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Views from the Choir Loft

Which Masses Would You Choose?

Fr. David Friel · April 3, 2016

PRIEST I KNOW is pastor of a small parish (roughly 150 families). He is working to introduce the beauty of sacred music and has arranged for musicians from local symphonies to provide music at the parish’s Christmas Midnight Mass and the Easter Vigil. In addition to SATB vocalists, the instrumentalists have included an organist, cellist, violinist, horn player, and trumpeter.

Such a project, of course, is limited by funding. At this point, the pastor would like to expand the number of Masses throughout the year at which these musicians play. He has set up two options.

Option 1: Bring in the musicians for the official Vigils of the Church. These Vigils include:

1. Easter

2. Christmas

3. Pentecost

4. Ascension

5. Nativity of St. John the Baptist

6. Saints Peter & Paul

Option 2: Arrange for the more festive music for certain Holy Days of Obligation. These feasts include:

1. Mary, Mother of God

2. Ascension

3. Assumption

4. All Saints

5. Immaculate Conception

6. Christmas

The goal of both options would be to help catechize the congregation about progressive solemnity and to reinforce the importance of either the Vigils or the Holy Days.

If you were this pastor, which option would you choose? If you were his music director, what recommendation would you give him? If you had the funding to add music to 2 or 3 more Masses in addition to Christmas at midnight and the Easter Vigil, which Masses would they be?

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Beauty in the Catholic Liturgy, Progressive Solemnity, Simple Steps To Improve Parish Music Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“In my capacity as the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, I continue to remind all that the celebration toward the East (versus orientem) is authorized by the rubrics of the missal, which specify the moments when the celebrant must turn toward the people. A particular authorization is, therefore, not needed to celebrate Mass facing the Lord.”

— ‘Robert Cardinal Sarah, 23 May 2016’

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