I think that these chants for the Ordinary (in English) are extremely simple to sing.
They are much, much simpler than the “contemporary” settings.
youtube.com/watch?v=4Sc_6tl0wuk&list=PL873E78A9410BE7C6
The videos that come after the above link are a continuation.
Yes, I agree that these are simple chants in English.
I am speaking seriously here, as a person with a lot of experience in accompanying choirs and congregations. Here’s my idea on how these chants could be utilized and assimilated into a typical parish:
PUT 'EM on OVERHEADS during the MASS!
Allow the congregation to SEE the neumes/notes, and to HEAR the recording. I know that at the moment, recorded music during the Mass is verboten. Well, too jolly bad–that directive needs to be stricken from the List of Rules when it comes to training Americans (U.S.) to sing chant. An exception should be made. We have had 40 years of abysmal music education in our schools, which has resulted in at least two generations of non-singers in the U.S. Using recordings of chant sung well will help overcome this inexcusable musical education deficit.
IF my instructions are utilized, I guarantee that the congregation would at least attempt to sing along.
Unfortunately, that’s a whole ‘nother debate can o’ worms in “Catholic culture”. For some unbelievable and frustrating reasons, ,many Catholics are somehow opposed to the use of overheads in the Mass. For some reason, this is considered “not reverent” or “distracting.” And people actually say that the architecture in our beautiful old church buildings is “corrupted” when an ugly overhead screen is put up.
So instead of allowing the people to utilize a great learning technique (visual and audio), what would probably happen in most parishes is that the people would be given a “pew card”, but most of the time, no one would mention it and most people would not know it was in the pews. And then a cantor would sing these chants, but since most cantors in most parishes don’t really know how to sing or how to read neumes or notes, and since most Catholic church sound system were installed by con artists, the congregation would hear an extremely weak and poor rendition of the chant (not like the beautiful singers in the link posted by opus101), and those who hate chant would stand mute and disapproving, and those who like chant wouldn’t be certain of the notes, so they would sing tentatively and breathily, and those who can’t sing at all would mangle it, and the whole thing would sound dreadful, and after a few weeks or months of limping along, the priest would put a stop to it because he doesn’t think dying cats sound worshipful.
Sound familiar to some of you?
So PUT THOSE CHANTS UP ON AN OVERHEAD and LET US HEAR THE DEMO SINGERS who are doing it right! Yes, I’m typing large font because I think this method could turn the tide in FAVOR of using chant in the Mass!
.
Of course there are parishes where the cantors DO sing well, and they WOULD remember to direct the congregation to take their pews cards and join in. More power to those parishes. Go for it!
But most parishes don’t have great cantors and people who know a lot about how to sing chant, and therefore would really really REALLY benefit by having the chants UP on overheads, just like this link, and hearing the beautiful singers, just like this link. .
And of course, I would also recommend that the parish offer some classes to all ages on “basic singing techniques that will make our new chants easier and less painful for you to sing.”
op101, I stand by what I have said several times before–as easy as those chants are to read and sing, MOST people–I would say 80-90% of the people in any given parish–will be
unable to sing them correctly. They don’t have any idea of what those little circles mean. They don’t know how to produce that lovely flute-like voice in the head (because they sing “pop style,” either belting it, singing in the chest, or singing through their nose). They don’t know how to move from note to note, so they “slur.” They don’t know how to pronounce the English vowels, so they “diphthong” them. They don’t know who to sing “r” (such as in “Gloria”), so they pirate-voice it (arrrrrgh!). And they don’t know how to take breaths and support their singing from the diaphragm…
And most importantly, most people in the United States CANNOT match pitches. In other words, if someone sings a pitch, most people cannot sing it back again. What this means is that the chant would sound cacophonic–everyone singing their own special notes instead of all singing in unison.
I’m sorry, Pope Benedict XVI, who according to the interesting article that ProVobis posted, would like us all to sing Latin chant together in a show of unity. Pope Benedict XVI plays the piano, which helps immensely in singing when it comes to hearing and matching pitches. He’s lived in musical Germany much of his life–music is like lifeblood to many Germans. I don’t think Pope Benedict XVI “gets it” – I don’t think he understands that **Americans don’t know how to sing
**, and therefore, cannot possibly do as he wishes and sing together.
So I think that without some singing classes or lessons, even putting the chants up on overheads and allowing people to hear the recorded singers, we in the United States would STILL fail to be able to sing even these simple chants. Sorry. So sad, I know.
But I do think it’s worth a try, following my instructions and putting them up on overheads, and offering singing classes to help the people learn some basic techniques.
It might just work.
