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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

Repeating Repertoire? • Andrea Leal

Andrea Leal · April 4, 2020

F WE WERE all angels, we would sing endless hosannas for eternity in Heaven, praising the Lamb with the most exquisite and breathtaking music in all of Creation. We would know how to do this without ever having learned it, and yet it would be absolutely perfect. Our hymns of praise would exalt the Most High in ways that no earthly composer, and no human masterpiece could ever attain.

But alas, we are not beautiful angelic beings. We are greatly limited in knowledge, understanding and ability to praise the Lord with song. And yet, being His creatures, we still deeply desire to exalt him with music. Unlike the angels, our music must be taught, learned and mastered. This takes an incredible amount of labor and sacrifice!

When you are further challenged by being in a parish that does not have a natural pool of “talent” to draw from, you must create that talent by teaching willing volunteers. It is no exaggeration to say that the process of training volunteer singers and teaching them a basic repertoire can take years. For this reason, it is my belief that every choir should have a set of hymns that they have mastered, which a choir director can confidently pull out of their back pocket without advance rehearsal. Especially with smaller choirs, where it is difficult to ‘hide” the mistakes of weaker singers, it only makes sense that once you have spent the time to master a song you should make full use of it.

Additionally, when you consider the sheer quantity 1 of music a choir may sing on any given Sunday, it becomes clear that doing new music all the time is truly out of the question. Consider what you must cover with your choir when you learn a new song. It isn’t just about teaching the right notes. You must also perfect vowels, tone, Latin pronunciation (if it isn’t in English), rhythm, phrasing, and you must spend time ironing out challenging sections. Practicality demands a certain amount of repetition. Case in point, my choir has this lovely hymn during Lent for the last couple of years. By now I know that we can sing it at the drop of the hat. Being able to do that is an incredible advantage.


Not only does my choir love singing something familiar, knowing that we will be singing a familiar piece on a given Sunday frees up valuable rehearsal time to dedicate to other (new!) pieces.

Therefore, while we can and should repeat some of our repertoire, once you have a core set of songs to fall back on it is important to regularly introduce fresh pieces. Not only does this prevent you and your singers from becoming burned out, but it can also be a good way to expand their knowledge of different composers and musical eras. New things are exciting to us humans. Being constrained by our earthly limitations, we do indeed tire of singing the same things over and over. If we were more like the angels, we would never tire of singing endless songs of praise, just as our Blessed Lord never tires of hearing them!

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,
are full of eyes all round and within,
and day and night they never cease to sing,
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

Rev. 4:8



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   For example, in the Extraordinary Form, there are 5 propers that are chanted at every Mass, and their melodies are not repeated very frequently. In fact, many are never repeated at all.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Repeating Repertoire Last Updated: April 5, 2020

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About Andrea Leal

Andrea Leal is a wife and homeschooling mother of 6 children. She serves as choir director for the Traditional Latin Mass in Las Vegas.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 17th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (27 July 2025). 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 the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Communion • “Ask & You Shall Receive”
    All of the chants for 27 July 2025 have been added to the feasts website, as usual under a convenient “drop down” menu. The COMMUNION ANTIPHON (both text and melody) are exceedingly beautiful and ancient.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Jeff’s Mother Joins Our Fundraiser
    To assist our fundraiser, Mrs. Kathleen Ostrowski has drawn several beautiful sketches which she offers to all our readers free of charge. If you have a moment, I invite you download them at this link.
    —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

“To suggest, even loosely, that Catholics walk a more or less similar path to God as other religions drains martyrdom of its meaning. Why give up your life for Christ when other paths may get us to the same God? Such a sacrifice would be senseless.”

— Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

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