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Views from the Choir Loft

Saint Eulalia Gradual • Guest Article by Josh Carey

Guest Author · July 5, 2020

HROUGHOUT my childhood, even up to the age of 18, I was determined to never drink coffee. And then I went to college. By my third day, I woke up so exhausted that I found myself waiting in a very long line at the campus café for a very overpriced cup with a drizzle of actual coffee and layers of cream, sugar and flavored syrup on top. For my unrefined palate, it was easy to drink. Eventually I graduated to real coffee, but piled with flavored creamer, and three spoonsful of sugar on top. If that last sentence made you cringe, you are in good company. I eventually kicked the sugar and can now even enjoy coffee with a small splash of unflavored cream. I hope one day I can enjoy black coffee of various origins and roasts. In this unprecedented time, many of us are seeing a unique opportunity to use the beauty and simplicity of chanting the Mass propers in lieu of whatever semi (or fully) undesirable model we may have been using. In my parish, the inability to use handouts or hymnals for sanitary reasons is driving our need for something simple which can be sung responsorially by the congregation. However, there are many challenges to just jumping in, headfirst, to chanting the propers as they were intended to be chanted. If you are in a similar situation at your parish, then you too see the need to gradually remove the overly saccharine a little at a time. (Does the coffee metaphor make sense now?)

There are many wonderful resources out there which bridge the gap between the “four hymn sandwich” and the Roman Gradual. However, not all may be appropriate for your situation. Especially right now, many would require handouts or additional books, which is just not feasible with the restrictions of the pandemic. So, I humbly offer one more resource for your consideration. 1

A sample for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (with Year A Responsorial Psalm) can be found at the following link:

*  Saint Eulalia Gradual • Sample Files
—A project by Joshua D. Carey.


I am calling this project the St. Eulalia Gradual, in honor of the patron of my parish. For each Sunday in Ordinary Time I have set the Entrance and Communion Antiphons from the Missal (it was always a practice at my parish to recite these at daily Mass, and my pastor brought this into Sunday Mass during the pandemic before music was reintroduced). I have also set the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel Acclamation with its verse. Here is my methodology:

(a) I have written a setting of the Alleluia to be used for the entire season, together with 3 chant-tone verses to be used on a rotation (e.g. the first, fourth, seventh, etc. Sundays would use Tone I, and so on). The Entrance, Psalm and Communion antiphons are also set this tone, and then rhythms are added, based on the natural speaking rhythm of each antiphon, giving a metrical setting of the antiphon. The verses are chanted to the same tone.

(b) For the Entrance and Communion, I have tried to use the Missal antiphon unaltered. If an antiphon is lengthy, however, I have tried to break it into two sections so that the first is used as the antiphon and the second is used as the first verse. On rare occasion I have left out words that are less essential to the meaning of the passage or put the words in a different order that convey the same meaning. I try to avoid this at all costs.

(c) The Entrance and Communion each have two verses. Verse one is either from the psalm indicated in the Missal, or from the antiphon itself as described above. Verse two is the Gloria Patri.

This has been extremely successful in my parish, and I plan to continue until I’ve set the entire church year. My goal is then to move on to something more authentic, especially when choral singing can resume to its fullest extent. If you are interested in this project and/or would like to use these settings at your parish, please contact me through my website at the above link.

We hope you enjoyed this guest article by Joshua D. Carey.

 


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Disclaimer: My degrees are in mathematics, although I have studied organ seriously up through the collegiate level. At the end of the day, I am a trained musician, but not a trained composer. Also, as mentioned above, this solution is by no means a permanent one; this is meant to deliver us to the destination of beautiful, traditional liturgy.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: July 5, 2020

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “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
    “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

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

These prayers were not peculiar to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men on the day that Christ died for all. Duchesne is of opinion that the “Oremus” now said in every Mass before the Offertory—which is not a prayer—remains to show where this old series of prayers was once said in all Masses.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday

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