be going on in a Catholic parish. It had a bit of this and a bit of that, but mostly it had vast numbers of metrical hymns guaranteed not to produce strange textual and doctrinal surprises.There’s something to say for that.

Today, PrayTell reviews the forthcoming edition. The writer has done a thorough comparison between the old and new. There is no question that this hymnal is improving in the right way. It includes

●  The new translation of the Order of Mass in Latin and English on facing pages
●  6 Gregorian Chant Mass Ordinaries in Latin with chant notation
●  12 English Mass Ordinaries using the new translation of the Mass
●  Over 65 pieces of Service Music in English, Latin and Spanish
●  A complete collection of Entrance Antiphons for Sunday Mass
●  A collection of 440 hymns in English, Latin and Spanish
●  Indices by: Title, Tune, Meter, Liturgical Celebration, Topic

The list is notably lopsided in the direction of hymns! However, it is an excellent thing that Richard Rice has written entrance antiphons for this book, and this is a great step in the right direction. They are only antiphons (modern notation and only for the entrance) without Psalms, and they follow a formula very similar to the Simple English Propers. They are not yet presented in a way that can cover the full liturgical action but it is a good start for a book that began as a kind of blowback alternative to contemporary hymnody.

What we are seeing here is a gradual and growing sophistication among the editors – and we can hope that they can be seen as a proxy for the conservative music impulse generally. The project was born of the hymn wars but we are seeing evidence here of a deepened understanding that the Catholic music problem isn’t really about whether to sing preconciliar hymns or postconciliar songs. It is about whether we are singing the liturgy, or something else.

Check out their great website, which includes some unusual lectures, including one by the great William Tortolano.

Many parishes are very interested in having a single sheet of music to put in the pews, so that congregations can sing the music of the forthcoming missal without having to dig through a book. My preference is for square notes but there have been many requests for modern-note editions.

I made several attempts at cutting and pasting the music from the ICEL website, but the result was less than stellar.

Now Aristotle Esguerra of CantemusDomino.net has come through with an absolutely beautiful edition. This includes Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Pater Noster, Sanctus, Agnus, plus the dialogues on the Memorial Acclamation.

Here it is: Missal Chants in Modern Notation. It can be printed on an 11×17 sheet and folded to put in pews.