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TheMc
Guest
That’s for the ordinary form though. There is an EF ordo online somewhere though. Maybe someone will post it if you ask nicely.
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MarkThompson
Guest
TrueLight, since you’ve been curious about the congregation’s singing in the EF, I thought I would post the following, which I happened to run across (here, pp. 217-18). It’s from a precis printed in the journal Worship in 1953 of a presentation of findings Fr. Cletus Madsen gave that year at the Catholic University called “Fifty Years After,” discussing the state of music a half-century after Pope Pius X’s motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, which was an attempt at reform.
“The Present Status of Liturgical Music in the United States.”
I. The philosophy behind the use of music in our Catholic churches is either totally or at least partially unknown to the large majority of our faithful.
II. Except for an occasional hymn at Benediction or at a Novena, the American Catholic is almost completely unvocal at divine services. Singing congregations are the rare exception if we eliminate schools.
III. The type of singing heard in our churches is still largely unliturgical except where the school children do the singing.
IV. The quality of singing is quite generally inartistic and therefore unworthy of . . . ornamenting the texts.
V. The quality of organ playing in our churches is similar to that of the singing. Too often the instrument is used as a concert vehicle instead of an accompanying complement to the liturgical vocal parts.
VI. Appropriate training is one of the demands of the Church, and here we note the one hopeful oasis in the status of liturgical music in America. Vast changes for the better are taking place in this field of education. . . .
“The Present Status of Liturgical Music in the United States.”
I. The philosophy behind the use of music in our Catholic churches is either totally or at least partially unknown to the large majority of our faithful.
II. Except for an occasional hymn at Benediction or at a Novena, the American Catholic is almost completely unvocal at divine services. Singing congregations are the rare exception if we eliminate schools.
III. The type of singing heard in our churches is still largely unliturgical except where the school children do the singing.
IV. The quality of singing is quite generally inartistic and therefore unworthy of . . . ornamenting the texts.
V. The quality of organ playing in our churches is similar to that of the singing. Too often the instrument is used as a concert vehicle instead of an accompanying complement to the liturgical vocal parts.
VI. Appropriate training is one of the demands of the Church, and here we note the one hopeful oasis in the status of liturgical music in America. Vast changes for the better are taking place in this field of education. . . .
. . .
- The Parish Choir. The vast majority of parishes use children’s choirs exclusively. These do try in many cases to carry out the ideals of the Church to some extent. . . . Many of these however omit essential parts of the singing demanded by the Church. The Church’s ideal of choirs of men and boys is still lacking in most of our parishes. Where such exist the music comes very close, however, to the ideals of the Church. Most adult choirs are either female or mixed and, to judge from our survey, most of them only partially carry out the liturgical norms in their singing.
- The Congregation. Only extremely isolated instances exist of the congregation taking its due part in the singing of liturgical music. Generally speaking, little or no attempt is made to tackle this problem.
(If you’re curious about the negative comments on female singers, it is because Pius X strictly forbade women or girls to sing in choirs – a regulation which was, of course, universally ignored.)
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TrueLight
Guest
Thanks Mark.
I just scanned the article for now but will read it later.
How true. I noticed the congregation sings the Regina Caeli at the procession pretty loudly because it is something they are familiar with, which tells me they must want to sing.
This made me laugh. What a diss!
I’m not sure how one would tackle this problem. I really feel the lack of congregational singing in the mass. I know some will say it’s not about us, etc, etc, but nevertheless.
Why did Pius X forbid women singing?
I do feel that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to singing in the parish I attend. Let me explain.
We have an old male schola/choir most of the time.
When they are singing some of the chants like the Credo, I can feel a certain hesitation among the women. Basically, they need a female voice to tune to. I don’t know if I’m making sense. So they hear the men sing and either sing at a really low octave or hesitantly try to find the female equivalent octave. When I know a song (which is rarely
), I try to sing out a little so that women around me can have a female voice to tune to and you can hear them adjusting and matching.So because of the weak congregational singing, I am often not sure where we can sing and where we can’t.
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laszlo
Guest
Yes. And the opposite is the Proper, the changing part either the proper of season, and the proper of Saints. There is a third category: the liturgy of the Saints has parts from the Common of Saints.
The propers for the mass is: Introit, Collect, Lesson, Gradual, Gospel, Offertory verse, Secret, Communion verse, Postcommunion prayer
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