EADERS KNOW I loathe semantic games. A good example has to do with SEQUENCES. It’s often claimed the Council of Trent eliminated most sequences, retaining only the finest (such as Víctimæ Pascháli Laudes, Dies Iræ, and Veni Sancte Spíritus). That statement is basically true—but those addicted to semantic games claim it’s a lie. They point out (correctly) that Trent never issued an explicit decree banning sequences. However, by making that distinction they unwittingly demonstrate great ignorance vis-à-vis the sacred liturgy. The reality is, shortly after the Council of Trent a revised missal was published (viz. MISSAL OF PIUS V). This revision added nothing new; it merely consolidated traditions.1 The revised missal eliminated most sequences, and—due to its great influence—led to the demise of all but the finest sequences. It’s good to realize those obsessed with semantic games are incapable of understanding shorthand.
Polyphony For Three Voices • I’ll return to the Council of Trent in just a moment. But first, let me share a special piece for three voices by Maria Quinn (d. 1977), based on a piece by Father Zipoli. When introducing polyphony for the first time, I strongly recommend this piece. The Solfège has been included on the score:
* PDF Download • “PSALM 26” for Three Voices
—By Maria Quinn (d. 1977) after a piece by Father Domenico Zipoli (d. 1726).
Jeff Is Glum • If you follow that link, you’ll discover that #30939 provides fantastic rehearsal videos for each individual voice. Those took forever to create, but most readers won’t take the time to examine them—which makes me feel glum.
(1 of 3) What Quinn Did • I promised to return to the Council of Trent. In those days, many bishops and cardinals wanted to “phase out” or “reduce” or “outlaw” the practice of basing Masses and Motets on secular music. In the same way we can—using shorthand—say Trent got rid of sequences and tropes, we can also say Trent got rid of religious music based on secular tunes. (Orlando de Lassus wrote a Mass based on a lascivious chanson, which seems beyond reprehensible.) But there’s an old saying: “You can take the monkey out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the monkey.”
(2 of 3) What Quinn Did • When it comes to “taking secular tunes out of composers,” that’s easier said than done. Many hymns we sing at Mass were originally secular melodies: e.g. “O Sacred Head Surrounded.” Composers continued using secular music as their inspiration for Masses and Motets—but after the Council of Trent they called such compositions by deceptive names like Missa Sine Nomine. Long after Trent, Palestrina wrote a Mass based on the secular L’Homme Armé melody, but called it “Missa Quarta.” Monsignor Francis P. Schmitt called that Palestrina camouflaging (!) a Mass. Indeed, Father Pietro Cerone (d. 1625)—a Catholic priest writing fifty years after the Council of Trent—begins his chapter on how to compose a Mass with: “Take a good chanson tune!”
(3 of 3) What Quinn Did • Another thing composers love to do—whether they admit it or not—is employ text painting and onomatopoeia. In the piece above, notice the fascinating way Maria Quinn sets the word circuíbo which means “wrap around.”
1 Father Adrian Fortescue wrote in 1912: “The missal of Pius V is the one we still use. […] No doubt in every reform one may find something that one would have preferred not to change. Still, a just and reasonable criticism will admit that Pius V’s restoration was on the whole eminently satisfactory. The standard of the commission was antiquity. They abolished later ornate features and made for simplicity, yet without destroying all those picturesque elements that add poetic beauty to the severe Roman Mass. They expelled the host of long sequences that crowded Mass continually, but kept what are undoubtedly the five best. They reduced processions and elaborate ceremonial, yet kept the really pregnant ceremonies, candles, ashes, palms and the beautiful Holy Week rites. Certainly we in the West may be very glad that we have the Roman rite in the form of Pius V’s missal.” Dr. Fortescue also wrote: “In nothing does the prudence of the Tridentine reformers so shine as in their treatment of the question of sequences.” For the record, the highest authority considers the MISSAL OF PIUS V to be “the Roman rite, as reformed by the Council of Trent.”
