Chant question

[sousley]

I’m struggling to understand which chant to use for a particular mass. The table of contents in a couple of the songbooks I’ve looked at list masses by numbers (ie. 1-16) with a variety of Sanctus, Sursum Corda, etc. but I don’t know how to correspond this with a particular mass on the liturgical calendar. For example, for Os justi meditabitur with the common preface, how do I know which is the right music? Any help is appreciated.

 

[Allegra]

The Mass settings are interchangable. It doesn’t matter which melodies you use as long as the text is correct. Some of them sound more festive or somber so you might take that into consideration.

 

[giuseppeTO]

The particular Mass may be chosen by your schola master under the following general guidelines:
Mass I - Lux et origo (in Easter season)
Mass II - Kyrie fons bonitatis (for solemnities)
Mass III - Kyrie Deus sempiterne (for solemnities)
Mass IV - Cunctipotens Genitor Deus (for feasts of apostles)
Mass V - Kyrie magnae Deus potentiae (for feasts)
Mass VI - Kyrie Rex Genitor (for feasts)
Mass VII - Kyrie Rex splendens (for feasts)
Mass VIII - de Angelis (for feasts)
Mass IX - Cum jubilo (for Marian solemnities and feasts)
Mass X - Alme Pater (for Marian feasts and memorials)
Mass XI - Orbis factor (for Sundays)
Mass XII - Pater cuncta (for memorials)
Mass XIII - Stelliferi Conditor orbis (for memorials)
Mass XIV - Jesu Redemptor (for memorials)
Mass XV - Dominator Deus (for weekdays in Christmas season)
Mass XVI (for weekdays during Ordinary Time)
Mass XVII (for Sundays in Advent and Lent)
Mass XVIII - Deus Genitor alme (for weekdays in Advent and Lent)

 

[Pancras]

I’m struggling to understand which chant to use for a particular mass. The table of contents in a couple of the songbooks I’ve looked at list masses by numbers (ie. 1-16) with a variety of Sanctus, Sursum Corda, etc. but I don’t know how to correspond this with a particular mass on the liturgical calendar. For example, for Os justi meditabitur with the common preface, how do I know which is the right music? Any help is appreciated.

What form of Mass are you talking about? It sounds like you’re trying to put music together for the ordinary form. Is that the case?

If you were doing this for the EF, all you’d need to look at is a copy of the Liber Usualis, and you wouldn’t have to wonder about anything. Wouldn’t that be nice?

As for* Os justi meditabitur*, it depends on which Confessor this Mass is commemorating, because you’ll have a variety of substitutions depending on that, such as a special Introit or Graduale, then Communion. The Collect shouldn’t be a concern because the choir doesn’t chant that anyway. So who is the Saint, or what is the Feast Day? One possible option is the famous Anton Bruckner “Os Justi,” because if you have 40 voices and a huge church like St. Michael’s Kirche in Munich (for which the work was composed), the 6 beat rest in the middle (which most performances in other locations shorten) makes sense, because it takes that long for the sound of the choir to fade out in that huge interior and superb acoustics.

 

[Pancras]

.
Clarification: the Bruckner work would not be what your choir sings for the Introit (even though the words of the composition are the same as the words of the Introit at Mass) because A) it’s not Gregorian Chant and B) it takes too long (4:45). This would be a hymn for perhaps during the Offertory or during Communion, or if some other special ceremony is being done before, during or after Mass.

The 6-beat rest I refer to above occurs at 2:30 in the linked recording of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Brno, Conductor: Petr Fiala.