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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Is It Time To Stop Singing The Propers?

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · January 19, 2020

Now that I have your attention, allow me to make my real point, which is: Does the way we sing the Propers matter?

Since I am not involved with a Latin Mass parish I cannot speak to how chant is received by the faithful. I  assume, however, that those who attend know that chant will be sung and they accept it no matter what it sounds like. Conversely, I know how difficult it can be to introduce chant (and for that matter, Latin) into a Novus Ordo parish. After many years of slowly adding the Propers to the Mass I can say this with confidence: people will accept it much more easily if it sounds beautiful.

Anyone who knows me knows that my one constant philosophy of choral singing is that, first and foremost, the choir must sound as beautiful as possible. If we’re not going to try to sing beautifully, then why sing at all? This is especially true of music for the sacrifice of the Mass. Here are some ways to make the Propers sound beautiful and meaningful.

1. Start with the text
Gregorian chant is rhetorical. Text painting abounds. Read the text carefully with attention to its meaning and find these special moments. Teach your choir why the melody rises here or falls there, why this mode is better for these words than another, why certain syllables are lengthened or why some notes are repeated. Show them by singing it yourself. Make endings slow and soften ever so slightly so that sentences come to natural endings. I like to tell my choirs that when they sing the chants they are telling the listeners a story. Everyone singing the chant must fall in love with the words first, and this starts with the choir director whose own passion for the text is given to the singers.

2. Unify vowels.
This is true for any kind of choral singing. Unifying vowels helps with tuning, blend, and creates a sound that most everyone agrees is beautiful and arresting, as opposed to one in which we hear various individual voices. Depending on what region of the country you are in, this may take up most of your rehearsal time.

3. Choose a tempo that moves.
How often have we heard from enemies of chant that it is a ‘dirge,’ that it ‘plods,’ or is boring or uninteresting? That is not the fault of the chant, it’s the fault of the person leading the chant. Chant should have momentum, forward motion, and direction. It should sound at times exciting, mysterious, subtle, relevant, intelligent, and intelligible. If the tempo is so slow that by the time one sings the end of the sentence no one can remember how the sentence started, well, that’s a problem. Think about how tempo affects what is being communicated in the text.

4. Consider your acoustic.
The acoustic affects tempo, or does it? While it’s true that a reverberant church requires the tempo to be a bit slower than in a dry acoustic, the difference really doesn’t need to be all that drastic. Instead, the acoustic really affects the amount of time between phrases. In a dry acoustic, take less time between phrases; in a reverberant acoustic, let the music breathe more between phrases before beginning again. This allows the big acoustic to enhance the sound while allowing the listeners ears to take it all in.

5. Don’t be afraid of English
You don’t have to look very far on the internet to find ‘experts’ that will tell you that you’re setting the revival of chant and sacred music back by sixty years if you do chant in English. I will tell you here and now that I do chant in just about every combination of languages you can imagine, from full Latin chants and verses, to Latin chant with English verses, Gregorian melodies set to English words, and the Simple English Propers by Adam Bartlett. I’ve even written my own melodies. If you’re in a Novus Ordo parish, there’s nothing wrong in my book with singing whatever chant you can manage as long as it’s sung beautifully. You might have time to learn only one Latin Gregorian chant a month. Fine. Do English the rest of the month, and do it beautifully. And don’t let anyone scare you about not singing everything in Latin. They’re probably not even musicians anyway.

So, should we stop singing the Propers? Of course not. But we should be sure we are singing them in the most beautiful and meaningful way possible.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 21, 2020

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About Dr. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Typo in the “Missale Romanum” (1962)
    The 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM was a transitional missal. It was on its way to becoming the 1970 version, but wasn’t there yet. It eliminated certain duplications, downplayed the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, expanded the role of laymen, minimized the Last Gospel, made many items optional, and so forth. Father Valentine Young spotted many typos in the 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM, especially incorrect accents. The Offertory Antiphon for this coming Sunday (OF kalendar) contains an error, citing the wrong verse from Psalm 118. It should be 118:107b, not 118:154. If you read verse 154, you’ll understand how that error crept in. [In this particular case, the error pre-dates the 1962 Missal, since the 1940s hand-missal by Father Lasance also gets it wrong.]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 30th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 26 October 2025, which is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the top-notch feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Little Encouragement?
    In the Gospel, our Savior tells about 10 lepers who were healed. Only one went back to give thanks. Precious few express gratitude, yet many have endless energy to complain. For that reason, I deeply appreciate receiving messages like the following, which arrived a few days ago (about the parish where I direct in Michigan): “Last Sunday, a couple I knew from Grand Rapids was at Mass at 10:00 a.m. I got a chance to talk to them after Mass. I wanted to let you know what they said about the choir. They were absolutely floored by our sound!!!!! They both said they could continuously listen to our choir and the beauty of it. They asked me: “Do you always sound like that?” And they were also very surprised at how packed the church was. They said it was nice for them to be in such a full church. I just thought you would be interested to know their thoughts about our choir.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Our Father” • Musical Setting?
    Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

A hymn verse need not be a complete sentence, but it must have completed sense as a recognisable part of the complete sentence, and at each major pause there would be at least a “sense-pause.” Saint Ambrose and the early writers and centonists always kept to this rule. This indicates one of the differences between a poem and a hymn, and by this standard most of the modern hymns and the revisions of old hymns in the Breviary stand condemned.

— Fr. Joseph Connelly

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