What’s With All the Chant?

Daniel Tucker · December 20, 2020

HE FOLLOWING PRESENATION is entitled “What’s With All the Chant? A Crash Course on the Church’s Teaching on Sacred Music.” I had the honor of presenting this material to my parishioners at St. Thérèse Little Flower Catholic Church (South Bend, IN) this past week.

Topics covered include: an introduction to liturgical theology and the Mass; anthropocentric vs. theocentric worship; the Ordinary and Proper texts of the Mass; why the texts of the Propers are superior to hymnody for use at the Introit, Offertory, and Communion; a survey of Church documents from the past c. 120 years on the primacy of Gregorian chant; and answers to questions about new music and music of other styles.

A special thanks is due to Fr. Brad Elliott, OP of the Western Dominican Province, whose video “What’s Wrong With Church Music?” served as the introduction to my lecture.

Enjoy!

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

About Daniel Tucker

Daniel Tucker is choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in South Bend, IN. He holds degrees from Western Michigan University and Yale University. —(Read full biography).

“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

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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.

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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

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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

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About Daniel Tucker