The Motu Proprio Musical Frenzy

The New Liturgical Movement ^ | August 5, 2007 | Jeffrey Tucker

[Frank Sheed]

Sunday, August 05, 2007

The Motu Proprio Musical Frenzy

posted by Jeffrey Tucker

I've been fielding lots of emails from people who are scrambling to put together a musical program for the 1962 Missal. I've noticed several main problems cropping up, and I do plan a series of posts going into detail on these, but let me just quickly sum up the primary mistaken notions:

1) Hymnomania: Many people see the 1962 Missal as a chance to revive the good old hymns from yesteryear that have received such shabby treatment post 1970, and are looking for hymnbooks that can help them. The general thrust of this is a mistake. Hymns are not the musical foundation of the Mass. They are permissible in a recessional song perhaps but the ideal does not include them, even if they won't entirely disappear in practice. The focus must be on the ordinary chants and the proper chants, and if hymns are used, they should be Latin plainchant for the most part. Let us please not repeat the mistakes of the past. The "four-hymn sandwich" came not with the new form but was inherited from the old form. It was the norm. It continues to be the bane of modern liturgical life, a regrettable gift from days of yore to our own times. Bringing back a lost liturgy should not mean bringing back the mistakes and errors and even abuses of the past. If you are talking only about what hymns you are going to sing, you are on the wrong track.

2) Propermania: There is no way that a new schola is going to be able to sing all the propers from the Graduale. Nor will a new schola be able to sing the Introit and Communio only. I doubt that a new schola will be able to sing the Communio only every week. It is a mistake to attempt this because it will collapse into what has been sadly common in the Indult world: one hot-shot chanter dragging around a ball-and-chain of a pseudo-schola that has mastered only the ability to imitate what the master is doing a split second after he does it. This practice ends up creating a great and persistent liturgical mush. Better to do one proper and do it well rather than go for the perception of virtuosity that lacks any basis in reality. The opportunity to do the 1962 Missal does not magically confer on local singers the ability to read and sing chant. This takes years and years. You must think about the long term. Focus on the ordinary at first, and do the propers in tones, while always looking for the ideal.

3) Mass 8, saecula saeculorum. Yes, it is a temptation to drag out the Missa de Angelis because there is a vague memory of it in a subset of the parish. Please resist the temptation! The Gloria from Mass 8 is very late, barely Gregorian at all. They are nearly modern in their phrasing and melody. If you start with Mass 8, you will never leave it and you will be stuck with it forever. Don't go there, not even as a temporary measure. The Church gives us a vast number of Glorias and Credos to sing, some of which are far more accessible than Mass 8 and Credo 3. Pick one and stick with it for a while. Don't give in to the popular desire to drag out preconcilar musical corpses (ok, that is too strong a phrase to describe Mass 8, but it is a good phrase and I couldn't resist the rhetoric).

In the next weeks, I'll work on a few posts giving positive steps that people can take. In general, please keep in mind here that the goal is not merely to "turn back the clock" or resurrect the past in all ways. The revival of the classical use provides an opportunity to go forward to the ideal that was long forgotten before 1970 and 1962. Let's don't miss the chance to do something wonderful here.

Posted by Jeffrey Tucker on title="permanent link">5.8.07   

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[Frank Sheed]

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[Mercat]

reluctantly asking to be pinged. We took our houseguest to the local Latin Mass yesterday. He’ll be here six weeks so I’m not going to decide about it until he’s gone and will go with him every week. I will go buy a mantilla at the local Catholic store but I will not wear panty hose in Kansas in August. I will also start taking an Advil before I go since kneeling for over an hour is hard on this old body.

[Claud]

The "four-hymn sandwich" came not with the new form but was inherited from the old form. It was the norm. It continues to be the bane of modern liturgical life, a regrettable gift from days of yore to our own times

Ah, I ain't no liturgist but I'm frankly getting a little tired of the cracks about the 4 hymn sandwich.

We have our High Mass at 11:00, where our music director does all the chant quite beautifully. But what are we supposed to do for the Low Mass at 8:30? Not sing? We do three hymns because otherwise there would be nothing. And yes, I know I know, silence in the old Mass and all that, but during the Processional, Recessional, and Communion too?

Second of all, there seems to be this idea that hymns can't be liturgical. The sequences, like the Dies Irae, were hymns prescribed by the liturgy...and there were lots of them in the Middle Ages.

There are plenty of places (and this article as much as acknowledges it) that to get a trained schola to learn and sing the official Roman propers was proving quite onerous. The Indian missions, case in point. So what did they sing instead? Hymns.

So yes, bring back the chant by all means, but don't knock the hymns either.

[ArrogantBustard]

So yes, bring back the chant by all means, but don't knock the hymns either.

How 'bout the hymns songs mindless ditties of Schutte, Haugen, and Haas?

Can I knock them?

Please?

[Claud]

LOL...ditties is about the nicest word those....those....things....deserve. ;)

Knock away, I'll spring for the mallet!

[AnAmericanMother]

Pretty sandals are absolutely acceptable (hey, this is Georgia in August! You guys don't know from hot in Kansas!)

As for extended kneeling -- if you wear a below-knee-length skirt, nobody need know that you have your gardening kneepads on! (nobody noticed mine!!!!) I went to Mass at the Cathedral -- they not only have very minimally padded kneelers (unlike the nice cushy ones at our parish), there are NO KNEELERS at the rail, just hard marble!!!!! Thought I was gonna die waiting for the priest and his cadre of acolytes ... there's some real penance!

[AnAmericanMother]

The Haugen/Haas Liturgical Licorice deserves the 10 ton anvil, not just a mallet!

Actually, maybe a tac nuke . . . just to be sure!

[ArrogantBustard]

You provide the mallet, I'll provide the stakes.

To drive through their hearts.

-Bustard, the Vampire Slayer.

[Salvation]

This sounds encouraging. Thanks.

[Salvation]

**How ‘bout the hymns songs mindless ditties of Schutte, Haugen, and Haas?

Can I knock them?**

Yes, of course, cut them out of your hymnals for all I care!

[Salvation]

I’ll provide the scissors.

[Salvation]

Oh, my goodness, I just realized we are playing rock, paper, scissors! LOL!

[Mercat]

LOL, my office mate offered to lend me his garden pads. He was just joking. And I’m good with the sandles since I had pedicured toes with blue nail polish. :-)

[ArrogantBustard]

If I took a pair of scissors and cut all the dreck out of the OCP “Music Issue”, there wouldn’t be much left.

[AnAmericanMother]

I have the nice soft knitted kneepads as well as the heavy duty rubber ones with the gelpads inside . . . my old catcher's pads from my softball days would probably show even under a floor length skirt!

I do wear Clark ("sensible") sandals, but not the little abbreviated ones! I do keep my feet clean and my nails trimmed short, but I am 52 years old and have never had a pedicure, I think I may have had nail polish on my hands twice in my life . . . . between dogs, horses, and playing the piano, even a manicure would be COMPLETELY wasted on me. Let alone a pedicure.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, ANVIL (or mallet), scissors, paper, anyhow!

[Salvation]

Actually most of the old-fashioned stuff is at the back of the misallette.....back by the daily Mass lists.

[Salvation]

Just save my favorite song,
“I Am the Bread of Life”

You can take practically everything else.

However, I do like “Hosea”

[Truelove]

Excellent idea to try the Latin Mass and see if you like it. Many of us can’t live without it, but it is not something to make yourself miserable about. Mantilla hint: Use a bobby pin in the top or stitch a small hair comb into the front. Stockings: If your skirt is lower-calf (tea length in the old tongue), I wouldn’t worry about the stockings. If anyone can tell that those 3-4 inches of exposed ankle are uncovered, they’re looking too close and need to go to confession!

Happy Chanting!