Responsorial service music

[Cavaille-Coll]

As a musician, a big pet peeve is the use of service music with responsorial “choir” and “people” parts, such as Glorias where the people sing “Glory to God in the highest” and the choir sings the rest, or perhaps a Sanctus where a cantor sings a line and the people repeat it. Leaving inaccurate and incorrect translations for another thread, I find responsorial Mass parts to be rather childish and completely unnecessary. Does the Church say anything about the use of this style of service music?

 

[jbuck919]

I’m not sure exactly where you are coming from. I know that in Germany they never abandoned the Latin ordinary and typically sing it alternatim, which as you know is a form of responsive singing. In other words, the choir will sing one verse of the Gloria or Credo and the congregation will respond with the next one. (In fact, they do the same thing at St. Peter’s in Rome and therefore I suppose commonly throughout Europe.) To tell you the truth, this annoyed me no end, as I read music very well and know all the peculiarities of German pronunciation of Latin, and wanted to sing the whole thing through. However, it is preferable to many possible alternatives, as I’m sure Cavaille-Coll and others can appreciate.

I hate to be the eternal pessimist, but ordinary (meaning common usage) parish worship in the US is at this point so degenerate that almost anything would be an improvement. It seems almost pointless to pick out one problem over another. I have ventured posts on some of the other forums with limited success, but here I feel that if I make a bald statement like that I may not have universal agreement, but at least considerable sympathy.

 

[John_Lilburne]

As a musician, a big pet peeve is the use of service music with responsorial “choir” and “people” parts, such as Glorias where the people sing “Glory to God in the highest” and the choir sings the rest, or perhaps a Sanctus where a cantor sings a line and the people repeat it. Leaving inaccurate and incorrect translations for another thread, I find responsorial Mass parts to be rather childish and completely unnecessary. Does the Church say anything about the use of this style of service music?

From the 2002 General Introduction to the Roman Missal (GIRM) which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
“53. … The Gloria is intoned by the priest or, if appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir; but it is sung either by everyone together,** or by the people alternately with the choir**, or by the choir alone. If not sung, it is to be recited either by all together or by two parts of the congregation responding one to the other. …”.
I think the Sanctus is intended to be sung by all. From the 2002 GIRM:
“216. The Preface is sung or said by the principal priest celebrant alone; but the Sanctus is sung or recited by all the concelebrants, together with the congregation and the choir.”

 

[Cavaille-Coll]

Thanks for the GIRM excerpt, John. I guess what I had in mind were those tunes common amongst the folk Mass crowd where a cantor sings a line and the people repeat it, then the next line is cantored and repeated, and so on, signalled with the usual grandiose hand gestures from the prima donna at the ambo. I was not thinking of polyphonic or classical choral settings in which a line is repeated for artistic effect by various parts of the choir.

jBuck919: I agree that our liturgical sensibilities have largely fallen apart in American parishes. Perhaps focussing on such a narrow field is a waste of time, a finger in the dike, so to speak. Music is more my area of expertise than, let’s say, the sad phenomena of felt banners in our sanctuaries. In our politically-correct culture of couching every statement in ambiguity, asserting aloud that two plus two equals four is bound to offend someone for its blatent display of absolute truth. I often make “bald” statements to get my point across with clarity and to avoid wasting the reader’s time in decyphering it. After all, you wouldn’t want my posts any longer than they already are!

 

[pm1853]

Thanks for the GIRM excerpt, John. I guess what I had in mind were those tunes common amongst the folk Mass crowd where a cantor sings a line and the people repeat it, then the next line is cantored and repeated, and so on, signalled with the usual grandiose hand gestures from the prima donna at the ambo. I was not thinking of polyphonic or classical choral settings in which a line is repeated for artistic effect by various parts of the choir.

Yes, as in the Mass of Creation Gloria where the congregation only sings “Glory to God in the highest and peeeeeeaaaace to His people on earth” or the even more irritating “Our Father” with call and response after every verse (with bongos). I don’t understand it myself, the prayers aren’t hard and if the music is sung every week, the congregation is pretty quick to learn it. My priest (thankfully) requested that I find a version of the Gloria without a refrain.

I think that the quoted GIRM excerpt actually answers your question in that it DOESN’T mention what you have in mind. It isn’t outright banned, so therefor (as is usually the case it seems) its exploited and overused. grrrrrr

 

[JButky]

From the 2002 General Introduction to the Roman Missal (GIRM) which can be accessed from romanrite.com/girm.html :
"53. … ** or by the people alternately with the choir**, or by the choir alone.

There are Glorias that are written with sections for the people singing containing more elaborate 4 parts realizations specific to the choir fullfilling the description “by the people alternately with the choir.”

To “rework” an ordinary to “fit” a musical style is not in keeping with musical directives from many Church documents. You are also in effect changing the words of an ordinary which no one is allowed to do to the ordinaries…These responsorial type settings change the order and are in fact changing the text and reworking it to fit this musical style…a big no-no

From Litugiam Authenticam

1. A great part of the liturgical texts are composed with the intention of their being sung by the priest celebrant, the deacon, the cantor, the people, or the choir. For this reason, the texts should be translated in a manner that is suitable for being set to music. Still, in preparing the musical accompaniment, full account must be taken of the authority of the text itself. Whether it be a question of the texts of Sacred Scripture or of those taken from the Liturgy and already duly confirmed, paraphrases are not to be substituted with the intention of making them more easily set to music, nor may hymns considered generically equivalent be employed in their place.[39]

Joe B

 

[RWMorris]

Thankfully, our little cathedral sings most responsorial music straight from the missalette. I can’t STAND it when we sing nothing but praise/worship music, but when I play, we sing mostly the great hymns and just one or two praise/worship songs that the people know well, and only at offertory or communion. Occasionally we’ll teach the congregation a new one but not more than maybe once every couple of months and we make sure they’re in the missalette or song issue.
As the musician, I always welcome comments and suggestions from our congregation, as I like to hear feedback. Maybe a word to the priest or the choir director would not come amiss.
However, responsorial music, especially in the psalm of the day, is very practical and since the music for the verse is not in the missalette (only the refrain), the congregation is used to it and can follow along with the entire psalm.
I find it amazing that many churches don’t use the missalette, since it is the most practical and ideal way for everyone to worship as “one”.