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Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

The Music Is Here, Forty Years Late

Sixteen years ago, I found myself vaguely in charge of providing music at one Mass (vigil on Saturday) at my local parish. I had very little notion of what precisely was wrong with the existing music – that something was wrong was very obvious – much less how I could go about fixing it. I only knew the broad outlines and had broad principles of how to get there. Chant was best, I knew because Vatican II said so, but not really viable.

I had a Liber Usualis but no real clue about how to sing from it much less apply it to the ordinary form of Mass. Like most musicians in those days, I worked with what the parish had and tried to improve it on the margin: four decent hymns and a Psalm that I had to write and voice each week because the existing resource struck me as essentially silly.

Where was the source material? What about a decent setting of the Mass ordinary? Is there nothing else besides hymns to sing at these various spots? Why must there be these periodic bursts of music during and after the consecration? What are the controlling documents for dealing with all these problems? Did anyone really know what was going on?

The year was 1995, and the world wide web was just getting off the ground. No one had a copy of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal. There were no music downloads. Even getting a copy of the music books pertaining to the Roman Rite was exceedingly difficult in a town without a Catholic book store. As for mailing lists, I guess I wasn’t on the right ones.

My plight was the plight of most Catholic musicians in those days, and so it had been from the mid 1970s, when the last of the well-trained Catholic musicians had been run off from the parishes. Confusion reigned. We did the best we could but we had virtually no tools, musical or intellectual. I got together with some singers and we sang Ubi Caritas after communion and Adoro Te when possible. But apart from these little bits and pieces, there could be no real improvement at the core.

We knew nothing of Mass propers, nothing of the Gregorian Missal, nothing of alternative Psalm settings, nothing of any English or Latin chant dealing with the ordinary of the Mass. I had heard of a tiny movement that was singing chant here and there around the country, but I had no access to training or method or sheet music.

Just thinking about these days – they lasted for some 40 years! – it is mind boggling how far we’ve come. Today, there is no reason for barely competent composers to attempt to write their own Psalms. They are all free for the download. So too with the music. Even the chant books themselves are everything. The GIRM is online. Most importantly, there are vast tutorials, communities, and educational resources available to anyone who looks them up. There are national conferences that attract hundreds. Every few weeks, it seems, there is another training session in Gregorian chant taking place somewhere. You can download all the propers of the Mass in English or Latin, in myriad settings.

It’s been one long upward climb, day by day, week by week. Finding the truth about Catholic music been like discovery a great lost city. We’ve learned where it is we need to be and discovered ways to get from here to there. The forty years in the desert are coming to an end. The evidence might not have hit your local parish but there is not question that it will at some point. Hundreds are undergoing training. The resources are finally there. There is light at the end of this long tunnel.

Just in the last week, three major developments portend a beautiful future. First, the USCCB announced that it is at the discretion of local Bishops as to whether they would like to use the new texts for the Mass starting this fall rather than waiting for Advent. The wonderful thing: the music that is most accessible to parishes is from the forthcoming Missal itself. This music is chant. It is sung by people using the real texts of the Mass. It is unaccompanied. Every parish can use this music as the basis of a solemn and participatory liturgical structure.

The music is free for the download, thanks to the surprising foresight of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy. Many Bishops and pastors have already said that they will use the Missal chants as part of a national push for a standardized Mass setting that all the people can sing. One year ago, this seems like an implausible hope. Today it seems eminently possible.

At the very same time, the first book of chant Mass propers in English for the ordinary form of the Mass has come into print. The author/composer is Adam Bartlett. They are designed to take the place of what is usually the processional, offertory, and communion hymns. They are not some random text and song but rather the real text of the Mass together with appropriate songs. They are chanted in the same mode as the traditional Gregorian. They are accessible for every single parish in this country.

The Simple English Propers are available for free download sharing. Even so, the book is also in print, a 460-page hardback for $17.50. They were available at the Sacred Music Colloquium this year and completely sold out. They were put on sale at Amazon and the sales ranking shot up in 4,000 overnight – demonstrating high demand. There will surely be other Mass propers collections, but this is the first, and already the interest around the English-speaking world is extremely high. Many parishes already use them. At last, there is a book that covers the main parts of Mass and that can be sung by anyone!

A third resource has appeared at the same time. Choral settings of the Mass propers by Richard Rice have been published by the Church Music Association of America. They were on sale at the colloquium and they sold out within one hour. They too are available on Amazon. They are simple, dignified, and beautiful. They can be sung by any choir with four voices. Once again, when they are used, the choir is not only singing at Mass but singing the text of the Mass itself.

So there we have it all, forty years after the promulgation of the ordinary form of the Mass. We are getting a new Missal with chants to sing. We have the propers of the Mass in vernacular chant and in choral settings. And we have Psalms we can download and sing. The hope is that by October, we will also have simple chanted Responsorial Psalms also in print and ready for global distribution.

It makes me sad to think of all the years that have been wasted, but also makes me wild with excitement to know of what faces us in the future. There will be no more wallowing ignorance and musical poverty. We know know what to do, and we have the resources to do it. I’m deeply grateful for all the colleagues and friends I’ve been blessed to have during this long journey from darkness to light.

In the years ahead, I feel sure that people will look back in amazement at all the years in which we wandered in the desert, trying to find a way out. But for now, let’s just look ahead and praise God for what this generation has been given. It is now left to us to go out and make the difference.

Posted on by Revd Fr Christopher Smith

Corpus Christi in Vienna


A procession is a holy movement of those truly united. It is a gentle stream of peaceful majesty, not a procession of fists clenched in bitterness, but of hands folded in gentleness. It is a procession which threatens no one, excludes no one, and whose blessing even falls on those who stand astonished at its edge and who look on, comprehending nothing. It is a movement which the holy One, the eternal One supports with his presence; he gives peace to the movement and he gives unity to those taking part in it. The Lord of history and of this holy exodus from exile towards the eternal homeland himself accompanies the exodus.
Karl Rahner, SJ (NB that I never quote Rahner, but this is a good quote!)

News reports tell us that Austrians are leaving the Catholic Church in droves. That may be the case, but they sure do still believe in not working on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. On this Corpus Christi THURSDAY (ahem) I was annoyed not to find a bus or taxi from my little apartment in the wine tasting village of Grinzing to get to the UBahn for the 8.30am Pontifical Mass at the Stefansdom. I did finally get there, and could not find anywhere to have my obligatory Kleiner Brauner to pump some caffeine in my system for what promised to be one of those Endurance Liturgies that no suburban American Catholic could ever cope with. Thank God for American economic imperialism, as I thanked God the only time in my life for McDonalds and hot coffee!

I entered the Sacristy of the Cathedral ahead of time and it was already abuzz with activity for the Mass and Procession. I checked with the Ceremoniarius, the Cathedral’s Master of Ceremonies, if I could concelebrate the Mass and process, and I was graciously attended to by one of the sacristans, who vested me, and about 25 other priests, in some of the most beautiful 17th century French giardinaje style vestments I have ever seen.

The Nuncio to Vienna entered and warmly greeted everyone in the sacristy with a handshake, just as every other person who entered the sacristy did. Not long thereafter, Christoph Cardinal Schoenborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, in his choir dress and biretta, entered and made the rounds of everyone in the sacristy. I was delighted to have a brief conversation with him, and to receive his encouragement for my doctoral studies, which he repeated again after the Mass. His quiet but warm demeanor somehow all of its own corralled the mass of people in the sacristy, and the bell rang for Mass to begin.

The Pontifical Mass was sung very well by the Cardinal, the prayers all being in German. But the Ordinary of the Mass was Mozart’s Spaurmesse, and the famous Cathedral Choir and Orchestra did justice to Vienna’s favourite musician. For those who are unfamiliar with how a Viennese orchestral Mass works with a sung Ordinary Form Mass, I will describe the local custom.
The Kyrie is sung as the Penitential Rite itself, with everyone sitting down after the first bar. After the Kyrie, all rise and the Celebrant sings the Misereatur and then intones the Gloria. After the first bar of the Gloria, everyone sits and listens to the Gloria, and then all rise for the Collect. For the Creed, all stand after the Homily as the Celebrant intones it, and then sit after the first bar. Everyone bows in their seats at the et incarnatus est. After the Preface, the Sanctus begins, and all continue to stand. After the Sanctus, the congregation stands, kneels or sits (!) as they wish. The Eucharistic Prayer begins as normal, and the Memorial Acclamation is sung. Then, the Choir begins the Benedictus. After the conclusion of the Benedictus, the Celebrant continues the Eucharistic Prayer as normal. After the Sign of Peace, at a Pontifical Mass, the Choir sings the Agnus Dei in its usual place; but at other Masses, the Celebrant skips the Agnus Dei, which is sung at the beginning of the distribution of Holy Communion.

That is how the Ordinary is handled at the Cathedral. For some of the other music, they do something which many would balk at. The Entrance Procession and Incensation is accompanied by organ. Then, when the Celebrant reaches the Chair, a vernacular hymn is sung. A hymn is sung at the usual place of the Offertory. And after the Sacrament is returned to the tabernacle in a side altar and the Celebrant reaches his chair, a vernacular Communion hymn is sung. And the usual Recessional Hymn is sung as per usual. I have heard on occasion parts of the Latin Gregorian Propers sung, but never all of them, and never very often. While some liturgists may balk that music must accompany a liturgical action and never stand alone by itself (at least for the Introit and Communion), this practice does mean that everyone calmly sings together the hymns without having to worry about watching or doing something else. And guess what, they sing ALL THE VERSES!

There are a couple of interesting architectural things to notice. The Lucite chair for the Cardinal and the small, almost square, marble freestanding altar on their respective footpaces are placed within the Choir Aisle. The High Altar, upon which the Sacrament is not reserved, has become a very nice stand for (real) candles (that are lit all day long everyday) and flowers. The placement of the cathedra and freestanding altar makes for some very awkward motions during a liturgy which otherwise is very well executed. I would be interested to see where the Throne was placed before, and how the Stefansdom Reform of the Reform liturgy would look and sound like if the Cathedra were elsewhere and the High Altar used for the celebration of Mass.

The Procession began after the Closing Prayer after a rather long explanation of the order of procession and the wait for the various groups to take their places in the nave. The usual men and women religious, confraternities and papal knights and dames were in attendance. But there was another addition that was typically Austrian which I found quite delightful.
In the United States, when we think of fraternities, we usually think of Animal House, hazing and binge drinking. College fraternities in Austria may do all that too, but they were all out in force for Corpus Christi. Each fraternity has a specific uniform with a military style formal Mess jacket (gold buillion embroidery, epaulets, and brass buttons), trousers tucked into high boots, and what can best be described as a pillbox hat worn on the side of the head with a chin strap. They all carry swords and other fine pieces of weaponry. And they all have their place in the Procession. Also in the Procession were representatives from the secular University of Vienna, with their gowns and oversized velvet hats.

The Cardinal took up the small monstrance, which was decorated with a crown of baby’s breath, and the Procession began as the impressive bells of the Cathedral rang full peal and the organ began the hymn we all know as “Praise to the LORD, the Almighty.”

The Procession made its way through the streets of Vienna, as it has every year for centuries. I thought of how many Corpus Christi Processions this city has seen. Celebrating the feast in the glories of the late Middle Ages, as Protestants threatened to tear the city apart, as Turks besieged the gates, as Maria Theresa reigned in Enlightened splendor, as the Nazis made the town their own, and now, as secularism threatens to break a final murderous wave over a once Christian Europe. How many more Processions will there be in the future?

But suffice it to say, this Procession was very much like every other Procession in the past. It certainly was not like last year’s Procession in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt when a Pita Bread (Host?) on a pike was processed through the streets in a Burlesque version of a Corpus Christi Procession. There might have been more German in 2011 then there would have been in 1911, with the Emperor Blessed Karl von Habsburg was in attendance, or in 1511, before the Reformation threatened to destroy the German speaking world’s Eucharistic devotion. But it was a Procession like any other. Three altars, each magnificently decorated, with a sung Gospel at each; band music, the Rosary, Litanies and hymns between each station. There were only two additions which Vienna’s forebears might not have seen before, but which certainly could be seen in a hermeneutic of continuity with the true spirit of Vatican II: sung Intercessions, and a homily given by the Cardinal at each Station.

But there were also two other additions which somehow I think that Sissy, Freud, Hitler, and a lot of other people who passed through the Imperial Capital might not have ever thought to see. The first was that many of the servers, adults and children, were female (although interestingly enough, the Readings at Mass were proclaimed by seminarians). The other was the inclusion within the Procession of something I am at a loss to describe. A dapperly dressed young man held a large flag with the word, “Frauen”, Women, written on it. Next to him was a similarly well-habille young woman with a sign, with a cartoon of an androgynous figure in a cassock kicking off one of his/her/its bedslippers and pointing to a bed with the word “Frei”, Free, written on it. At first, I thought it was a silent protest saying the Church needs to keep its nose out of women’s bedrooms. But they joined the Procession with everyone else. It was one of those “huh?” moments, and if any of our readers can enlighten me as to what that was all about, I would like to know.

A more positive and less disturbing image was one of evangelization. A group of sisters dressed in long denim jumpers with a white veil, sandals, and wooden crosses hung from their necks on a string, (they had to be French, only the French come up with that kind of combo), were carrying baskets of rose petals. Every so often, they would go up to a little girl on the side of the street and ask them if they would like to throw flowers as Jesus passed by. I am not sure if any of those little girls had any idea what was going on, but I am also sure by the smiles of the girls and their families that this quiet little initiative of the good sisters was appreciated by lots of people on the margins of Christian practice, and Jesus as well!

This was a procession which was well-organized, took its time, and was prayerful. Today I prayed. And my faith was strengthened because the Body of Christ, the Church, had gathered to worship the Body of Christ in the Eucharist. And to do so among the splendor of an ancient tradition, the music of Mozart, and the quiet humble example of the Cardinal was a wonderful way to spend Corpus Christi.

Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

Should You Be Using Oversized Chant Posters?

Peter A. Kwasniewski, Professor of Theology and Philosophy and Instructor in Music History and Theory at Wyoming Catholic College, uses oversized editions of the chant for his schola. Doing this keeps the singers’ heads out of the book, corrects the posture, and yields a better sound. No more hiding inside pages! In a wonderful way, this also recreates the medieval practice of singing from the one edition owned by the parish or monastery.

He made these posters by sending a file to a local printer. It was as simple as that. Now he keeps them in a giant binder and pulls them out as necessary.

Posted on by Arlene Oost-Zinner

Responsorial Psalm for Corpus Christi

Here’s what we’ll be singing this Sunday:

You can download a printable version here.

Our parish is an OF parish, and that is unlikely to change. There is little hope of doing the Gradual at our Masses, but I do not lament it. I take it is a challenge. Even if your sights are on the ideal, one of the things we have to realize is that the OF is a valid form of the Mass, and the music we sing must serve it well. It can be beautiful and well balanced. It shouldn’t be top heavy, or overly burdened with long chants and polyphonic Masses just because they are the “ideal.” As always, things work best and are most naturally beautiful when form follows function.

That said, there is no reason not to sing a polyphonic motet after Offertory chant or after singing the Communion proper. These are times at which the OF, in its strictly linear format, offers a little expansiveness and time for reflection.