The group I regularly sing with is in Boston, but I’m here ten miles north, living in a big parish with 3000 people but only an occasional choir — I think they sing for Easter, Christmas, and confirmations.
So I asked the pastor on Saturday if it would be OK to organize a group of people to learn and practice chant, and maybe be of some use to the parish?
Now, I didn’t really expect him to take a strong interest in it: I figured the only thing Fr. Bill had enthusiasm for is the local baseball team. The flag hanging outside the rectory door isn’t yellow with a pair of keys, but blue with a pair of red socks! Well, it shows how much I knew about him: he says he loves chant and he’s all for starting a schola!
OK. Now what do I do?
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RC !
Liber Cantualis. It’s small and inexpensive, but it contains a number of Mass settings that wouldn’t be hard to learn.
Maybe you’ve got a Tridentine Parish in the area who would donate some. They normal cost is $18 but the publisher is known to give discounts to institutions or in volume.
Steve
PROGRESSIVE SOLEMNITY!!!!!
Sorry to shout, but it is a concept that has been ignored for 30 years, and is very helpful (IMO,) in taking the baby steps necessary to get liturgical music back where it ought to be.
Start with the acclamations, the dialogues, the simple responses, the propers can come later.
Teach the pslam tone.
I like the idea of the progressive solemnity approach! It’s a great way to avoid Catholic Culture Shock (but sad we need to avoid the shock of the treasures of our liturgical music.)
Graduale Simplex (Latin) or By Flowing Waters (NRSV English). The former, because it has all of the dialogues and responses as well as propers and simple ordinaries. The latter, because it’s in English, has liberal copyright permissions, and can be found in some places for under twelve bucks.
Do stay tuned to developments regarding The Cantus Project, though, as their English version will maintain the melodic integrity of the Graduale Simplex chants. Latin-English inline translations will be printed below the chant line, to add more flexibility. (See here and here.)
And, yes, teach the psalm tones.
I second the suggestion of By FLowing Waters if you want to go English (at least as a reference, you may wnat to adapt his tones to the words of the lectionary.)
Half.com usually has a good price on it.
I also second the idea of progressive solemenity, not to avoid shock, but to avoid biting off more than you can chew. Nothing will sour the schola and the congregation on your efforts faster than doing a bad or sloppy job on a lot of stuff right away, when you can start small and really nail what you’re working on before tackling longer or more difficult chants.
Also, you may be surprised at what some people already know.
I started doing the In Paradisum (in English,) at funerals and got a LOT of resistance from some people — it looked strange, there was no rhythm or accompanaiment, how could that ever replace Eagles’ Wings? but many people had vague memories of doing it 50 years ago (the funeral choir is in their 70s and 80s,) and they were doing it competently in very short order.
They probably already know and love Pange Lingua, Veni Sancte Spiritus, the Gregororian Ave Maria, the various responses of the Triduum, Veni Veni Emmanuel, etc.
Also, just as EVERYone in the assembly doesn’t have to sing EVERYthing, neiher does everyone in the schola.
There is bound to be at least one good, fast-study chanter to bear the burden of the singing.
Split them into two choirs, and let them do some things antiphonally so everyone deosn’t have to learn every phrase perfectly (especially if you are suing Latin.)
I like the suggestions here. Graduale Simplex, Liber Cantualis, and By Flowing Waters. I always substitute the Grail text for the BFW psalms, but use their refrains and psalm tones. I would be glad to email you my file of grail psalms. Glad to hear you are doing this, Want to move to California and do it for/with me? (grin)
I really think it’s best to start slow with these things. When we started ours it was once a month (it still is); we sang more traditional hymns for opening/closing, the Mass XVIII parts that are in the OCP stuff that we have, and then started adding more stuff gradually (we’ve been doing this about 4 years). I think you could/should spend a year easing people into this. We printed up copies of the Mass parts for people to sing from and put them in the pews before Mass so that people would feel more encouraged to sing along.
Oh, another good source of stuff: the Pius X and St. Gregory Hymnals. Your parish (if it’s an old one) may well have them lying around in some back corner (we did). They are a treasure trove of good stuff to sing.
Whatever one might think about the SSPX and Angelus Press, they have a very good Hymnal entitled “The Traditional Roman Hymnal” (no surprise here). In addition to having some really swell (and orthodox) hymns, it has several of the most frequently used Gregorian Masses from the Kyriale. I think that a small schola could learn a couple of these, like De Angelis (for Ordinary Feasts), Cum Jubilio (for Feasts of the BVM) and Orbis Factor (for Sundays throughout the year) relatively easily.
As for the propers and the psalm tones, I would suggest getting a copy of Rossini’s Propers for the year published by Nuemann Press. This book has taken the texts of the Sunday propers (as well as most big feasts and common Masses) for the year and adapted them to Gregorina psalm tones. Some matching between the texts of the old Graduale and the new Graduale may be necessary to make sure that what is being chanted is still the text of the day. A little known fact: the Graduale is still the only hymnal approved for use in the Universal Church. To the extent that the Rossini chants match the current iteration of the Graduale, the Gradual and Alleluia (or the Gradual and Tract or the Great Alleluia) may replace the Responsorial Psalm and Alleluia. Perhaps it would, however, be a better idea to start slow, using Rossini psalm tone propers for stuff like the Introit, the Offeratory, and the Communion while using real Gregorian for the Ordinary of the Mass and the Asperges (does your priest do the Asperges?), and leaving stuff like the Credo and the Responsorial Psalm alone for the time being. Two years down the road, y’all can move on to more advanced stuff like Missa Papa Marcelli or something. :-)
I also wanted to comment that I think “progressive solemnity” is best served by doing the propers first, because the propers involve no congregational participation (if one defines “participation” by saying something or moving about”) I think it is much easier to get people to go along with being Catholic if they are asked to listen to some Gregorian chant before the procession, or while the ushers are taking their money, or while the priest is taking communion. It is not as easy to get them to go along with singing Gloria in excelsis Deo in the Gregorian style. It is harder still to get them to go along with singing “et cum spiritu tuo” in reply to “dominus vobiscum.” If one reverses the order the liberals’ “Latin Mass” radars go on alert and they get upset, whereas if Gregorian “background music” is incuded, is is mroe palitable. Of course, the fact that we need to think in these terms in the first place is rather sad.
Thanks for reading,
Han