From the category archives:

Music Comment

Chant for a Tridentine Mass

by SacredMusic on September 4, 2007

A priest in our diocese will be saying the “Tridentine Mass” in a private Mass for home-schooling families in our area starting next month. I have volunteered to lead the singing of the parts of the Mass in Gregorian Chant. I do own a choir edition of the Adoremus Hymnal and am familiar with some of the chant included in the book. Would the chant in the hymnal be used for the Tridentine Mass? At what times of the year? Are there any additional sources of chant that you would recommend to help get us started? Thank you. MaryBecker via e-mail

William Mahrt response:

Helen Hull Hitchcock forwarded your inquiry to me, and I can add a little bit to the information. Concerning the Ordinary of the Mass, the chants are essentially the same in both usages, so the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei would be the same, except that in the Tridentine use, the Kyrie is always nine-fold, while in the new user it is often six-fold; likewise, in the Tridentine usage the Pater noster is sung by the priest alone until the last line, which is sung as a response by the choir and/or congregation.

There remains the Propers of the Mass, however: the introit, gradual, alleluia or tract, offertory, and communion. These are often omitted in the new use or replaced with hymns, but that is not permitted in the Tridentine use; they must be sung there. Most correctly, they should be sung in their full Gregorian forms from the Graduate Romanum, though it was customary before the Council to sing their texts to simple psalm-tone melodies, which fulfills the requirement. Likewise, while the repertory of pieces for the Propers of the Mass is essentially the same in both uses, the specific assignment of pieces varies according to the day, since the calendar was subject to a thorough-going revision.

If you are just getting started, I would suggest that you go for the psalm-tone Propers. Ultimately the full Gregorian pieces should be used, but that is a major project requiring some considerable musical attention. The old edition of Rev. Carlo Rossini has been reprinted by the Neumann Press. I believe one should move on to singing the Gregorian pieces, but this is an-acceptable first step. With my best wishes for your project.

William Mahrt
President of the Church
Music Association of America
Editor of Sacred Music

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The Chabanel Psalms

by SacredMusic on August 6, 2007

For musicians working within the modern use of the Roman Rite, there is now a free resource for the Responsorial Psalm: The Chabanel Psalms.

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I’m very happy that my new copies of the classic editions of Ward singing tutorials have arrived. They are beautiful, and very exciting in so many ways – just to have them back in print is itself fabulous, and it goes without saying that they have stood the test of time.

Here they are: Ward One and Ward Four

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Te Deum

by SacredMusic on February 12, 2007

On one page

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Passion Narratives online

by SacredMusic on February 5, 2007

Now online, in Gregorian notation, the Passion narratives of St. Mark, St. Matthew, St. John, and St. Luke.

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Triple Alleluias

by Pes on January 12, 2007

In its Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1964) required that official sacred chant books for the Church be published with care:

§117. The typical edition of the books of Gregorian chant is to be completed; and a more critical edition is to be prepared of those books already published since the restoration by St. Pius X. It is desirable also that an edition be prepared containing simpler melodies, for use in small churches.

One edition containing simpler melodies was released as the Graduale Simplex in 1967. Since then, use of Simplex antiphons in the U.S. has been limited, but at least one scholar has written that the Simplex did exert a considerable effect on the Alleluia before the Gospel. Prior to the new Missal of 1970, Alleluias were sizable melismatic chants. When usage of the Graduale Romanum declined, it appears the Simplex substitution of a triple Alleluia was adopted widely as the new default. Use of the actual melodies was not.

Whatever the faults of the overall approach of the Simplex, the use of a triple Alleluia throughout the liturgical year, and the lack of apparent rationale for their seasonal/festal distribution, the Alleluias in the Simplex are good examples of modal melody. They also have interesting rhythmic variety if one pays careful attention to groups of two and three. Some are somber, some haunting. All the triple Alleluias in the Simplex are available for study in PDF.

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