Is there one "right" melody for each Latin Mass chant?

[caroljm36]

Hi, I’ve been reading an old thread about Latin pronunciation, and listened an mp3 file of the Pater Noster that someone linked.

Now, I was all excited because I had some free sheet music I downloaded and worked out the first few lines…I sang it to my husband, who is a cradle Catholic old enough to remember Pre Vat II, and said it sounded right. But his memory is not that good, and apparently it’s a new composition because it doesn’t sound like the mp3.
I got it here. **tinyurl.com/2b5uqm5 **

Is there traditionally one accepted melody for each part of the Mass, or many as there are in the New Order service?

If there is one, where I can download free sheet music for it?

 

[GloriousOrder]

Look for a Kyriale, either on the internet or in the final pages of any 1962 Missal. This set of chant tones defines which melody ought to be used on certain days. I believe, for example, that the the ordinaries of Missa orbis factor are to be used on regular Sundays, whereas the ordinaries of Missa cum jubilo are to be used for feasts pertaining to the Blessed Virgin. Each set in the Kyriale truly corresponds to the proper ordinary of a certain day.

As for sheet music, you might try the Choral Public Domain Library…

Here is the Missa de Angelis (to be used on feast days):

www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/mangelis.pdf specifically,

and its overall webpage on C.P.D.L.:

www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Missa_de_Angelis_%28Gregorian_chant%29

 

[caroljm36]

As for sheet music, you might try the Choral Public Domain Library…

Here is the Missa de Angelis (to be used on feast days):

www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/mangelis.pdf specifically,

and its overall webpage on C.P.D.L.:

www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Missa_de_Angelis_%28Gregorian_chant%29

Thanks! So it depends on the day…nothing’s simple is it.

I admit I’m not such a good reader that I can make out the first part of the Missa de Angelis. But the rest is in readable notation for me. Also, the links at the second site don’t work for me. But I will search for Kyriale.

 

[Pregustator]

It gets even more complicated: the Mass of the Angels is but one of a variety of possible Gregorian Chant options for Mass. And then there are the different arrangements for the preface that vary according to the text, the level of solemnity, and even the country in which Mass is celebrated.

 

[malphono]

It gets even more complicated: the Mass of the Angels is but one of a variety of possible Gregorian Chant options for Mass. And then there are the different arrangements for the preface that vary according to the text, the level of solemnity, and even the country in which Mass is celebrated.

True, but the tones for the various prefaces (a) are printed in the Missale Romanum and (b) directly concern only the celebrant.

 

[Pregustator]

True, but the tones for the various prefaces (a) are printed in the Missale Romanum and (b) directly concern only the celebrant.

Ah, yes; good point.

There are also different modes possible for the propers, if you really want to get carried away. Fifth mode chant always appealed to me, but it can be a bit creepy.

 

[MarkThompson]

There are tons of melodies for all the various parts of the Mass. Since the monks of the Solesmes monastery systematized many elements of Gregorian chant a century or so ago, we generally count eighteen settings of the Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei), but history contains scores if not hundreds of others – not to mention the vast number of polyphonic, orchestral, etc., compositions for these pieces.

You can see and hear the eighteen standard Ordinaries here. The recommended usages listed at the bottom are, and have always been, mere recommendations, not requirements. There is also no requirement to do all the parts of the Ordinary from one single setting; you can mix and match to your heart’s content. Some parishes beat Mass VIII to death for years and years at every Mass, while others routinely venture into little-heard settings like Mass III, Mass V, and Mass XIII.

As to the Pater Noster, it is not generally considered a part of the Ordinary. The 1962 Missale Romanum gives two different settings for it, and you can tell them apart by whether the notes on the words qui es in qui es in caelis move up or down. If they move down, it is the setting specified for ferial days, vigils of the II and III class, votive Masses of the IV class, and Masses of the dead. If they move up, it is for other Masses.

 

[MarkThompson]

Oh, and I forgot you said you wanted sheet music. Here are the pages from the Missale containing the two customary melodies (attached pdf).

 

[caroljm36]

Oh, and I forgot you said you wanted sheet music. Here are the pages from the Missale containing the two customary melodies (attached pdf).

Would you please explain to me how the 4-line staff relates to the 5-line staff that I am familiar with? The melodies look simple enough but as a reader I am still in F-A-C-E mode.

 

[malphono]

Would you please explain to me how the 4-line staff relates to the 5-line staff that I am familiar with? The melodies look simple enough but as a reader I am still in F-A-C-E mode.

The “four line staff” is Gregorian notation, whereas the"five line staff" is modern notation. While I’m not a musician, this link might be helpful in translating the two: lphrc.org/Chant/

 

[MarkThompson]

Would you please explain to me how the 4-line staff relates to the 5-line staff that I am familiar with? The melodies look simple enough but as a reader I am still in F-A-C-E mode.

The easiest way to think of it is: the little clef (the farthest-left thing on the staff) marks which line is C (note that it kind of looks like a C). So when it is on the top line, as in the chant in my signature, the lines are D, F, A, C, and the three spaces are E, G, B.

Strictly speaking, it is better to call the C-clef a do-clef (as in do, re, mi), so that when it is on the top line the lines are re, fa, la, do and the spaces are mi, sol, ti. In other words, you can sing any chant in a range where it is most comfortable for your voice (“moveable do”); you are not tied to “A” = 440 Hz.

In addition to the link Malphono gave, you may appreciate the article An Idiot’s Guide to Square Notes. That really gives you all you need to start tackling chant. If you really want to improve at learning how to correlate the notes with the singing, go here and watch the ones ones with videos, following along and then singing along. (It’s well above the level of a simple Pater Noster, but for someone like you who already has some musical background it’s really very attainable.) Cheers –