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Posted on by Adam Wood

James MacMillan decides to “stop writing congregational music for the Catholic Church”

I have decided to stop writing congregational music for the Catholic Church. Those who follow these things will be aware that liturgical music can be a war zone in Catholicism. We need not detain ourselves over the reasons and fault-lines in the ongoing debates and struggles, but it is clear to me that there is too much music being created, at the same time as the vast repository of tradition is ignored and wilfully forgotten.

He also praises the Simple English Propers.

The Americans seem to be ahead of the game and are producing new publications which enable the singing, in the vernacular, of those neglected Proper texts for Introits, Offertories and Communion…In taking the shape and sound of Catholic chant, they are creating an authentic traditional repertoire for the new liturgical directions in the Church. They are making simple, singable, functional music to suit the nature of ecclesial ritual for a Church which went through various convulsions after the Second Vatican Council.

It’s an amazing article.

Posted on by Ben

Proper Chants for Thanksgiving (Roman Missal Antiphons)

Though it is not strictly a liturgical event to be observed, many parishes in the US still like to have music at their Thanksgiving morning Masses, and the new Roman Missal provides a set of prayers and antiphons for this day that many priests use.

That being said, the music books of the Roman Rite do not provide proper chants for that day, leaving parishes regularly singing propers without them. However, in the USA, the GIRM provides us the option of having the antiphons from the missal chanted as proper chants.

For those who use Simple English Propers, I’ve adapted the missal antiphons to the melodies found in SEP. You can find the entrance and communion antiphons below:

While the missal does not contain the offertory antiphon (therefore, this PDF does not either), you could chant any offertory antiphon you wish under. One antiphon I would put forward for consideration is the offertory from the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, In te speravi, which seems appropriate thematically appropriate.

In you have I put my trust, O Lord;
I said: “You are my God,
my destiny is in your hands.”

For those of you working in parishes with sung Masses or Masses with music on Thanksgiving morning, what are you planning on using?

Posted on by Kathleen Pluth

A Tale of Two Cantors

I’ve been attending Sunday Mass at St. Mary Major lately. The all-men choir is just tremendous and the preaching by the canons is top-notch. The Dominican confessors wait for penitents in the wooden confessionals that line the walls–and the penitents come. At Communion time the Franciscans emerge to attend to the distribution of the Blessed Sacrament.

For most of the Mass, propers are used, and of course the ordinary is chanted, alternatum with polyphony. It’s like a Colloquium every week. But they sing the Responsorial Psalm, at least sometimes.Yesterday for the first time I realized that the Responsorial Psalm was sung by two cantors, and I didn’t realize it at the very beginning. They were so well-blended, and moved together so perfectly, that if it weren’t for two different timbres emerging from time to time, I would have thought it was a single voice.

I’ve seen the use of multiple cantors for Psalms before, at Religious houses, and I quite like it. It’s not like the ubiquitous soloist that we have seen so often. Instead, 2, 4, or 6 cantors–increasing in progressive solemnity according to the importance of the feast–chant the Psalm in unison.