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american colleen, kudos to you for mentioning Thomas Day's excellent book. My Catholic friends, I really don't understand why you don't give gerbil-stuffing fruitcakes like Dan Schutte and his ilk the boot in the tuchis they so richly deserve- ah, forget the boot, they'd probably enjoy it-and restore your magnificent tradition of liturgical music. I sing in the choir of my Orthodox Church every Sunday (and Saturday night if I'm not enjoying a plate of corned beef and cabbage at Dinty Moore's saloon) and although some tones may be tougher than others, I never have to fear an atrocity like "Oh come and sit at my table..." will be plonked on my music stand. To say nothing of the Godawful version of the "Gloria" that assaulted my ears at my pal's wedding not too long ago. Stand up to these morons, folks. Your heritage is too rich to lose, and is fast slipping away.

I am no expert, but I do remember, back in the old pre-Vatican II days when I was in Catholic elementary school, the Gregorian Chant of the High Mass. It was wonderful, rather like our Divine Liturgy. It occurs to me, however, and please understand I am no liturgical music expert in anybody's faith, that there is a fundamental difference between the purpose of our Byzantine Chant and the old High Mass Gregorian Chant and the singing that goes on during an NO Mass. For us Orthodox, the chanting is an integral part of the prayers of the liturgy or the service. The chanting, the music, is always the same for any given liturgy or service on any given day. There is no place for the choir, or the psaltis or the congregation to just sing some random hymn chosen by either the priest or the choir director or whomever. For example, after communion we chant

"We have seen the true light; we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the true faith, worshiping the undivided Trinity, for the Trinity has saved us."

We never sing anything else, except for a special hymn at Pascha time. This is because our chanting, like that in a High Mass, is an integral part of the prayer of the Liturgy and has a specific place in the liturgy for a specific liturgical and catechetical purpose. I get the impression that the singing at an NO Mass really is, generally, pretty random and more like what one hears in a protestant service than a Liturgy; something nice but rather like an add on or embellishment rather than an integral part of the service. Am I seeing something which isn't really here?

It sure does seem to be fast slipping away. Here's one for you, in case you haven't seen it. http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=1325254%2C1 The aesthetic so perfectly represents the present emasculation and discombobulation (sp?) of the RCC Priesthood. It is right out of Python.

Now to the actual subject of the thread. I don't ever remember chanting being part of any Mass I ever assisted at, and my memory goes back 40 years to clear memories of actually participating in the Mass around the time of my First Holy Communion.

The NO had already been introduced. High Mass included singing responses to the Priest in Latin, I don't remember the congregation being part of that, though it is now, at the Latin Mass I currently attend.

We have the Eastman School of Music here in Rochester, NY, which boasts a solid reputation for attracting and keeping talent, and at one of the Latin Masses a few weeks before Advent, an Eastman student played his trumpet at High Mass. It was just him and the organist, though the organist played very little.

The sound of his lone trumpet went right to your marrow. It was the most beautiful music I've ever heard at Mass.