The Recovering Choir Director

Now, this is a good start. Proulx is “old school” enough for me, and they have chosen to program basically the whole Community Mass instead of cutting and pasting. Speaking of cutting and pasting — no more partial hymns! The text is poetry, and should be sung in full (said he, preaching to the choir). What if we did the same thing for psalms?

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. OK, you get the idea.”

The whole when to start, when to stop, nothing is long enough, program two songs, only one song is allowed, Communion song brouhaha is wearying, to say the least.

In our parish, by beginning when the priest communicates, the song is almost guaranteed to seem like backgound music for that important liturgical moment, “The Extraordinary Ministers Receive Communion and Take Up the Sacred Vessels” (Just as the Offertory Song is for all intents and purposes the accompaniment to the HOLIEST liturgical moment, “The Handing Over of of Worldly Riches.”)

The liturgist wants one thing, the pastor another, the associate a third, and the musicians are lost.

Hugh, to be fair, we DO pick and choose verses of the psalms, don’t we? How often, if ever, is an entire psalm in the lectionary for the responsorial psalm?

And I am always relieved at Easter when a music director leaves out the “terror of the gibbet” line from whichever hymn that is.

I was just looking at David Hurd’s New Plainsong Mass “Gloria” last night. Looks singable and sounds a bit Ambrosian. How did it go?

* * *

As regards planning the Communion hymn, two things to consider from the GIRM:

1. That the chant (or hymn) must start at the same time that the priest takes his Communion.

2. And that an extended period of silence (longer than the silences in between the Readings) be observed after everyone has received.

In other words:

1. If the choir/musicians had been kneeling down during the “Lord I’m not worthy to receive you…” they should very smartly get up, hurriedly take their instruments, and get the hymn going before the priest finishes his Communion. No room for lagtime or intro. The Rule says music has to start at the time the priest takes Communion - not AFTER he has received.

2. This also means that choir members and musicians receive Communion last - after everybody else has received. And of course the priest and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHC) do not always remember to offer them.

It happened in my parish that we in the choir were always trying to get the EMHCs’ attention to signal to them not to forget us. (Not the best situation to be in, if you’re tying to sing well.)

It also means that the choir may have to stop a song at mid-verse after everyone else has received. Especially if the EMHC does not like to wait until the song is done - It’s either “You hurry up with that song, or I’ll put Jesus back into the tabernacle.”

As regards the long silence. How wonderful that all that we need for a private time with Jesus after Communion is an extended period of silence!

No more operatic pieces dubbed as “meditation,” which only served as a showcase for soloists who used that part of the Mass as their own “show.” No more of them! What a relief!

It took me two weeks to learn the setting from the congregation, without notation. The Gloria was a holdover from the days the church had Worship III in its pews. At this parish, the setting is accompanied by the organ. - Ed.

Precisely why as a liturgist, I had to look for a solution to reconcile the GIRM ruling with the requirements of the choir.

My solution: Recite or chant the one-line Communion Antiphon as the priest receives. (Only one person needs to do this - no accompaniment.)

The Antiphon is equivalent to one hymn - or at least - the START of a hymn, which is what’s required to be done at the priest’s Communion.

Then let the musicians/choir members receive Communion ahead of the congregation. They can then start the main Communion hymn whenever they’re ready. And finish it without fear of the EMHC forgetting them.

If the congregation is not yet done receiving after the hymn, the choir can start another hymn and finish that, too, before the start the extended silence.

Peace, all.

Didn’t intend to start a brouhaha (necessarily) on the Communion thing. I’m just curious that a Communion Song for which I’ve used all six verses for a Mass with 350 or so people needs only two verses. If only 50 people were at the Mass, I might understand.

The Communion Song, by the way, has started at the presider’s reception of Communion since the first IGRM, and I’ve tried to needle that there just about everywhere I’ve been. Worst case scenario is making the priest and EM Communion into a silent show. I’ve actually found that with EM’s receiving after the priest does, it makes for one or even two verses of a Communion Song that people will actually sing. I think I’d avoid the solo on the antiphon, if I had a prayer (which it seems I do) that the people might actually pick up their hymnals and sing.

Did I just say “David” Hurd’s new plainchant Mass? I really meant “Bob” - Bob Hurd. That he’s from my SF Bay Area almost makes this an unforgivable error. ( I must have been thinking of David Schutte - I mean, Dan Schutte.)

Brooklyn-born David Hurd is the composer of the New Plainsong Mass. However, Bob Hurd (no relation) has recently composed a setting based on the Holy Thursday Ubi Caritas chant. -Ed.

“an extended period of silence (longer than the silences in between the Readings) be observed after everyone has received”

Citation, please?

(I thought it was an option “if this seems appropriate” or some such,) and have never seen any reference to it;s length, much less its length apropos the silence after scripture readings.

Citation -

Re: Receiving Holy Communion regularly outside the Mass

http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/q%26a/mass/tabernacle.htm

“The reason for which the Church reserves the Eucharist outside Mass is, primarily, the administration of viaticum to the dying and, secondarily, communion of the sick, communion outside Mass (i.e. Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest), and adoration of Christ present in the sacrament (see Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist outside Mass, no. 5).

“Only under rare circumstances of necessity should the assembly at Mass communicate from the reserved sacrament in the tabernacle. “

“Would anybody please answer his question? ”

My guess is that more congregational singing of the Joncas was unnecessary, because the choir was there to sing the Gibbons motet.

Frankly, I think he understand,s he just doesn’t approve.

“The “as circumstances suggest” implies, as you say, that it is the preferred option, but not absolutely required.”

Citation,

Okay, “preferred, but not absolutely required.”

Pastorally, though, some parishes in my area - including mine - have required the long silence, in order to meet the needs of many people who want a private time with the Lord and who find all that singing not too conducive to private thanksgiving prayer. (Notice it says “chanting of psalm or singing of hymns by the CONGREGATION - not just by the choir.)

“And as to it being extended, or longer than those silences after the reading that seems merely to be your own preference, to which you are, of course, entitled, but not to say it is the GIRM speaking.”

Sorry, but my preference does not figure in this at all. The San Francisco Archdiocese did issue directives on how to follow the GIRM as soon as it was approved in Advent the year before. They specified short silences in between the Scriptural Readings and a longer silence after Communion.

“I don’t see how this precludes the organist receiving after Mass,”

Of course it does not preclude the organist receiving after Mass, that’s why the priest willingly gave him Communion.

But the question was whether Maggie, the liturgist, was correct in saying that to make receiving after Mass into a regular practice - is now “verboten.” I would think that to make the organist receive after Mass REGULARLY would fall under this rule. An occasional oversight, of course, should be corrected, such as what the priest did.

Time (pre-Vatican II) was when people on their way to work in the morning would drop by a Church, receive Holy Communion, and leave without having to attend the Mass. I think it is such practices that the new ruling aims to prevent.

Bennet wrote:

“When I am at the console near the sanctuary, rather than the loft I have always — until the past two Sundays — been the last to receive, and the only one who does so in silence.

“Although no one has said so, I think the Extraordinary Ministers who now seek to serve me in mid-phrase, early in the communion song, are doing so at her instigation.

“Yesterday, one even stood there with the Precious Blood, as if I would ever reach out with a single hand, while keeping an eye on the score, and risk stretching across the music stand to take a glass goblet from him.

“Once, the priest forgot me…”

Bennet,
I sympathize with you, as forgetting to give Communion to the choir had also been a problem in my parish. And I’m with the choir.

The best solution, of course, is to remind the priest and the EMHCs that the choir and musicians, too, have to receive Communion.

I’d excuse the priest, but I still couldn’t understand how the EMs kept forgetting us! I mean, it had been drilled to them at every liturgy workshop since last year, when the newly-approved GIRM took effect. I’m sorry but I seem not to be able to trust EMs enough.

Would it help, do you think, to send them each a copy of at least this portion of the GIRM:

“C. THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

“Communion

“86. While the priest is receiving the Sacrament, the Communion chant is begun. Its purpose is to express the communicants’ union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to show joy of heart, and to highlight more clearly the “communitarian” nature of the procession to receive Communion. The singing is continued for as long as the Sacrament is being administered to the faithful.74 If, however, there is to be a hymn after Communion, the Communion chant should be ended in a timely manner.

“Care should be taken that singers, too, can receive Communion with ease.”

…with emphasis on the last sentence?

Of course this just shows them the rule. It doesn’t tell them exactly how it should be done.

“I also think that a choir motet after Communion is a good thing, at least occasionally.”

I would like to agree, but whatever you or I may think, the GIRM does not.

It is quite clear that the congregation as a whole may sing a song of thanks or praise after communion.

Peace, Todd -

I wouldn’t call an Archbishop’s directive for a two-minute-or-so post-Communion silence as “a less-than-persuasive interpretation.”

“I do not deny that the Archbishop’s directives have authority, merely that HIS requiring something is not the same as the Instruction’s requiring it .”

* * *

Bennet,

I suppose it depends on what a “mandate” mandates.
As I recall, your initial post contained this sentence:

“(Our Bishop has mandated silence, and two minutes of it, at that.)”

Cheers.

“I meant to suggest that the silence and motet may both be done. But watch the clock-watching priest squirm on that one!”

Todd,

O yes - The post-Communion silence (as currently observed in SF parishes) is “in addition” to Communion hymns, not “instead of.”

In my parish, there’s no restriction as to how many hymns/motets a choir may sing for as long as people are receiving Communion.

And the last hymn does not have to be stopped abruptly when the distribution has ended. The choir is allowed to finish the last hymn and the members to receive Communion, provided the EMs don’t forget. ( I’ve seen more EMs than priests impatiently squirm at the choir having to finish singing. - But it’s really a matter of who blinks first - the EM or the choir director! LOL!

Nevertheless, after the choir’s Communion, there should still be the “long” silence. The length of the silence is determined by the celebrating priest, depending on how soon he recites the Post Communion Prayer. We hold the priest responsible for observing the Archbishop’s mandate - not the choir.

Over the years, I’ve stood my ground with anyone who questioned the purpose of sacred hymns and music at Mass. Sacred Music and hymns are an integral part of the Mass. They are not simply background music or music to watch the priest by during processions. In fact hymns are so important that during the Offertory, the priest has to do the rites silently if there is music going on.

It was Franciscan Br. Rufino Zaragosa, OFM (”Sacred Creation,” “The Cross of Love,” “My God and My All” - all OCP) who taught me to have no qualms on seeing a priest stand in the sanctuary after the the processional would have been done, and the choir still has a couple more verses of “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” to sing.

Brother Rufino said he always encourages the priests in his community to sing with the choir, not only so they wouldn’t look bored not doing anything while waiting for the song to ends. But more importantly, that the hymn is a prayer that everyone shares.

Incidentally, Marie, I shall look up Br. Zaragosa’s work!