The Recovering Choir Director

Following up on my initial post on ICEL’s release of selections of Music for the English Language Roman Missal, I decided to provide an illustration of how to point and deliver the sung Epistle according to the formula provided by ICEL.  The text chosen is the Revised Standard Version of Ephesians 4:1–13 — the Second Reading for the Solemnity of the Ascension (Year B).^[1]

First, listen to the reading carefully and determine whether you can understand its sung proclamation.  (Closing your eyes may help you to focus on the reading better.)  To the extent that you can understand it without recourse to the text is the extent in which I have succeeded in providing an effective example (and vice versa) — at least as far as comprehensibility is concerned.

[audio:http://cantemusdomino.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ascension-b-reading-2-rsv.mp3]
Download this file (mp3, 3.87 MB, 3:08)

Read on to see how the text was pointed, and to see tips on delivering it well (or perhaps better than I delivered it above — though I attempted to adhere to the guidelines to the best of my ability).  Knowledge of the ICEL formula is a prerequisite to understanding what follows, so if you aren’t familiar with it, I strongly suggest that you familiarize yourself with it while listening to the rendition above.

Text pointing

Below I have pointed the text in the following manner:

• The ICEL recommendations for accent pointing are underlined in black (vowels only).
• I further mark the following in underlined red text:
  • the three syllables that precede the mediant;
  • the two syllables that precede the final accent of the interrogation/question.
• I use a red upside-down question mark (¿) to mark the beginning of interrogative phrases — this tells me to drop a semitone and to look for the two syllables that precede the final accent of the question.
• Finally, I use a red asterisk (*) at the beginning of the penultimate phrase and a red vertical separator (|) one syllable before the final accent of same phrase — this tells me to drop the minor third before moving to the la-do melody on the final accent of this phrase.  The final formula follows in all circumstances (even questions), so no extra markup is necessary.

The reason for the extra markup is to make the formulas more visibly explicit to the reader.  Calculating the equations of the sung formula on the fly does not profit the lector, the delivery of the reading, or the listener receiving the word.

A reading from the letter of Saint Pául|tó the Ephésians.

Brothers and sisters:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord,
beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been cálled,
with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in lóve,
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bónd of péace.
There is one body and one Spirit,
just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your cáll,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through áll and in áll.
But grace was given to each of us according to the méasure of Christ’s gíft.
Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of cáptives,
and he gave gífts to mén.”
(In saying, “He ascended,”
¿what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the eárth?
He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the héavens,
that he might fíll all thíngs.)
And his gifts were that some should be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and téachers,
to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Chríst,
* until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son|of Gód,
to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Chríst;

The word of the Lórd.
Thanks be to Gód.

(If I were to mark up a Lectionary to sing the readings, I would make all marks — both ICEL’s recommendations and my own recommended markup — in red or a suitably eye-catching color.)

Preparation and Delivery

In my estimation it is important that, in order for the sung delivery of any reading or prayer in the vernacular to be effective, it must be more deliberately paced, and yet not drag.^[2].  Because it is a vernacular language, the listener will readily expect that the delivery is clear, intelligible, and compelling.  While many will still use missallettes to read along with the chanted reading, the lector must not assume that the listener has one in front of him.

The delivery of the reading must be well-rehearsed beforehand so that errors of all kinds may be at best avoided or at worst kept to a minimum.  This provides the lector with the added benefit of a certain form of lectio divina — indeed, when formally combined with the practice, preparing the readings for proclamation at Mass is an indulgenced activity under the usual conditions.^[3]

Astute listeners will notice that I not only give less important monosyllables (prepositions, articles, and conjunctions) full value to the best of my ability, but I also break up each phrase into phrases of three, four or five syllables, lingering on the final syllable of each subphrase — usually a key word — in order for the listener to absorb the word and keep it in memory to link to the next key word, so that by the end of the phrase he will have apprehended it in full.

Failure to deliver the texts clearly in its sung form will likely guarantee its refusal of acceptance by the faithful; however, if done correctly, the singing of the reading will take on an iconic quality, an austere beauty that will help penetrate the ear and heart of the believer (or nonbeliever) who may not have been receptive to the spoken word.