Category: Jeffrey Tucker

The Graduale Novum is published by ConBrio.

COLLECT

Current 
God our Father,
you have promised to remain forever
with those who do what is just and right.
Help us to live in your presence.

Forthcoming 
O God, who teach us that you abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.

AFTER COMMUNION

Current
Lord, you give us food from heaven.
May we always hunger
for the bread of life.

Forthcoming
Having fed upon these heavenly delights,
we pray, O Lord,
so that we may always long
for that food by which we truly live.

There is a two-part interview and story in the California Catholic Daily with Mary Ann Carr Wilson: 1 and 2. Mary Ann has grown up with the growth of the chant movement in this country, having attended the Sacred Music Colloquium when it was small and fledgling and coming most years since, and watching as it became large, evangelistic, and musically sophisticated.

The big change in her musical life came when she was tapped to provide musical direction for an FSSP parish. Now she is in charge of music for extraordinary form Masses.

And this is interesting:

What I like about the Extraordinary Form is:

1.) It’s less prone to abuse because less options; the culture of obedience is stronger and more stable than a culture of options

2.) There is an explicit and rich Catholic identity in all prayers

3.) There are beautiful, theologically rich Offertory prayers, excised in the Ordinary Form

4.) The sung Gradual and Alleluia are more conducive to meditation and recollection than the Responsorial Psalm and Gospel Acclamation, often poorly composed ditties.

5.) I especially don’t miss the Prayers of the Faithful or the Sign of Peace as they are often experienced in parishes.

6.) This is valid in both forms, but I appreciate praying in the same direction as the priest, who faces liturgical east. Feels more like the Church moving
together, led by the priest as shepherd and father, in the person of Christ.

7.) The full use of Gregorian propers. Valid in both forms, but more
common to experience in the Extraordinary Form.

8.) I appreciate the use of the communion rail and receiving our Lord kneeling and from a priest or deacon. Personally I am able to recollect more this way.

9.) I do not miss cluttered sanctuaries with tons of lay people and concelebrating priests. Though I know the Church allows much of this, to me it obscures the Mass.

What I don’t like about the Extraordinary Form:

1.I miss singing the Pater Noster

2.) I wish the entrance was the Introit, for which it was composed, often neglected in both Ordinary and Extraordinary forms.

On the last two points, it’s my understanding that having the people sing the Pater Noster is now permitted in the extraordinary form, but overcoming a local tradition can be difficult. As for the introit, she is so right about this. The Asperges is to come before the introit only on the primary Mass on Sunday but this is the very Mass that most often uses the sung Introit too. I’m not sure there is a way to use the Introit as the entrance under these conditions.

Richard Rice has done it again. He has produced a full year of entrance antiphons with Psalms, with accompaniment, for use in the ordinary form. These are all in modern notes and the samples look very good. You can download the set here.

These are clearly designed for the congregation to sing in a responsorial pattern. There is just no comparing these to any hymn you could possibly pick to sing. This gets people’s heads out of the book and has everyone singing the actual text that is proper to the Mass.

This is just the sort of music that is going to bring a new solemnity to Mass. You can start using them this Sunday.

One of my favorite but least noticed books on the literature page of MusicaSacra.com is Marie Pierik’s Spirit of Gregorian Chant (PDF | printed). She offers a detailed and very inspiring look at everything a Catholic singer needs to know about the primary music at Mass. Here she presents a short version of the origin of the term Missal — which, it occurs to me, might be a new term for younger Catholics in the English-speaking world. We know about the Sacramentary and the Lectionary but what is this thing called the Missal?

The Missal (L. Missale, from Missa, Mass) had somewhat the same development as the Breviary. At first it contained simply the Mass and a few morning services connected with the Mass. From this Sacramentarium (so called because all of its contents centered around the great Act of Consecration, and also because, in the course of time, it came to include the ritual for the celebration and administration of all the other Sacraments) the songs of the Deacon as well as the texts which the choir sang were omitted. The songs of the choir, such as the Introit, Offertory and Communion, were contained in the Antiphonarium Missae or Graduale. The parts chanted by the Deacon and Subdeacon, the Gospels and the Epistles, with lessons from the Old Testament for particular occasions, were collected in the Evangelarium and the Epistolarium or Apostolus.

Besides this, an Ordo or Directorium was required to determine the proper service. The contents of the Sacramentary, the Gradual, the various lectionaries and Ordo were amalgamated, but the development was slow, and it was several centuries before all were brought together under one cover.

The first printed edition of the Missale Romanum was introduced in Milan in 1474. Nothing officially authoritative appeared until the Council of Trent (1545-63) considered the question of uniformity in the liturgical books and appointed a commission to examine the matter. (p. 132)

Further:

The word Missa (Mass) is of folk, not of classical origin. It was used originally in the sense of “missio” or “dimissio,” signifying the dismissal of the faithful at the end of any celebration of the cult. St. Ambrose used it as a liturgical term in a letter written in the year 385, applying its meaning to the Eucharistic Sacrifice; as used by another writer at that time, it would also seem, from evidence, to have included within its scope the canonical Office as well as the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The meaning of the word, therefore, originally applied to a detail, gradually embraced all of the preceding service with its rites and prayers. (p. 118)

Here is the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on the same topic.

Now ten years in existence, our parish schola can handle many wonderful pieces, including most everything by Palestrina and Victoria as well as Guerrero and a large selection of Di Lasso and Byrd. Of course the pieces I dream about are the ones out of reach: not enough singers, not enough rehearsal time, too many other demands, and just generally too hard. And so I present to you one that got away: Sing Joyfully, by William Byrd, in two versions: Westminster and the pedagogical version at Choraltracks.com.

Sing Joyfully – William Byrd from Matthew Curtis on Vimeo.

ChoralTracks.com is a project of Matthew Curtis and its purpose is to provide tutorials on part singing for music used in liturgy, with a mostly Catholic bent. He has a specialty is producing videos that help singers learn their part, and yet it is clear from the samples that this is not only about singing the right note in the right place. He is offering some beautiful examples of pronunciation and interpretation as well. His list of completed projects for mixed voices is long and so is the list of forthcoming ones. We wish him every success here.

Let me add that Curtis’s skill is…beyond belief really. This is one man, one voice. Check it out:

Jubilate Deo – Balanced – Giovanni Gabrieli from Matthew Curtis on Vimeo.