The promulgation of the new translation of the Roman Missal of 1970, invites us to reflect further on the “hermeneutic of continuity” articulated by Pope Benedict XVI, and the importance of this being demonstrated consistently in the celebration of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
Beginning Saturday 12th May (at 6 pm), in response to the requests of the Faithful, a weekly Vigil Mass in the Ordinary Form will be offered at St Aloysius’ Church which will aim to exemplify “sacredness in continuity”.
The Mass will be celebrated in English, “ad orientem” at the High Altar, with both the Propers of the day and the Ordinary being sung. Communicants are invited to kneel at the Altar rails to receive Our Lord on the tongue ‘under both kinds’ by intinction. Books will be provided containing all the readings, Mass Ordinary and Propers, and music including hymns.
The inaugural Mass, at 6 pm on Saturday 12th May, will be offered for the intentions of Pope Benedict XVI.
Two years ago, we made a movie that was one of those media events that happens only once and will never be repeated, mainly because its brilliance rests most fundamentally with the delightful naivete of all of us who were involved in its making. We had no idea just how difficult such a task would be, or what the results might be when we started out.
The credit belongs entirely to Jeffrey Ostrowski who shepherded from the beginning. The goal was to do something, anything, to convey to the world just how exciting and thrilling the world of sacred music truly is. It was also designed to advertise and market the Sacred Music Colloquium (which this year runs June 25 through July 1 in Salt Lake City).
It seems odd to use the language of marketing here since no one makes a dime from this event and the sponsoring organization runs on a shoestring budget. If it were not for periodic (but rare) benefactors that picked up some of the bills, we would have shut down long ago. The truth is, that everything needs marketing at some level, something to convince people to interrupt the regular course of their lives and try something completely new.
This has been the great challenge in the world of sacred music. The problem in our parishes is not unknown. It goes something like this. Our music is not serious, not substantial, not liturgical, facts which drive off serious people and talented musicians; but without the serious people and talented musicians around, there is no real hope for improvement down the line. It becomes a vicious circle that digs a deeper hole every year.
This happened only recently to a top-notch musician who moved to a college town. She went to a local parish to offer services. Then she found something amazing. The parish was large but had no musicians at all. There was no budget and no talent. They scraped by on the usual terrible music from the 1970s, sort of singing and sort of playing a few things. But otherwise there was nothing.
She began to ask around as to why this was so. The answer came quickly. No musicians are involved because the music is so bad. And the music is so bad because no musicians are involved. How do you break out of such a disaster? And by the way, this is not at all uncommon. Musicians have been fleeing the Catholic world for decades, and only recently started to return very slowly.
The only way out is find people who have an ever so slight interest in doing something about the problem, training them to read and sing the chants of the faith, and inspire them to get to work in saving the liturgy and the world. It’s not so easy to do this. You have to inspire even that much interest. You have to get people to believe that it is worth their time and effort. And, let’s face it, Catholics aren’t much for making serious commitments beyond weekly Mass attendance. They imagine themselves to be consumers not producers of services. It is pathetic but true, and I wish I understood why.
Still, we have to offer opportunities for those who feel the call. If we do not, there is no hope at all for change.
The Colloquium goes many steps beyond that toward total immersion in heavenly beauty for a full week. Yes it is life changing. Every year the Colloquium has attracted more people. This year will be the biggest and best ever. I would suggest that nearly all progress in the Catholic musical arts in this country and beyond are due to this one event.
The really big change this year is that we have opened up the program on both ends: you can be a non-musician, non-singer, and not read a note, or you can be an advanced professional with a conservatory degree. Absolutely everyone can benefit. We wanted to reduce the intimidation element that keeps people away while always increase professional networking opportunities. We hope that we’ve done both.
It is an uphill struggle and it is certainly not lucrative. But here we are with the job that has fallen to this generation. We must rebuild. We must work. We must leave Catholic tradition for others to pick up and appreciate in the next generation. If we do not, we have not fulfilled our mandate.
It only takes one generation to make this turnaround happen. With enough commitment and sacrifice, it can happen. It also involves non-musicians. We need donors. We need attendees. We need people to talk this up. We really need prayers.
There have been dark times in the past for sacred music. But the light can come if we take the right steps. Please join us.
Please remember in your prayers Father Cody Unterseher, an Anglican Priest, who contributed at the Praytell Blog who died as a result of an aneurism he had over a week ago. Eternal Rest grant unto him O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon him. Comfort his family and friends. Amen.
Don’t you hate essays that begin dictionary definitions? “According to Webster, …”
Well, I’m going to use the same old trick but I’ll update it a bit. According to the Free Online Dictionary, a chant is:
a. A short, simple series of syllables or words that are sung on or intoned to the same note or a limited range of notes.
b. A canticle or prayer sung or intoned in this manner.
c. A song or melody.
And here’s the definition of chant as a verb:
1. To sing or intone to a chant: chant a prayer.
2. To celebrate in song: chanting a hero’s deeds.
3. To say in the manner of a chant: chanted defiant slogans.
It has struck me again and again just how confused people are about what chant is, and what it means if we say we are chanting. I was charged with teaching all of the kids in my parish the Missal Chants last fall. Kids had no trouble understanding that “to chant” meant “to sing.”
But what surprised me – well, not really – what struck me was that a number of the adults involved in the CCD program. i.e., teachers, volunteers., etc., didn’t understand that chanting means singing. It became clear in my many conversations with them that they thought chanting meant only one thing: a string of words, repeated over and over, on one tone.
Maybe it is because I live in a football town. Everyone knows the “chants” or “cheers” that are exclaimed game after game, year after year, in a football town. I’m in Alabama. “War Eagle;” “Roll Tide,” and what have you. There are longer ones, too…simple, rhythmic phrases – akin to Rap – that people utter and scream in order to affect some outcome of the game. It is supposed to encourage the ball players. And I think it does.
This is what a lot of people think “chant” is.
Over the past year, I’ve been especially aware of people who say to me: “I can’t sing a note. But I can sure chant.”
Has it occurred to anyone else that we should start using the verb “sing” a lot more often? Let’s “sing” the Missal chants, and not chant them. Let’s “sing” Gregorian chant. Let’s “sing” the Simple English Propers, or the Weber propers, or what have you.
The chant, as we know it, IS in fact music. We sing it. It is not something less evolved than a more modern form of music or song that is “sung.”
I am never going to use the word “chant” as a verb again. Unless I am at a sporting event.
Organ pipes, like the sun, are filled with sound-waves. Find out more on the NOVA special tonight at 9 pm EDT. Film footage of both the sun and organ pipes (the latter filmed at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception) will be featured.
If your parish is considering using the proper texts of the Mass, and if you are not sure how to make the transition from hymns to propers, Hymn Tune Propers might be the solution you are seeking for the upcoming liturgical new year. Charles Giffen and I have worked together to produce this booklet of Advent propers. The texts are my adaptations of the daily and Sunday Entrance Antiphons, rhymed and metered in 8.8.8.8. iambic (Long Meter) verses. Charles has set these verses to familiar Long Meter tunes: Conditor Alme Siderum (Creator of the Stars of Night), Winchester New (On Jordan’s Bank), and, for December 17-24, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel). Optional Psalm verses are provided, in traditional Anglican chant, except for the days of the O Antiphons, and Dec. 24, when the antiphon is followed by the refrain: Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
The Hymn Tune Propers project is envisioned as a “first step” in parish music renewal. It offers an easy and accessible way for parishes accustomed to singing hymns–a majority of parishes–to sing in their familiar musical style, but using the Church’s universal texts. Parishioners on a wide scale can have access to the liturgical texts that are often hidden from them by the custom of singing hymns in place of the processional chants.
In my opinion, this is not a long-term solution for any parish, for both musical and textual reasons. The musical style of hymnody is not flexible enough to foster true cantillation of the liturgical text. In my versifications I have made small compromises in meaning and imagery in order to accommodate meter and rhyme. But it is a useful, easy, non-confrontational first step in helping parishioners become familiar with the existence of propers, to know and love the liturgical bounty they represent, and to have a chance to become more deeply immersed in “the mystery of the liturgical season or festivity” (GIRM para. 47).
