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Views from the Choir Loft

Acompañamientos • MISAL ROMANO, Tercera Edición

Richard J. Clark · October 19, 2018

HE NEW Spanish translation of the Roman Missal, Third Edition for the United States has been available since May, 2018. Its implementation becomes mandatory in the United States on the First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2018. (Its use has been optional since the Vigil of Pentecost, 2018)

Like the English Translation, implemented in 2011, the new Misal Romano, tercia edición contains a great deal more music than any previous edition.

The Zipoli Institute has posted a wonderfully useful site that includes (unaccompanied) recordings here. You can hear them in higher and lower pitched tones.

The Archdiocese of New York has outlined a number of features in the new edition. Among them:

“In an effort to encourage the singing of the Ordinary of the Mass, the US Misal Romano will include more musical notation than any other Spanish language Misal Romano currently used throughout the world.”

TO THAT END, I HAVE ARRANGED some accompaniments for the chants for the Ordinary of the Mass from the Misal Romano. These include guitar chords.

      * *   Acompañamientos para el Ordinario de la Misa • Misal Romano, tercia edición

In addition, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has posted free downloads of all the chants of the Mass with many accompaniments for guitar and organ. These accompaniments were prepared by Marc Cerisier, who also beautifully engraved all of the music found in the misal.

You may find either set of accompaniments useful. While I often find congregations sing more easily to unaccompanied chant, accompaniments can be helpful especially in the learning stages. Furthermore, guitar accompaniment alone can be useful to allow more freedom with the natural accents and rhythms the language. (Guitar and light strings on the organ can also be a very beautiful combination.)

NOTE THAT THE USCCB ACCOMPANIMENTS are written in the “key” of the Vatican Edition. Of course these pitches are really only indicative of the mode and can be sung with any comfortable starting note. As such, it is wise to make adjustments as necessary to suit your congregation.

My accompaniments are taken down a step in most cases to be more comfortable for most congregations. I also added some rhythms indicated by Solesmes or where obvious for the text. (The Roman Missal chants do not have any indications for rhythm as you will see in the USCCB scores. One may find amusing that Theodore Marier would affectionately refer to this approach to notation as “announcing pitches.”)

Finally, I find the two most common mistakes are singing such chants too high and too slowly. This forces a congregation to push and support breath in ways that they are not equipped to do. The result is the people give up on singing altogether. So, sing it lower if necessary, and move the chant along with energy! Finally, take the cue from the people, and allow them to sing naturally.

ADDENDUM
You can also find a number of accompaniments to the Roman Missal Chants in English here

Soli Deo gloria

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Gregorian Chant Accompaniments, ICEL Chants, ICEL New Translation of the Roman Missal, Misal Romano, Zipoli Institute Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Richard J. Clark

Richard J. Clark is the Director of Music of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Truly Great Processional” • (Pipe Organ)
    I stumbled upon this live recording of a PROCESSIONAL I played on the pipe organ in 2002. It’s an excerpt from a much longer composition by Sebastian Bach. In those days, there weren’t sophisticated recording devices allowing one “fix” wrong notes. (Perhaps they existed, but we didn’t have machines like that.) So it was necessary to play the entire piece from beginning to end. If you’re a church organist, feel free to download the PDF score. I suppose it’s only a matter of time until some joker uses “artificial intelligence” to play music at church … but there’s something so satisfying about playing an organ in real life.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“I love them that love me: and they that in the morning early watch for me shall find me.”

— Proverbs 8

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