The reformation of music in the Mass will echo that of the liturgical texts they proclaim – to preserve and recover the riches of the Church. The tradition of unaccompanied singing in the Roman Rite will also be reclaimed. Anthony Barich reports.
MUSIC for the newly translated Roman Missal to hit Australian parishes next Easter, including the use of traditional chant, will correct Australian habits developed since Vatican II that the Council did not call for and enrich the faithful, liturgists were told at a conference in Perth earlier this month.
Most of the texts recited or sung by the priest celebrant will change, and new musical settings will be provided in the Sacramentary (Missal) based on traditional chant formulae.
“In this way, what may seem new will have a sense of continuity with the past”, said the Archdiocese of Adelaide’s liturgy co-ordinator Jenny O’Brien, addressing a workshop at the 4-7 February Australian Bishops’ Liturgy Commission national conference. Using a presentation based on a draft paper prepared by International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) Music Committee member Geoffrey Cox and a workshop on Music in the Liturgy given in July 2009 by Mrs O’Brien, she told the 4-7 February conference that the use of singing will also assist the new texts to become assimilated more easily.
She added that while pastoral judgement of songs must take into consideration the age, culture, language and education of the assembly, “so must the ability of all people to learn something new and to understand things that are properly and thoroughly introduced”. There is also no direct call in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) or any of the Church’s official liturgical documents, for a recessional song, “even though this is customary in Australia”, Mrs O’Brien said.
“Since the assembly is dismissed to go forth and proclaim to the world what they have just celebrated, if a hymn is used here it is appropriate that it either have the sense of sending the people out to discipleship or reinforce the liturgical season or theme of the day’s readings,” she added.
Other extrapolations on music and the liturgy itself include the very use of the vernacular. Archbishop Mark Coleridge, chair of the Australian Bishops’ Liturgy Commission and of ICEL’s Roman Missal Editorial Committee, said at the conference that Vatican II never explicitly mandated the entire Mass be in the vernacular, “yet that’s what we got”.
Mrs O’Brien added that Church documents since Vatican II have recommended that at least some parts of the Mass, such as the Pater noster (Our Father) and the Credo (Nicene Creed) be retained in Latin even where the liturgy is otherwise celebrated in the vernacular. The continuing use of Latin, such as in the Kyrie – which, along with the Our Father and the Lamb of God, is the only text in the newly translated Missal to remain untouched – will also assist in areas where there are people of diverse cultures and language groups.
She said that the continuing use of some Latin texts in a predominantly English-language liturgy should not be considered “unusual” or “retrogressive”.
Whenever a liturgical text is sung, it should be the exact text or as close as possible to it. Paraphrases are generally not acceptable, she said. For example, the GIRM insists that the text of the Gloria must not be replaced by any other text. The same principle, Mrs O’Brien said, applies to all the liturgical texts.
The highest priority for singing at Mass should be given to dialogues between celebrant and people; the Gospel Acclamation and acclamations during the Eucharistic Prayer including the Holy holy, Acclamation of faith and the Great Amen; the Responsorial Psalm and the processional chants/hymns. The Kyrie, Gloria and Agnus Dei may also be sung, along with the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. The GIRM says that the Creed is to be sung or said by the priest with the people on Sundays and Solemnities. The new Sacramentary provides the option to use either the Nicene Creed or the Apostles Creed, which is an abbreviated version.
Mrs O’Brien also stressed that singing all parts of the Mass setting alone and singing four or five hymns at the Mass without any other music does not reflect the proper structure of the Mass.