From Father Finigan we have a nice little posting about one of my hugest pet peeves: liturgical music. Or I should say the lack of liturgical music in the NO church today.
Active participation or mere activity?
Jeffrey Tucker, Sacred Music Correspondent at the New Liturgical Movement has given great service to the Church by his tireless promotion of properly liturgical music in both the Ordinary and Extraordinary forms of the Roman Rite. An outstanding article which summarises the problem with the celebration of the Ordinary form to be found in most parishes is: No More Roadblocks.
As he rightly points out, if you go to the choir practice area of many Churches, you will find a sheet that looks like this:Setting: CreationTo take just one example: what is meant to be sung at the beginning of Mass is the Introit; and Vatican II gave pride of place to Gregorian Chant for liturgical music. Most people will only ever hear the Introit sung at Mass celebrated according to the usus antiquior. At English Masses, they will not hear the Introit in English set to Gregorian Chant or even in some modern musical form. Instead, they will get an "Entrance hymn" chosen to suit the "theme" of the Mass or the season, or because it is one that people know and enjoy.
Pro: random hymn
Off: random hymn
Com: random hymn
Rec: random hymn
Imagine suggesting that the Entrance hymn be replaced by the Introit - perhaps sung in English according to one of the psalm tones to start with. One of the most likely objections will be that the people cannot participate.
This leads to a deeper question concerning the nature of liturgical participation. From Pope St Pius X onwards, there have been calls for active participation - culminating in the call of Sacrosanctum Concilium for the full, conscious and active participation of the people.
Notice, however, that "participation" implies that we are participating in something. What we are meant to be participating in is the Sacred Liturgy. The hymn "Holy God we praise thy name", or "Colours of Day" - take your pick - is not a part of the Sacred Liturgy. If such a hymn is chosen in preference to the Introit, nobody is actually participating in the Sacred Liturgy: people are simply singing a hymn that they like (or at least that somebody likes or thinks that other people should like.)
Has not "active participation" given way to mere activity?
When I was planning my wedding, I spoke very specifically to the church's music director about what we wanted. Latin hymns, the parts of the Mass sung in Latin, and so on. The music director, who is the biggest fan of Marty Haugen I have ever seen, thought that our request was the coolest he had ever received. He thought it would be beautiful.
And it was.
So why, then does he persist in his overuse of the OCP and their music? Who knows? When will the opponents of beauty n the Mass see the errors of their ways? We have no choir either, so asking the MD to use the Introit instead of an entrance hymn isn't even an option.
3 comments:
The current General Instruction on the Roman Missal lists singing a setting of the proper texts as the first option for entrance, offertory, and communion. I suspect that many parish musicians do not even know that such texts exist, or that they could and should be sung, or that singing chant is even allowed anymore.
For Confirmation this year, I used a chanted English introit, a choral Kyrie and Gloria, a Latin psalmus responsorius, English Alleluia psalm, hymn at offertory, chanted English Sanctus and Mysterium, choral Latin Agnus Dei, a communio from the Gradual, and a hymn for the recession - all with an average ability church choir. It can be done. But things aren't going to change much if there isn't a better example coming from the large parishes and especially the cathedral. These churches should be the model for our rich Catholic musical heritage.
Rockin' Traddy, have you seen the Frequently Asked Questions on Sacred Music from the CMAA? Perhaps you could give one to the parish MD and pastor...
What parish is that? Is that the norm there, or just for special Masses ie, confirmation.
I have not read the FAQ, and I fear alas, they would fall on deaf ears. But I will give it the old college try, as they say.
The Sacred Music FAQ can be downloaded from www.musicasacra.com. I placed a few at the entrances of my churches. As I said before, the lack of good example is a real problem. I heard from time to time that "No other churches are singing this...."
At my churches (http://www.smasm.org/music), we are making steady progress. While not every liturgy can be as well prepared as Confirmation, we are moving in that direction. At one of my churches, we sing the introit to a psalm tone or other setting throughout the Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter seasons. I'm considering doing it on "ordinary" Sundays as well, even if it is followed by a hymn. And now it is the exception rather than the rule to sing a hymn instead of an antiphon at communion. There are SO MANY resources out there today that make good music in Latin and English possible at any church, no matter how small.
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