Music at Low Mass

[Magnum_V8]

Is there a church document that discusses how music can be implemented at a Low Mass? Sanctamissa.com has a PDF file that explains it, but doesn’t really site any references for its answers.

sanctamissa.org/en/music/musical-guidelines-for-the-traditional-roman-rite/liturgical-services-music-for-low-mass.pdf

Particularly, the question about whether or not any of the Ordinary of the Mass can be sung, i.e., Kyrie, Sanctus…

 

[PhilotheaZ]

I haven’t read the document you cite, but a priest who celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass locally explained to me that a low Mass has no music except for the hymns (Processional, Offertory, Communion, and Recessional). I read somewhere else that the hymns within the Mass (Offertory, Communion) must be in Latin, while the Processional/Recessional, which occur before Mass begins and after it ends, could possibly be in English.

If you’re going to sing any of the parts of the Mass (Kyrie, Sanctus, etc.), you have to sing the whole Mass (a sung Mass, Missa Cantata, I think).

 

[Magnum_V8]

I haven’t read the document you cite, but a priest who celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass locally explained to me that a low Mass has no music except for the hymns (Processional, Offertory, Communion, and Recessional). I read somewhere else that the hymns within the Mass (Offertory, Communion) must be in Latin, while the Processional/Recessional, which occur before Mass begins and after it ends, could possibly be in English.

If you’re going to sing any of the parts of the Mass (Kyrie, Sanctus, etc.), you have to sing the whole Mass (a sung Mass, Missa Cantata, I think).

I agree. And yes, that is exactly what the link to Sanctamissa.com says. But I’d just like to see it referenced in an official Church document.

 

[japhy]

I agree. And yes, that is exactly what the link to Sanctamissa.com says. But I’d just like to see it referenced in an official Church document.

See the document De Musica Sacra from 1958. It regulates the use of sacred music at Mass, and includes information about Low Masses in particular.

#14b says “At low Mass the faithful who participate directly in the liturgical ceremonies with the celebrant by reciting aloud the parts of the Mass which belong to them must, along with the priest and his server, use Latin exclusively. But if, in addition to this direct participation in the liturgy, the faithful wish to add some prayers or popular hymns, according to local custom, these may be recited or sung in the vernacular.”

#33 says “The faithful may sing hymns during low Mass, if they are appropriate to the various parts of the Mass.”