A wonderful (and licit) Sacramentary you might want to look at

[CatholicNerd]

Hi everyone. I’ve posted this on several now-ancient threads, but I thought I’d throw it up again since people seem to be very interested in finding a good balance between Latin/English during the Mass. Check out the Sacramentary put together by Dr. Ed Schaefer of Gonzaga University at the website of his publisher, Priory Press. The website’s not the greatest, but I assure you that the Sacramentary is VERY well done. Might be worth it to get in contact with him and ask for samples (beyond the ones already on the page) to send your liturgy committee and parish priests. priorypress.com/ and his main website edwardschaefer.net/ fpr contact info. And I’m not doing this because he’s my boss, I swear! He’s not the greatest web-designer in the world, but his work is faithful to Magisterium and that’s good enough for me!

just a quick addition The catalog page is now priorypress.com/catalogue2.htm . It’s got the congregational booklets, tones for the readings, etc…

 

[whosebob]

Thanks for the info! The Sacramentary looks awesome – I hope to buy one for myself, and some of the other books in the catalogue, at some point in the future.

But one problem I have is that I really can’t sing “from scratch” the Gregorian notation. I’ve seen how Gregorian notation can be systematically, though roughly, translated into notes that can be played on the piano. But I don’t know how to do it. Tapping out the melody on the piano helps give me a baseline which I can then use to know what the chant is supposed to sound like as given in the Gregorian notation (and this works much better than listening to a sample recording on a CD or tape).

Do you know of any resources that could help me to learn to sing from the Priory Press Sacramentary in the way I’ve described above. Learning Gregorian chant is an option I suppose, but not realisitic for an entire amateur choir – it would be better if we could learn to employ the chants without having to learn the whole “system.” Does that make sense?

What about plain chant settings for the Kyrie, Gloria, Responsorial Psalm antiphons, Alleluia etc., especially the Creed, that can be sung in English. Are such included in the Sacramentary.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

 

[CatholicNerd]

whosebob:

Thanks for the info! The Sacramentary looks awesome – I hope to buy one for myself, and some of the other books in the catalogue, at some point in the future.

But one problem I have is that I really can’t sing “from scratch” the Gregorian notation. I’ve seen how Gregorian notation can be systematically, though roughly, translated into notes that can be played on the piano. But I don’t know how to do it. Tapping out the melody on the piano helps give me a baseline which I can then use to know what the chant is supposed to sound like as given in the Gregorian notation (and this works much better than listening to a sample recording on a CD or tape).

Do you know of any resources that could help me to learn to sing from the Priory Press Sacramentary in the way I’ve described above. Learning Gregorian chant is an option I suppose, but not realisitic for an entire amateur choir – it would be better if we could learn to employ the chants without having to learn the whole “system.” Does that make sense?

What about plain chant settings for the Kyrie, Gloria, Responsorial Psalm antiphons, Alleluia etc., especially the Creed, that can be sung in English. Are such included in the Sacramentary.

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

I remember the shock I experienced the first time I went to a Missa Cantata and discovered that all the notation was in Vatican notation. I knew about it, but I had never really studied it, and wasn’t sure if I could make it through the Mass ok. And this coming from a liturgical music nerd! However after the Mass began, the neumes began to make sense to me. When I got home from that Mass I immediately searched for a Vatican notation-Modern notation rosetta stone and I came upon this site: userpages.wittenberg.edu/dkazez/Mus110/Gregorian-Chant/ I was then able to fine-tune it and condense it into a very easy to read chart which I have shared with friends and choirmembers interested in learning chant (I’m more than willing to email that chart to anyone who is interested!). In my opinion, Vatican notation is much easier to deal with than Modern notation – especially for members of the congregation who cannot read music.

As for an amateur choir with members who may run into trouble when attempting to chant the more complex propers… I would reccomend looking at the Graduale Simplex (which, according to the GIRM, is second in dignity to the Graduale Romanum), published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. The propers could easily be hammered out on a piano by various choir members at home or at rehearsal just by looking at the Vatican notation-Modern notation rosetta stone I mentioned. Inevitably, though, you should make an effort to wean yourself and your choir away from translating everything into modern notation and then work to get comfortable with Vatican notation. In a few weeks’ time, it’ll be like a second language.

As far as plainchant settings of the Ordinaries sung in English, there is a book called “By Flowing Waters” that attempted to fit English into more complex Gregorian melodies… but in just about everyone’s opinion, it’s a project that failed miserably. Here’s an independant review from “The Recovering Choir Director” cantemusdomino.net/blog/archives/001296.php Reviewer Calvert Shenk explains why the project was doomed to fail from the beginning in much better terms than I can. I hope all this helps! If you’d like a copy of my chant-modern notation chart, just drop me a PM and I’ll be happy to send it to you!

 

[CatholicNerd]

a quick note These things take time, so don’t worry about expecting your congregation to know how to sing all the ordinaries of the different chant settings all at once. Go slow. Start with the Creed, since this is a setting that the people are mandated to sing, preferably back-and-forth with the choir. Dr. Ed has all the proper division of parts indicated in the congregational booklets. Invite the congregation to sing along with the choir during the other ordinaries, and slowly everyone will be singing along. Remind them that it doesn’t matter what it sounds like: what is important is that your parish is following the teachings of the Church as outlined at the Second Vatical Council (and well before that, obviously) !!!

Remember: there is a BIG difference between badly performed music and BAD MUSIC. Badly performed music is still music. Bad music, however well performed, is still bad music If necessary, one can obtain accompaniments to all the ordinaries and PROPERS AS WELL (!) found in the Graduale Romanum from the monks at Solesmes. Only GIA and Paraclete Press carry the books in the US. You can always order them directly from Solesmes, too. solesmes.com/

 

[whosebob]

CatholicNerd:

As far as plainchant settings of the Ordinaries sung in English, there is a book called “By Flowing Waters” that attempted to fit English into more complex Gregorian melodies… but in just about everyone’s opinion, it’s a project that failed miserably . . . If you’d like a copy of my chant-modern notation chart, just drop me a PM and I’ll be happy to send it to you!

Thanks for your great reply, and yes, I will send you a private message as I would like to have the chart you put together. Thank you.

As far as plainchant settings for the Ordinaries, I actually don’t want anything too complex, maybe “plainchant-like” would be a better description. Have you seen the Murray, Jones and Bevenot tones given in the back of the one-volume breviary “Christian Prayer” for use with the Liturgy of the Hours? Something like those but elaborated and with slightly more complexity/variation for singing the Creed, etc. in English (and in Latin too, occasionally to begin with) would be great!

In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.