WOULD LIKE to share with you this beautiful Marian piece from the plainsong repertoire.1 Omer Westendorf and others refer to this text as: “the ancient hymn of the Carmelites.” The musical setting is not nearly as old as most plainsong, so purists denigrate it. But if you explore all the editions given below, you will see my singers are hardly alone when it comes to their love for this piece. Although it’s suitable throughout the liturgical year, it’s one of my favorites for Lent because during this hymn we call upon the Blessed Mother under the title ‘Mother of Mercy’. Lent is infused with not only supplications for divine mercy and protection, but also with a glorious hope for salvation. This juxtaposition of fear, prayer and hope is perfectly encapsulated in the Introit for the 1st Sunday of Lent: “He shall cry to me and I will hear him; I will deliver him and will glorify him;l I will fill him with length of days. (Ps 90:15, 16) Vs. He that dwelleth in the help of the Highest shall abide in the protection of the God of Heaven. (Ps. 90:1)”
Cherishing Chant • We have had considerable success using the following edition of “Salve Mater Misericordiae,” which I prepare prepared for my voluneer choir (Schola Cantorum Gloriae Dei). I cordially invite you to try it, and I hope you’ll notify me if your singers cherish it as deeply as do mine!
* PDF Download • MUSICAL SCORE (+ English Translaion)
—Courtesy of Schola Cantorum Gloriae Dei (Las Vegas).
A cappella • Readers might enjoy reviewing the following a cappella settings, since they remind us that each monastery had its own particular ‘style’ of singing—something which is only natural and to be expected:
* PDF • 1920 Roman Catholic Hymnal (Fr. Hacker)
* PDF • “Manuel des Precessions et Benedictions” (Five Lines)
* PDF • Abbaye Saint Wandrille (1932)
Organ Accompaniments • One can also enrich one’s understanding of plainchant by examining organ accompaniments my famous musicians, although some don’t strike me as very ‘high’ art:
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (“Our Parish Sings And Prays”)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Fr. Percy Jones)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Laudate Hymnal)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Fr. Rossini)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Saint Cecilia Hymnal)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Pius X Hymnal)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Achille P. Bragers)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Omer Westendorf)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Dom Desrocquettes)
* PDF • ACCOMPANIMENT (Father Knauff)
If you can’t get enough of Sálve Máter Misericórdiæ, scroll down to the bottom of this article (the footnote) and download CANTUS MARIALES, in a gorgeous scan of all 192 pages. That book contains the ‘original’ version of Sálve Máter Misericórdiæ. By the way, the version (above) from the Pius X Hymnal has an English translation by Father Clement James McNaspy (d. 1995) which ‘fits’ the meter. Father McNaspy—a Jesuit fluent in something like 10 languages—was a practicing harpsichordist who hosted radio programs featuring Bach cantatas and wrote a column for the New Orleans archdiocesan newspaper called Hemidemisemiquavers (meaning “Short Notes”).
What It Takes to Be a Leader:
Choosing repertoire naturally leads to the subject of leadership. Being a leader is challenging. If you run a parish choir, you already know this. There are entire books written about leadership and how to be an effective leader. As I sat in on my kids’ martial arts class this week and listened to their lesson on leadership and what it means to be a leader, I heard it as though it was being personally addressed to me. I’ve been going through a downturn in my choir lately, having lost a lot of singers due to various life circumstances.2 The most salient points were these, which I will follow with a practical observation about the choral life:
As a leader, you carry
a difficult burden.
If I may simplify things somewhat, there are two facets to being a choir director:
- The administrative side; and
- The performance side
In regards to administration, you alone can choose the direction of your choir. You must decide: what repertoire you want your choir to sing, how you spend your rehearsal time, what your policies are for attendance, what to do with problem people, and so on. If you make the wrong decisions it can be disastrous for the integrity of the choir. Overestimate your choir’s abilities, and you could have a train wreck at Mass. Many people think they know better how things should be done and have an opinion about it—but very few people have the guts to actually do what you do.
In regards to the performance side, the burden of directing the music for the liturgy can be heavy at times. There are a hundred things that can go wrong with live music during the liturgy, and more so when you have a visiting priest, a change in location (as we sometimes have), or special Masses. Perhaps, as happened to me this past Sunday, the celebrant accidentally leaves their microphone on after the homily and then coughs loudly during the Credo, startling a row of young ladies in the choir so badly that they spasm and stop singing entirely. And, perhaps the look on their faces just hits your funny bone in the exact right spot and you start laughing uncontrollably! I laughed so hard I cried; I couldn’t sing the rest of the Credo, and spent the rest of the Mass having to clear my throat constantly. Thinking about the look on their faces is still making me chuckle as I write this. That is a humorous example, but there are a myriad of other issues that can arise which are not funny at all and can be extremely stressful. Case in point, one Sunday we had so many people out sick that we were down to a very small number of singers who were not strong enough to sing the full complex chant propers alone. Literally 5 minutes before Mass I had to scramble to download simplified propers so we could get through it. Leading the music at Mass is always an adventure. You never really know what will happen until it happens!
A leader is alone, but
need not feel lonely.
A leader can rely on trusted members of his group to support him and to advise him or her on how to handle certain situations and challenges. This is not to say you should be best buds with the people you lead, but you can certainly have a cooperative and warm relationship. Talking things over and hearing their advice can make you feel as though you really are not alone in your struggles. A leader is, nonetheless, responsible for the final decision. This brings me to the next point.
Mistakes are yours alone.
Mistakes are not the team’s fault, they are the leader’s fault—no matter how much he has been persuaded by other people to make certain decisions. At the end of the day, the consequences for whatever decisions you make on both the administrative and performative sides lie squarely on your shoulders alone. That is what it means to be alone. Think about how many decisions you have to make for your choir each and every single day. Every decision you take carries the possibility of a mistake. This is a burden. However, this thought comes from a martial arts lesson and we have something that the average martial arts practitioner does not have—God. If you take your decisions to prayer, you can rely on the Holy Ghost to inspire you and guide you along the way. It would be sheer folly to attempt to make these kinds of decisions without asking for God’s assistance. In the final account, God will see the sacrifices you are making for His glory. Undertake nothing without Him.
Conclusion • May God have mercy on us as we dare to undertake the work of glorifying him despite our insufficiency and human weaknesses. And may Mary, the Mother of Mercy, pray for us to have the strength, wisdom and understanding to lead our choirs in a way that will please the Lord.
1 Technically, this would be classified as “neo-Gregorian” because its tune was composed by Dom Joseph Pothier of Solesmes Abbey. There are many compositions by Dom Pothier in his famous CANTUS MARIALES (192 pages), and notice the letter (dated 14 February 1904) from Pope Saint Pius X—printed in Latin and French—in which the pope refers to Dom Pothier as “a man versed above all others in the science of liturgy, and to whom the cause of Gregorian chant is greatly indebted.” Nonetheless, Dom Pothier was hardly alone in creating “neo-Gregorian” chants. For instance, the librarian of Solesmes Abbey wrote as follows:
“Dom Fonteinne, Dom Gueranger’s precentor, showed considerable musical talent, for he left some beautiful Gregorian compositions that continue to be sung. These have been included in the monastic Liber Antiphonarius and even in the Vatican Graduale Romanum, such as his Stabat mater.”
Dom Joseph Pothier was born on the vigil of the feast of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION and died on the feast itself. This seems especially fitting, since his most popular composition is the Introit (“Gaudens Gaudebo”) sung on the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION in both the Extraordinary Form and the Sunday in Ordinary Time.
2 Singer retention is yet another topic. I don’t know what your experience is, but in my choir it seems like we are starting over from scratch about every 2 years. Perhaps it has something to do with having been evicted from our parish into a Shrine.
