Improvising the chant

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TK421

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Hi guys.

I recently started being a regular cantor at my parish (I’m the only one) Beforehand people just read the response. I just make up the tune as I chant the words (it’s really easy for me) although Im told there are books that provide notes (which we don’t have). Is it okay to improvise?
 
There is no reason you can’t improvise. It is easier for the congregation though if you were to consistently use a familiar sequence of notes. Nothing throws me off more than when someone is singing an almost familiar tone and then throws in an odd descending interval when I expect the notes to ascend.

You can always look at the The Parish Book of Chant put out by the Church Music Association of America. I seem to rember that parts can be copied as long as it is atrributed properly, but you’d need to check. This can give you an idea of the general pattern that chant will follow. This does make the assumption that you can read chant notation.

If you are just getting the parish to chant it is easier on everyone if you use a small set of settings where they can predict the pattern of the responses.
 
If you’re talking about chanting the Responsorial psalms and the Gospel Acclamations, get a copy of
RESPOND AND ACCLAIM by OCP. ocp.org/ra
Less than 10 bucks. Now available as an e-book.
Very simple for the parishioners to pick up the refrains, and nice melodies, not too fussy.
I’ve used them for years.
 
You might look into the Chabanel psalms as well. I’m pretty sure that these are all available online as creative commons. It looks like lots of choices for each Sunday.
Chabanelpsalms.org

If you ever want to read up on Catholic sacred liturgical music (and the ideal of what that should be like), you might explore the wesite: (lots of documents, forum).

Musicasacra.com (Church Music Association of America).
 
Some moral theologians say that deviating more than five notes from the authentic tone is a mortal sin, and less than that is venial. But the majority opinion is that one must render the singing “substantially different” from the authentic tone (such that it is unrecognizable) for it to be mortal sin.

Falling back to a simple but recognized Psalm tone is considered only a venial sin.

:D:D:D

Of course it’s perfectly fine to improvise. I used to do that all the time.
 
porthos11 said:
Some moral theologians say that deviating more than five notes from the authentic tone is a mortal sin, and less than that is venial. But the majority opinion is that one must render the singing “substantially different” from the authentic tone (such that it is unrecognizable) for it to be mortal sin.

Falling back to a simple but recognized Psalm tone is considered only a venial sin.

:D:D:D

Of course it’s perfectly fine to improvise. I used to do that all the time.
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Lol 😛

You need to understand that when I first came here, I would sometimes read posts by “traditionalists” and in my newness and ignorance, soaked it all in like a sponge and assumed it was authentic Catholicism, and that toxicity still has a residual effect on me. These days I have more of a filter. I want to honor God in the Mass and not do what I shouldn’t be doing.

I follow the notes on the Responses. I just improvise the rest of the Psalm, which doesn’t have notes in the book.
 
TK421 said:
Lol 😛

You need to understand that when I first came here, I would sometimes read posts by “traditionalists” and in my newness and ignorance, soaked it all in like a sponge and assumed it was authentic Catholicism, and that toxicity still has a residual effect on me. These days I have more of a filter. I want to honor God in the Mass and not do what I shouldn’t be doing.

I follow the notes on the Responses. I just improvise the rest of the Psalm, which doesn’t have notes in the book.
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Just curious. What book do you use?
 
Word and Psalm 2016.

The big book that the lecters/ordained use doesn’t have notes either.
 
I wish I understood the historical details that made transitioning to the new liturgy so ponderous and clumsy. A) You publish a music book. B) you distribute it. It doesn’t sound like it should be hard.

Did they have these complications after Trent too?
 
27lw said:
Funny thing is, there is an official book for music for the Mass. It is called the Graduale Romanum.

Lots of info here explaining lots of things here:

http://www.ccwatershed.org/blog/2014/feb/17/1974-graduale-romanum-now-online/

I wonder how many musicians here know about the Graduale Romanum?
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Most of us professional musicians do. Many of the priests around here are not big on chant. Doesn’t mean we have no knowledge of it. The last Music Director gig I had, they did NOT want me to use ant traditional chant. You do what the boss wants.
That’s why I used R and S. Easily. Accessible and in English or Spanish.
 
TK:
Its the liturgy experts in the pews that make it hard. Just do whatever your pastor advises.
 
Haha. Clare, trust me, there are no liturgy experts at my parish. 😛 That is one problem we are free of.

We don’t have a pastor though.
 
TK421 said:
I wish I understood the historical details that made transitioning to the new liturgy so ponderous and clumsy. A) You publish a music book. B) you distribute it. It doesn’t sound like it should be hard.

Did they have these complications after Trent too?
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To be fair, probably. It might have led to what we call in the EF Low Masses (“missa lecta”) and High Masses (“Missa Cantata”). Before the 60’s, one Sunday Mass was typically the High Mass and the rest were unsung. Vatican II wanted to have Gregorian chant at all Masses (or at least one reading the documents could easily infer that from them) but it appeared it never could catch on with the typical churchgoer.
 
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