The Recovering Choir Director

Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby, who blogs at Vultus Christi, offers what he calls a “modest contribution” to the discussion on New Liturgical Movement (and by extension the MusicaSacra Forum and this blog post) surrounding the question “Can Hymns Licitly Replace Propers?” In fact, the contribution ends up being much more valuable than how he describes it.

On hymns, he writes (comments and emphasis added)

I am astonished at the number of clergy and professional musicians in the service of Catholic churches who are ignorant of the proper place of hymnody in the Catholic liturgy. With the exception of the Gloria and the Sanctus (hymns in the very broad sense of the term) [and often recited on Sunday Mass], and of the Sequences sung for Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and Our Lady of Sorrows [which are often abbreviated or omitted outright!],  hymns, as such, are entirely foreign to the celebration of Holy Mass. [Digest the irony of standard practice in too many parishes: The Gloria, a hymn prescribed for Sunday Mass, is recited, while around four extra-liturgical hymns are sung in lieu of the proper texts of the Mass.] In the Divine Office, however, there is a metrical hymn at every Hour.  Hymns, then, properly belong to the Liturgy of the Hours, while sung dialogues, antiphons, psalmody, and acclamations belong to the Mass.

The standard hymn singing that characterizes Protestant (or protestantized) worship is performed in a relatively uniform and congregational manner.  The liturgical chant of our Catholic tradition, on the other hand, privileges the responsorial, dialogical, antiphonal and acclamatory modes of performance. These, being among the most effective forms of actual sung participation, manifest more adequately the mystery of the Church as a Eucharistic organism of different members, characterized by “the order of symphony, an order in liberty and in love.”  The way we sing at Mass effectively shapes one’s understanding — or misunderstanding — of the Church, of the priesthood, and of the hierarchical ordering of the liturgical assembly.  A protestantized approach to music at Mass will inevitably engender a protestantized ecclesiology.

However, encompassing more than just the question about hymns vs. propers, he goes straight to the question of singing the liturgy, and even provides a concise how-to (and how-not-to) guide to achieve a fully-sung liturgy in line with the vision of not only Vatican II but also the entire liturgical movement from before the 20th century (reproduced below with emphases):

1.  Priests, learn to sing your parts: the dialogical elements, salutations, Preface Dialogue, Preface, Words of Consecration, etc. The official melodies are laid out in the Sacramentary.  It may be laborious in the beginning, but repeat it until it becomes “second nature.”  Do not reserve your sung parts for so-called special occasions or solemnities. They belong to the very first level of singing at Mass.  If you sing your parts, the people will sing theirs.

2.  Sing the Ordinary (i.e., unchanging parts) of the Mass.  The repertory can be built up by learning one Ordinary at a time. Privilege the Ordinaries of the Roman Kyriale or simple Plainchant Ordinaries in English, such as those available from Musica Sacra.

3.  Sing the Propers. The “law” governing the Propers is laid out in the GIRM, art. 48. Let’s look at it carefully. Comments in italics are my own.

48. The singing at this time is done either alternately by the choir and the people or in a similar way by the cantor and the people, or entirely by the people, or by the choir alone.

Note the four ways of executing the Entrance Chant. On solemn diocesan and parochial occasions I recommend having the people sing a metrical version of the day’s Introit in English during the procession, followed by the Chant version of the same Introit from the Graduale during the incensation of the altar.

In the dioceses of the United States of America there are four options for the Entrance Chant: (1) the antiphon from the Roman Missal or the Psalm from the Roman Gradual as set to music there or in another musical setting; (2) the seasonal antiphon and Psalm of the Simple Gradual; (3) a song from another collection of psalms and antiphons, approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop, including psalms arranged in responsorial or metrical forms; (4) a suitable liturgical song similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or the Diocesan Bishop.

The choices are given in order of preference! The first choices (not found in the Editio Typica 2002 of the Roman Missal) are the antiphon from the Roman Missal — the American “adaptors” are assuming that these texts have been put to music — then the antiphon and psalm in the Roman Gradual, either in the chant setting or in another musical setting.

The second choice is the Simple Gradual, rendered in English under the title By Flowing Waters by Dr. Paul Ford.

The third choice, a collection of psalms and antiphons approved by the Conference of Bishops or by the Diocesan Bishop, does not, to my knowledge, exist anywhere in the U.S.

The fourth choice — clearly the last resort — is a suitable liturgical song (here, there is a departure from the psalms and antiphons found in choices 1 through 4) similarly approved by the Conference of Bishops or by the Diocesan Bishop. Nowhere is there a blanket authorization to replace the chants of the Proper with “a hymn” making abstraction of all other liturgical criteria.

48. If there is no singing at the entrance, the antiphon in the Missal is recited either by the faithful, or by some of them, or by a lector; otherwise, it is recited by the priest himself, who may even adapt it as an introductory explanation (cf. above, no. 31).

The Entrance Antiphon is, in many places, routinely omitted even at “spoken” Masses.

It’s interesting that this American “adaptation” differs from what is found in the GIRM of the Editio Typica Tertia (2002) of the Roman Missal. Compare:

48. Peragitur autem a schola et populo alternatim, vel simili modo a cantore et populo, vel totus a populo vel a schola sola. Adhiberi potest sive antiphona cum suo psalmo in Graduali Romano vel in Graduali simplici exstans, sive alius cantus, actioni sacrae, diei vel temporis indoli congruus [55], cuius textus a Conferentia Episcoporum sit approbatus.

The Graduale Romanum and the Graduale Simplex are given as the primary references. The American accomodation of the text gives the antiphon from the Roman Missal as the first reference; this is very odd, as those antiphons were composed to be recited, not to be sung.

The infamous “alius cantus” (other chant) is very carefully circumscribed.  It must be, (1) suited to the action, (2) to the day or season being celebrated, and (3) its text must be approved by the Conference of Bishops.

Si ad introitum non habetur cantus, antiphona in Missali proposita recitatur sive a fidelibus, sive ab aliquibus ex ipsis, sive a lectore, sin aliter ab ipso sacerdote, qui potest etiam in modum monitionis initialis (cf. n. 31) eam aptare.

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