Catholic Sensibility

Liam and others have good questions and comments on part 1. Clearly, the ideal parish will sing somewhere between all or none where chant is concerned. How much is enough to satisfy "pride of place?" The Vatican doesn't tell you. I won't really tell you, either, but I'll narrow the range a bit. You might visit some of my internet friends on the sidebar over there, and they'll program chant to the extreme. They'll certainly tell you. If their people sing it and deepen their holiness through their worship of God, then their ministry of music is undeniably effective, and more power to 'em. My first experience of singing chant was in a Trappist monastery, Our Lady of the Genesee. When on retreat in college, we joined the monks and sang the Liturgy of the Hours. At Mass, it was a mix of acclamations, psalms, and hymnody. In the early 80's, the instrumentation was organ, guitar, and violin with mostly a cappella monks. I recall everything being well done, and more than appropriate to the setting. I could pray, and I didn't find myself asking, where are the SLJ's or the steel string guitars. It simply wasn't an issue. In my travels and experiences, I've encountered chant, both Roman and Eastern, and in every place it was done a lot, it was done well. Again, there is no issue. Practically every monastery or religious community I've visited has used chant to bear the major burden of the liturgical repertoire. That makes sense. Monasteries were practically the only communities to keep musical tradition alive over the past few centuries, if not since St. Gregory the Great himself. This is what I think the average American parish should know as a minimum. - One plainsong Mass setting for ordinary time, not Lent (necessarily). - Two or three alleluias for the Gospel, as a baptism acclamation, or whatever use is needful. - Two or three psalm refrains, and a raft of parish cantors who are able to chant verses to psalm tones. An advanced cantor should be able to make up a good psalm tone on the spot. - If the parish does liturgy of the hours, a good portion of the psalm and hymn repertoire thereof. - The Lord's Prayer, obviously. - Seasonal/liturgical repertoire, a minimum of one each for Advent, Lent, Holy Thursday (obviously), Good Friday, Easter Vigil, Easter season, Marian feasts (Salve Regina plus one other, I'd say), and funerals, and if you can manage it, Christmas, weddings, and anointing of the sick. - One or two communion antiphons in regular use. - A few sturdy hymns for general use. Questions you didn't ask: Have you ever actually accomplished this in a parish? No. Why not? Time, mostly. Plus I never thought about quantifying "pride of place" with specific numbers or repertoire before a year or two ago. I've always thought a funeral choir needed to know In Paradisum. The Holy Thursday choir needs Pange Lingua. Advent needs Creator of the Stars of Night. A ML pitcher needs a good pickoff throw. Some things are a given. You just don't question it. What about Latin? What about it? The Church's prescription on Latin is another issue. You can sing chant in any language. If you want to tackle Latin and the people aren't used to it, go slow and easy. Are you a purist when it comes to chant? Probably not. I'm more of a pragmatist. I'll adapt what I use to best suit the primary goals: worship of God and holiness of the people. I don't see the need to always sing it without accompaniment, especially in the beginning. Unaccompanied voices unused to chant will tend to slow it down intolerably. Piano, guitar, organ, or any combination will be useful. I'd be amazed any non-directed, non-accompanied parish chant choir (and I know a few attempts are being made out there or touted, i.e. "We don't need no stinkin' director") will actually be able to pull it off artistically. There is no magical theology about chant. If you butcher it, it will have no redeeming value. None at all. My parish is already doing your minimum list and more. What next? Keep it up, obviously. Make sure your acoustics (not amplification; I mean your natural acoustics) are as good as they can get. Visit monasteries and other choirs to see how the pros are doing it. Take back and learn the repertoire. I would also say that any classically-leaning Catholic music program (your average SATB+organ set-up) should have chant as a bigger part of the repertoire than what I've listed above, with an emphasis on developing good unison singing. Probably a part 3 is coming, but meanwhile, any more comments?