Blind person needs help with the Rossini Propers

[TBolt1000T]

Hi everyone. In our Latin Mass choir, we use the Rossini Propers for Mass, and because it’s getting closer to Lent, the propers are getting longer and longer. I’m totally blind, so I’m having to do everything by ear. A lady in the choir regularly sends me the Latin texts, and their English translations, so getting the texts is not a problem. Our music director said that I didn’t have to sing the Propers, but I’d like to fully participate if at all possible. My biggest problem is getting the right sylables with the right notes. I spent most of the day last Friday working on the Propers, and I was still struggling by the end of the day. To help me with the words for the Propers, and other material, I’ve been putting a small tape recorder up to my ear. That works excelent with anthems and hymns, but I can’t get it to work well with the Propers. I have no problems with difficult musical pieces, even if they’re in Latin, but these Propers are really throwing me for a loop. Any suggestions for help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Cluny]

I can see, and my practice–being in the congregation–is to sing what I can and know, and listen attentively and prayerfully to what I can’t sing.

 

[The_Prodigal]

Have you heard of “pointing” the text?

It’s a way of indicating with written chant text where the mediant begins, and the where the termination is, and so forth. In the text these points where the tone changes are signalled by italics or asterisks and other diacritics depending on the specific system.

In the Rossini propers, the pointing is done rather differently, by laying out the text in columns. I suspect that is why you are having difficulty with them: its a very visual solution to the problem.

Perhaps there’s a way to point the text somehow using your sense of touch? Maybe put a piece of silly putty or something similar at the mediant, two at the flex, three at the termination, or something along those lines?

Alternatively if you have some application on your pc that can distinguish italicized text, and asterisks, and so forth, when you mouse over the text, the pointing could be provided as normal. That would involve a sighted individual translating the Rossini layout to a more conventional pointing system.

Please let me know if these suggestions are helpful!

 

[The_Prodigal]

Here’s an example of one way to do it. The first verse from last Sunday’s Introit using Rossini’s tone:

• means end of half verse

• means end of verse
  Reciting tone is unitalicized
  All other syllables are italicized

Exsurge quare obdormis Domine? + Exsurge, et ne re*pellas in finem**

Can you distinguish the italicized text from the unitalicized?

 

[TBolt1000T]

Here’s an example of one way to do it. The first verse from last Sunday’s Introit using Rossini’s tone:

• means end of half verse

• means end of verse
  Reciting tone is unitalicized
  All other syllables are italicized

Exsurge quare obdormis Domine? + Exsurge, et ne re*pellas in finem**

Can you distinguish the italicized text from the unitalicized?

I can read the plus signs and asterisks, but I can’t recognize which texts are italicized. Here is an example of the material she sends me.

"Introitus: Ps. Xxx:*3-4

Esto mihi in Deum protectórem, et in locum refúgii, UT salvum me fácias: quóniam firmaméntum meum, et refúgium meum es TU: et propter nomen tuum dux mihi
eris, et enútries me. [Ps.Ibid. 2] In te, Dómine, sperávi, non confúndar in ætérnum: in justítia tua líbera me, et éripe me. Glória Patri. Esto mihi."

As you can see, this is just the written text for the introit for this coming Sunday. My screen reading program cannot read music notation. I have to depend on my ear for the music. I know the psalm tones well, but I have no idea how to figure out where the breaks go, and I’d like to have that figured out before rehearsal. There are also some sylables in the introit that get three notes. Pronunciation of the Latin isn’t a problem, because I can make my screen reader pronounce it accurately. I’m just having trouble getting the right sylables with the right notes, and figuring out where the breaks are.

As a note, I’m also in the Novus Ordo choir, and I have no problem with the polyphonic psalm tones in English there, so I don’t understand why I’m having such a problem with the Rossini Propers in the TLM. Could it be that they’re so simple, that they are impossibly difficult?

 

[JPUSC]

Maybe you can bring a tape recorder to practice (or ask the music director if he/she can play it on the piano for you) and then play the recording over and over again so you can memorize the melody and timing.

 

[The_Prodigal]

I can only suggest a more involved system of diacritics.

• means end of half verse

• means end of verse
  < means begin reciting tone

means stop reciting tone
( means begin torculus, the three note syllable for next Sunday
) means end torculus

So, the first verse of next Sunday’s Introit:

Esto protectórem + et in <locum refúgii UT sal>(vum) me fácias:*

If locating the torculus is a problem, note that it falls on the fifth syllable from the end of the verse for the Septuagesima season set of propers. So, you need to know where the verse ends at the very least. Or, you can think of it this way: in the second half verse, where the reciting tone ends, the very next syllable is the torculus.

The Lenten propers do not have any syllable with a torculus, so that may make things simpler!

If it’s any help, the Rossini Propers are available here in searchable PDF format.

 

[The_Prodigal]

This would be the entire Introit:

Esto protectórem + et in <locum refúgii UT sal>(vum) me fácias:*

quóni<am firmaméntum meum et refúgium> meum es TU: + et pro (e)nútries me.*

In te <Dómine sperávi non confúndar> in ætérnum + in ju<stítia tu>(a) líbera me*

Glóriritui Sancto + sicut

nunc et semper + et in (cu)lorum Amen*

As you are aware, the Gloria Patri behaves a bit differently than the other verses. After the reciting tone in the second half verse, the verse does not terminate. On nunc, you are on the mediant (first half-verse) again.

Incidentally the phrase “et eripe me” which may well be in the Psalm as recited by the priest, was omitted by Father Rossini for metrical purposes. I suspect your choir director cut and pasted from the texts of the Missal, not the Rossini arrangement. You might want to point out that they sometimes differ, and that whenever this happens, it would throw you off considerably if you are provided the wrong text!

No doubt some will see this mismatch between the Rossini Propers and the Missal text as an “abuse”