The Recovering Choir Director

Articles 67-68 outline the ways that the Profession of Faith, or Creed is is to be recited.

The Profession of Faith

67. The purpose of the Symbolum or Profession of Faith, or Creed, is that the whole gathered people may respond to the word of God proclaimed in the readings taken from Sacred Scripture and explained in the homily and that they may also call to mind and confess the great mysteries of the faith by reciting the rule of faith in a formula approved for liturgical use, before these mysteries are celebrated in the Eucharist.

68. The Creed is to be sung or said by the priest together with the people on Sundays and Solemnities. It may be said also at particular celebrations of a more solemn character.

If it is sung, it is begun by the priest or, if this is appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir. It is sung, however, either by all together or by the people alternating with the choir.

If not sung, it is to be recited by all together or by two parts of the assembly responding one to the other.

There are seven settings of the Credo in the Vatican Graduales. (See a previous post for more.) This solves the problem for those parishes who are eager to embrace Latin. But for the others, how are they to sing the Creed using a vernacular translation, given the dearth of settings? One solution may already be in your choir hymnal!

If you look at any late-edition GIA hymnal (choir edition) that contains Gelineau psalmody and you’ll find psalm tones in the Psalter, clearly marked “Psalm Tone”. (This is different from the “Gelineau tone” which was used in the parishes where I worshipped as a child.) If you can sight-sing, line up the accented notes with the lyrics—”pointed text” to those in the know. You’ll find that there is a logic to the accents. The Collegeville Hymnal also provides psalm tones.

There is no reason that the ICEL translations of the Gloria, Credo, or Apostle’s Creed can be pointed for these psalm tones. Sometime after Easter, I’ll provide an example.