Creed chant help

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The pastor at my parish has recently begun having the creed chanted at every Mass. I have always loved singing the Latin Credo, and I think the idea of chanting the creed even in English is wonderful. However, what my parish is doing is not wonderful: the entire creed is chanted on one note.

I find this aestheically painful, and I have heard many other people complaining about it as well. I suppose the pastor is trying to add either solemnity or beauty by having it sung instead of recited, but singing in a monotone is distracting and ugly.

I would like to petition our pastor to have the parish learn at least a basic chant pattern for the creed. I think it would help if I could offer some resources, such as arrangements of the creed put to music. (I assume he wishes to keep it in English since the Latin Credo is in our hymnal and we are not using it.) Does anyone know where I could find anything like this? I would be very grateful for any help you could offer.
 
This might sound somewhat odd, but you might want to look at one of the creeds used by the Ruthenians. The translation is not the same so you would have to adapt the music to the Latin rite, but it is extremely simple and consists almost entirely of four notes.

If you search around metropolitancantorinstitute.org you’d be able to find it. Its repetitive without being irritating.
 
The pewbook is available as a PDF; link in my sig.

Creed chant versions begin on p. 51. Also, it’s not “4 notes”…

HOWEVER, it would be more appropriate to examine the old roman missals for the traditional Roman chant tone.
 
I don’t know where to get it, but we have chanted the Credo many times. It is even in our hymnal. My point is, if you ask your priest or music director, either of them should be able to get it.
 
Much of the old St. Gregory Hymnal is available online at gutenberg.org/files/23673/23673-h/Latin.html .

Do a search on the page by scrolling down, or by using the Ctrl and F keys simultaneously to get a search box, and search for Credeo (No. 3) (yes, it is misspelled in the index, so that is what you will have to search for).

Click on the page numbers 503, 504, 505, and 506 to get images you can print out of those four pages in the hymnal.
 
For what it’s worth, there was a very simple tone for the Credo (in English) that was used during the brief period of the 1965 Missal. As I recall, it was done according to some sort of old Scottish chant and was actually quite nice. Sorry, but I have no idea of either the composer or the publisher, only that it was printed on what I’ll call “pew cards” that were semi-glossy. If your parish has a library of old music, you might just find it there. The text was the original English translation (faithful to the Latin), rather than the current ICEL version.

Also, the High Episcopalians have been in the habit of singing the Credo (in English, generally) for many, many years, so you might try asking there if you have such a church in your area. When I’ve heard it, it was done using both the Roman form of Credo III (generally considered to be the simplest and easiest to sing), and Credo I. The text that I remember is traditional “High Church English,” but it may have been modernized. If you have an “Anglican Use” Catholic parish nearby, that would be an even better place to ask.
 
**However, what my parish is doing is not wonderful: the entire creed is chanted on one note. **

**Like it or not, it’s perfectly acceptable–even in the Pre-Vatican II Rubrics. The Liber Usualis stated that whatever was not sung in the traditional chants or polyphony was to be monotoned.

The Melkites in this country monotone it.

There’s a fairly simple Slavic melody for it called the Zadonskoye melody (similar to the Akathist melody). I think the Ruthenians use it, too.**
 
I tried to access the Credo III on the Christusrex site but after 5 minutes of it failing to load…that was it.

I suspect that the Credo III is what we used in my parish when I was a boy for Sunday High Mass (Missa Cantata). The Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, that my cathedral parish uses during Lent are the same as those which I learned all those years ago. I suspect that I could chant the Gloria and Pater Noster as well in the same mode.

It was not monotone. It was plain chant or plainsong. We did not have a schola at my parish. I sang in the kid’s choir in 3rd grade (fall 1958 since I couldn’t be an altarboy until 4th grade). Missa III was the only Mass I knew in suburban New Orleans. Yes, all you disbelieving ones - it was a kid’s choir and we did chant plainsong in Latin.
 
Jellow,
the book “By Flowing Waters” has a setting of Gregorian Credo I in English. You can get if from Amazon, at a discount, here. That page also lets you peek inside the book. There’s an accompanying Cd from Liturgical Press that you can get here but that doesn’t include a recording of the Creed.

There is also an English setting of Gregorian Credo III in “A Simple Kyriale” from World Library Publications. You can get the notes here. It also has an accompaning Cd and in this case it does come with the Creed in English. In fact in contains examples of an entire Mass in Latin and an enire chant Mass in English.

Are you familiar with Taizé chant? Here is a setting of the Apostles Creed that you can listen to on Youtube:

Taizé Zagreb - Credo.

I think it’s a nice setting. Maybe you could adapt it to the Nicene Creed in the official translation and without the extra amens. It sounds like it would be simple for a congregation to sing. I think it’s in these books from GIA Music: Taizé - Songs for Prayer. I hope this helps.
 
This old blog post offers another idea for singing the Creed in English. The blogger suggests singing it to a psalm tone:
If you look at any late-edition GIA hymnal (choir edition) that contains Gelineau psalmody and you’ll find psalm tones in the Psalter, clearly marked “Psalm Tone”. (This is different from the “Gelineau tone” which was used in the parishes where I worshipped as a child.) If you can sight-sing, line up the accented notes with the lyrics—”pointed text” to those in the know. You’ll find that there is a logic to the accents. The Collegeville Hymnal also provides psalm tones.
There is no reason that the ICEL translations of the Gloria, Credo, or Apostle’s Creed can be pointed for these psalm tones.
Click to expand...
Personally, I don’t see why one couldn’t use the Gelineau psalm tones either. Those can be found, with a description of how to sing them, in this book:
Psalms: A New Translation: Singing Version
 
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