Chant Café

Angela Manney reports on the recent St. Louis conference:

February 21, 2013 marked two momentous moments in Saint Louis: an ice storm that shut down the city, and the Musica Sacra Saint Louis conference. In spite of the fierce weather, flight cancellations, and treacherous streets, about 30 conferenciers of all ages, priests and laymen, from as far as Michigan and Arkansas, made their way to the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis that weekend. The difficult traveling circumstances were rewarded by an enthusiastic faculty, and the breathtaking experience of singing within what is perhaps the most beautiful church in the entire nation.

During the weekend, conferenciers were treated to a rich diversity of workshops from faculty members Dr. Cecilia Nam, Dr. Horst Buchholz, Bruce Ludwick, Angela Manney, and Adam Wright. Topics included chant basics, chironomy, singing the funeral propers, chant and choral resources, vocal technique, and some good, down home singing of chant and polyphony. The information gathered and friendships formed well surpassed the $75 conference fee.

The highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly the archdiocesan Mass for the Chair of Saint Peter. As the strains of Statuit ei Dominus resonated in the great Cathedral, priests from across the archdiocese processed in an endless stream towards the altar. Indeed, there were as many priests as there were members of the congregation that afternoon. Communion was prayerfully administered as the schola sang Tu es Petrus from Richard Rice’s Communio with English verses, and full male voices carried the anthem Tu Es Petrus by Faure as the anthem of thanksgiving. When not singing, the schola was lifted in rapt meditation upon the immensity of the space, the hundreds of mosaics, and the homily delivered by Archbishop Carlson.

This particular feast, of course, became all the more significant with the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI just days away. Carlson reminded us of a homily by Pope Benedict XVI, delivered on the same feast in 2006: “To celebrate the Chair of Peter as we do today, means therefore, to attribute to it a strong spiritual significance, and to recognize in it a privileged sign of the love of God, our good and eternal Shepherd, who wants to gather the whole Church, and to guide her along the way of salvation.” He also quoted a sermon of Pope Saint Leo the Great: “The Church of Christ rises on the firm foundation of Peter’s faith, given to him by God the Father.”

Due to some technical difficulties, I’ve rescheduled the online course in Gregorian notation. I’ll be offering it tomorrow evening – Friday, March 8 at 8:00pm CDT; and next Tuesday, March 12, at 8:00pm CDT. To those of you who showed up the other night, know that all systems are now go. Join me!

Here is the booklet for tonight’s Vespers at St. Peter’s. The service of Benediction has begun.

The cardinals have asked for our prayers.

Here’s a possible program to help a parish transition from a hymn-based program to the complete Gradual over just a few years.

What do you think? Is it too ambitious, or too slow? What resources have I neglected?

1. Examine the lyrics of the commonly used hymns and to clear away any hymn that is questionable in its theology for us as Roman Catholics. This should not have to be said, but unfortunately some hymns in common use in parishes are questionable.
2. The most important step is the priest’s own example of chanting by his singing of the dialogues, using the tunes found in the Roman Missal, or even on a single note. If he can gradually add the orations and sing all that he can, this would be ideal. He can begin to introduce periods of silence and listening, beginning with those suggested by the GIRM (between “let us pray” and the oration, after the homily, and at the end of Communion). This would help parishioners begin to understand something that the Graduale takes for granted: listening is a kind of participation at Mass.
3. Begin singing a responsorial Psalm during the Communion Procession. The format and the musical style would be familiar to parishioners and easily accepted. The GIRM allows for a hymn of praise to be sung after Communion has been distributed, when the people have taken their places again, but shows a strong preference for Psalm to be sung during Communion.
4. Add the Introit at the beginning of Mass. I would not recommend replacing the Entrance Hymn with an Introit at this stage, but adding the Introit, probably in English, either before or after the Entrance Hymn, is an easily acceptable way to introduce a key Proper text for the Sunday.
5. Replace the Offertory hymn with an organ solo or a motet sung by the choir. The Offertory hymn is the least likely to be missed among all the hymns of the Entrance-Offertory-Communion-Recessional pattern that was the norm at Low Masses and has persisted. At the Offertory people are busy with the collection and are ready for a brief rest, and the omission will become welcome. If a motet is sung, its words should ideally be those of the Proper text for the Sunday.

   If the above recommendations are implemented over the course of six months, I would suggest leaving things as they are for another six months, giving the people time to adjust to this new way of singing. In the meantime, I would suggest increasing the number of Confession times in the parish, and to include opportunities for Confession on Sundays in particular.

6. Beginning in a penitential season of Advent or Lent, introduce the simplest Chant Mass, the Jubilate Deo Mass or Mass XVIII, which Pope Paul VI asked be known and used in every parish.
7. Continue chanting the Ordinary outside of Advent and Lent, in English if this seems advisable. Many excellent English settings are available, including the ICEL Missal chants which are freely available on the internet, and the settings written by the American composers Richard Rice and Fr. Michael O’Connor, OP. Gradually, over the course of 3-4 years, the Latin ordinaries found in the Kyriale.
8. Replace the Entrance Hymn with the Gregorian Introit, and sing the Gregorian Communio at Communion.
9. Begin singing the extensive Gregorian Alleluias with the jubilus. Choose a single Gregorian Alleluia and to sing this at Mass for a season, gradually introducing more of the Alleluias. During Lent, sing the Tract. Beginning that Easter, sing the Alleluia of the week.
10. Finally, replace the Responsorial Psalm with the Gradual.

I’m spending most of this Lent on the Isle of Wight, at two Benedictine monasteries belonging to the Solesmes Congregation, Quarr Abbey (monks) and St. Cecilia’s Abbey (nuns). Both houses sing full Gregorian propers at every Mass, besides the entire Divine Office every day.

Quarr is a marvel. I’ve been there for a week now and amazed by the sheer amount of labora this small community is able to accomplish every day, in addition to their sublime ora. They have bees, pigs, ponies, ruins, construction, gardens, and a very full guest house, besides all the work that must be going on behind the scenes. The singing is wonderful, and the tune for the Lenten responsories is particularly haunting, and sung by the very able cantors.

St. Cecilia’s is a very full house, as they are offering hospitality to the nuns who left their Anglican monastery of Wantage in order to become Catholic. The singing of 40 very accomplished nuns is a stunningly beautiful sound, and the small group who sang today’s Gradual had me simply mesmerized.

The nuns have made a number of recordings, and sample tracks may be found here.

It’s a lovely island, and nowhere is far from the sea. The poetry of the scenery is helpful to my work, but the poetry of the chant is why I came, and it was an excellent choice, and I am very grateful.