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Views from the Choir Loft

Free Communion Antiphons!

Andrew R. Motyka · March 27, 2013

t’s Holy Week again, which means that music directors the world around have very little spare time to do important things like write blog entries. Therefore, I am copying an article I wrote for Corpus Christi Watershed 2 years ago. It’s not plagiarism if I copy my own work, right?

Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons

I had been working on the project that was to become Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons for about two years when my wife and I decided to go live with the project. I didn’t realize that within a day I would receive an invitation from Jeff Ostrowski to write an entry for Corpus Christi Watershed discussing the project. The project stems from a pastoral need in my own church for liturgically worthy yet simple music for the Communion rite in the Ordinary Form, but it originally began as an attempt to reconcile two seemingly contradictory demands of Communion music that are found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM).

That the GIRM puts the antiphons in the Graduale Romanum and the Missal in the first option for Communion music is well known, as is the tendency of most parishes to use the fourth option, “some other liturgical chant” (GIRM 87). Whether the order chosen in the GIRM is hierarchical or arbitrary is irrelevant in this case; it is not my job to rehash The Liturgy Wars™. What is clear from both the GIRM and almost all previous musical legislation is that Gregorian Chant is to have pride of place in the liturgy. If we are to follow the letter of the GIRM, however, #87 needs to be tempered with #86: that the Communion chant’s “purpose [is] to express the spiritual union of the communicants by means of the unity of their voices, to show gladness of heart, and to bring out more clearly the “communitarian” character of the procession to receive the Eucharist.” The proper chants found in the Graduale Romanum are, for the most part, too difficult for the average lay person to sing, yet the GIRM expresses the desire for the congregation to sing at this part of the Mass. One way to reconcile these two desires is to simplify the Communion antiphons and their music, especially placing them in a responsorial style (which they are anyway). A short, simple response is good congregational music should the communicants want to sing. They require no hymnal or worship aid for reference while approaching the Blessed Sacrament, and still keep the Word of God in the mouths of the faithful. Responsorial antiphons were surely the way to go.

Where does that leave the proper music in the Gradual? Well, one principle of music by which I live is that the closer a particular piece of music approaches the Gregorian chant proper to a particular instance of the Mass, the more appropriate it is for that moment. More specifically, if the chant itself is not being used, the music becomes more appropriate if it approaches the chant melodically and textually. Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons attempt to stay closely related to the chant in two ways. First, each antiphon is a translation of the proper taken from the 1974 Graduale Romanum. Often these antiphons have had to be abridged so to make them short enough to remember in procession without an aid. Unlike the Graduale Romanum, the English antiphons come with the full text of the psalm verses that are appropriate for the antiphon. Second, each antiphon corresponds with its mate in the Gradual not on textually, but modally. Each antiphon is set in the same mode as its Latin cousin. This allows the Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons to be used not only as a substitute for the proper chant, but also in conjunction with them. When choosing a starting pitch, make sure it uses the same final as the English setting. After singing through the chant, a cantor introduces the English antiphon, and a cantor/choir and the congregation alternate singing verse and antiphon until the reception of Holy Communion is complete. Each Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphon includes the doxology for a final verse, but in this case I omit the English doxology and sing the Latin one from the Gradual instead. Then the schola repeats the chanted antiphon. In this way, a parish can use a schola to chant the propers of the Mass and still conform to GIRM #86. Of course, the English antiphons can be used on their own if your parish is not ready to chant the Latin antiphons. These options provide a good way to get “from here to there.”

Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons can be found for free at www.communionantiphons.org. I came up with the idea for composing them from several different sources. First, Christoph Tietze’s excellent paraphrases in his Introit Hymns gave me the motivation to explore other ways of using the propers of the Mass in English and in a simple setting. Shortly thereafter I discovered the renowned Chabanel Psalms right here at Corpus Christi Watershed. It was Jeff’s own blank staff at the bottom of one psalm saying “compose your own” that got me started. I tried it and said, “it certainly isn’t Jeff’s scholarly compositional method, but I can do this,” and off I went. My later involvement with the Church Music Association of America, both online and at their conference, turned me on to the value of publishing free music online. If I truly see the value in a musical project, why should I hamper distribution by charging money for it? Lastly, the grace of God has given me both the will to continue composing this large number of antiphons, as well as the serendipitous realization of the implications of using the matching modes for each antiphon. I originally started composing in each antiphon’s respective mode just to give me a musical framework for each antiphon. It wasn’t until a few months later that I realized the possibilities of using the English antiphons in conjunction with the Latin ones.

I would like to thank Jeff Ostrowski and Corpus Christi Watershed for giving me the space to “plug” my work on their website. I also would like to thank my wife and webmistress, Julie, for supporting me through this whole thing and for patiently hearing time and time again, “how do you think this sounds?” I hope these antiphons can be of use to you and your parish. After all, did I mention they’re free?

Laudate Dominum Communion Antiphons

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Andrew R. Motyka

Andrew Motyka is the Archdiocesan Director of Liturgical Music and Cathedral Music for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

The effectiveness of liturgy does not lie in experimenting with rites and altering them over and over, nor in a continuous reductionism, but solely in entering more deeply into the word of God and the mystery being celebrated. It is the presence of these two that authenticates the Church’s rites, not what some priest decides, indulging his own preferences.

— Liturgicae Instaurationes (1970)

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