The Recovering Choir Director

Some disorganized thoughts on exceptions to the present liturgical norms. This post addresses purely choral Mass settings and responsorial Glorias and Credos.

(For the sake of this discussion, “responsorial” is not to be confused with “antiphonal”. “Responsorial” implies that the people sing a phrase throughout the recitation of the Ordinary, such as “Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax…” or “Credo in unum Deum”. “Antiphonal” implies the singing of the entire text, alternating between cantor/choir and people, as shown in this post.)

1. Purely choral Mass settings. Given the way that liturgical music is valued and practiced in most parishes, this exception may be beyond the abilities of most parish choirs to learn quickly.

Given that choral settings of the Ordinary are exceptions to today’s norm, they should not be given high priority at rehearsal; they should be learned at a relaxed pace; and a choral Mass setting is ready for liturgical presentation only when the choir can actually pray it (instead of worrying about cues, pitches, tempo, etc.).

A choral Mass can be an incredibly daunting task for both the unprepared choir director and choir, and if not handled carefully, could result in casualties. Excellent sacred music should be presented excellently—in interior disposition and motive as well as in refinement of interpretation.

Musicians populate the pews, too, and while they may be drawn to the performance aspects of a choral presentation, they should be aware of the choir’s motives for excellence—that the choir has presented an excellent rendition of Missa Christi Aeterna Munera is primarily due to whom it is being offered. If a musician is moved enough by a presentation of sacred music during the Sacred Liturgy, the choir director may find another talented voice or instrumentalist—a good problem to have.

Of course, if your parish is the fantasy parish where every parishioner can and wants to learn difficult music easily, choral settings can be the norm. How cool would that be?

(Incidentally, knowing that the IGMR norms explicitly allow for a choral Gloria, it would make the most sense to imply such a setting at Christmastide, as it is an amplification of Luke 2:14. But only if it reflects the angelic choruses.)

2. Responsorial Glorias and Credos. Sacrosanctum Concilium 54 states, “Nevertheless, steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.” The norms laid down by US-IGMR 2002 (found in the first post in this series) further reinforce Rome’s request. Pope Paul VI’s recommendation on the minimum repertoire of plainsong at parishes is Voluntati Obsequens and its accompanying chant volume, Jubilate Deo (now freely available in PDF), which includes chants for the Gloria and Credo.

All of this is laborious preface to illustrate why responsorial Glorias and Credos are exceptions to what should be the norm. While the original intent behind these innovations is undeniably to ease sung participation in the Ordinary of the Sacred Liturgy, they ultimately serve to hinder the goals of liturgical reform promoted by the Church.

While one can successfully argue that reading Sacrosanctum Concilium by itself implies that responsorial Glorias and Credos are licit, one comes up against resistance to this argument by way of the Church’s example. In the official liturgical books there are nineteen chant settings of the Gloria and seven chant settings of the Credo. All are through-composed with breaks that can serve to divide duties between sections of the choir, or between the choir and people, or another sharing of duty.

Additionally, many Renaissance and later settings of the Mass have set these texts in a more or less through-composed manner. Though there are exceptions, extant examples seem to be few and far between.**

Though the more poorly-wrought examples of responsorial Glorias and Credos should be shunned completely, this is not to say that such settings ought to be banned outright—just that such settings ought not to be favored as normative on the parish level. The papal funeral employed a responsorial Credo (”Credo, credo, amen”), which in some eyes and ears may give it pastoral legitimacy. But the example of a through-sung norm remains in liturgical legislation, official papal recommendation, and the tradition found in the official books as well as most musical compositions based on the texts.

**The Harp Consort’s CD, Missa Mexicana, has one example of a responsorial Credo dating from the Mexican Baroque era, if memory serves correctly.