Posted on 05/01/2002 6:48:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Thank you for a wonderful article.
One must remember that a Bishop's Synod voted NOT to accept the Mass of Paul VI the first time they saw it "performed." Now, it is the normative Mass and it is valid. But, it is artificial and did not result from an organic growth.
OK, I admit to being provocative in using the "Infallible" descriptive adjective when it is really tautological as ALL Ecumenical Councils are infallible by their nature.
I can't explain why we don't have the Mass that Vatican II desired. I just know we are living through a period of profound confusion and darkness that shows no signs of a quick and dramatic reform. The Bishops that countenanced the perverts in the seminaries and were complicit in the sex scandals are the very same ones who retain authority to decide the steps taken to correct the abuses. Come on... THe NCCB does not want to relinquish power. Breathes there a Catholic who thinks THEY desire a Mass like Vatican Two desired? Come on...
Benedicamus Domino for orders like FSSP. I think we have to give ALL credit to the Lord for this order. It is ineluctable that they exist only because of the schism of SSPX. And only God can bring good out of evil.
I have never seen this post before today. This is a great affirmation of what I have felt more by way of intuition than by learning. Thank you nickcarraway for a very useful and in its own way inspirational post.
A Pope Siricius (384-399 a.d.) can have the Mass offered in Greek changed to his favortie Latin and a Pope Damasus I,who preceeded Siricius could NOT have prevented this from happening. Similarly, Pope Damasus could not have prevented Pope Saint Pius V from issuing Quo Primum.
. . . it is only natural to assume that there also existed a musical tradition leading from the Jewish to the earliest Christian chant. This surmise, formerly based only on inductive reasoning, has been scientifically established through the work of Idelsohn [A.Z. Idelson, Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies, 10 vols., 1914-32]. . . . The most important result, from our point of view is the fact that there is a striking similarity of style between the ancient Jewish melodies and those of the Gregorian repertory, indicated by such basic traits as absence of regular meter, responsorial and antiphonal performance, prevailingly conjunct motion,psalmodic recitation, syllabic style mixed with melismas, and use of standard formulae.
Appel, Willi. Gregorian Chant. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, Fourth printing 1970.
The author notes that, although chant continued to develop and change, among chants that have survived with little change are psalm tones and the Gloria XV.
I read the book years ago (it would have been more enjoyable if a record or tapes had been included); it was very difficult going for me, as I'm pretty much musically illiterate, but there were a great many interesting things that weren't technical enough to be unintelligible.
Regina Coeli
Queen of heaven, rejoice. Alleluia.
For He whom thou didst deserve to bear, Alleluia.
Hath risen as He said, Alleluia.
Pray for us to God, Alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, Alleluia.
R. Because Our Lord is truly risen, Alleluia.
Let us pray
O God, who by the resurrection of Thy Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, hast vouchsafed to make glad the whole world, great, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may attain the joys of eternal life. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
++++++++++ Regina Coeli (Queen of Heaven)
The opening words of the Eastertide anthem of the Blessed Virgin, the recitation of which is prescribed in the Roman Breviary from Compline of Holy Saturday until None of the Saturday after Pentecost inclusively. In choro, the anthem is to be sung standing. In illustration of the view that the anthem forms a "syntonic strophe", that is, one depending on the accent of the word and not the quantity of the syllable, It goes as follows:
Regina coeli laetere, Alleluia,
Quia quem meruisti portare.
Alleluia,
Resurrexit,
Sicut dixit,
Alleluia.
Ora pro nobis Deum.
Alleluia.
In the first two verses ("Regina" and "Quia") the accent falls on the second, fourth, and seventh syllables (the word quia being counted as a single syllable); in the second two verses ("Resurrexit", "Sicut dixit"), on the first and third syllables. The Alleluia serves as a refrain. Of unknown authorship, the anthem has been traced back to the twelfth century. It was in Franciscan use, after Compline, in the first half of the following century. Together with the other Marian anthems, it was incorporated in the Minorite-Roman Curia Office, which, by the activity of the Franciscans, was soon popularized everywhere, and which, by the order of Nicholas III (1277-80), replaced all the older Office-books in all the churches of Rome. Batiffol ("History of the Roman Breviary", tr., London, 1898, pp. 158-228) admits that "we owe a just debt of gratitude to those who gave us the antiphons of the Blessed Virgin" (p. 225), which he considers "four exquisite compositions, though in a style enfeebled by sentimentality" (p. 218). The anthems are indeed exquisite, although (as may appropriately be noted in the connection) they run through the gamut of medieval literary style, from the classical hexameters of the "Alma Redemptoris Mater" through the richly-rhymed accentual rhythm and regular strophes of the "Ave Regina Coelorum", the irregular syntonic strophe of the "Regina Coeli", down to the sonorous prose rhythms (with rhyming closes) of the Salve Regina. "In the 16th century, the antiphons of our Lady were employed to replace the little office at all the hours" (Baudot, "The Roman Breviary", London, 1909, p. 71). The "Regina Coeli" takes the place of the "Angelus" during the Paschal Time.
The authorship of the "Regina Coeli" being unknown, legend says the St. Gregory the Great (d. 604) heard the first three lines chanted by angels on a certain Easter morning in Rome while he walked barefoot in a great religious procession and that the saint thereupon added the fourth line: "Ora pro nobis Deum. Alleluia." (See also SALVE REGINA for a similar attribution of authorship). The authorship has also been ascribed to Gregory V, but without good reason. The beautiful plainsong melodies (a simple and an ornate form) are variously given in the Ratisbon antiphonary and in the Solesmes "Liber Usualis" of 1908, the ornate form in the latter work, with rhythmical signs added, being very attractive. The official or "typical" melody will be found (p. 126) in the Vatican Antiphonary (1911). Only one form of melody is given. The different syllabic lengths of the lines make the anthem difficult to translate with fidelity into English verse. The anthem has often been treated musically by both polyphonic and modern composers.
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