Author: Kathleen Pluth

Really, why not?

Seriously, is there any norm or legislation, regularly enforced, that would keep us from following the musical direction of this Episcopal service?

Is there anything, really, that would keep us from singing The Times They Are A-Changin’ as the Communion hymn next Sunday? Are there any guidelines in place that absolutely forbid the singing of Knock Knock Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door to accompany the Entrance Procession?

Is there anything about these words or music that has been carefully defined as inappropriate?

Perhaps an enterprising liturgical music corporation could take up this idea and publish a series of octavo editions: The Johnny Cash Mass, The U2 Mass, The Bruce Springsteen Mass.

Why not?

Once I attended a Spanish Mass on the Vigil of Pentecost, and the Entrance Hymn was Morning Has Broken. In English. Is that ok? And if not, why not? Where is it written, where is the common understanding that makes it clear that certain things are not only inappropriate but ridiculous?

Those of us who survived the 70s and 80s realize that there has been a general elevation of sensibilities. Yet the standard remains abysmally low. How can it be that two generations have sung, at Mass, “Not in the dark of buildings confining/ not in some heaven light years away/ but here in this place, a new light is shining;/ now is the kingdom; now is the day.” How is it that the latest generation of Roman Catholic Hymnals contain the clearly egregious hymn Sing a New Church into Being?

In a perfect world, of course, none of this would have to be asked in this way. Instead of asking where the bright line is between inappropriate and appropriate, we would be asking how to make the good better and better. But frankly as a Church we are not ready for these higher-order questions.

It would be nice just to see a bright line.

Just wanted to make one final mention of the Hymn Tune Introits available for parish use in this handy Advent Calendar format.

Introducing proper texts into parish life can be a bit of a diplomatic challenge. Congregations that are long accustomed to singing hymns would have to overcome four separate barriers, if liturgical music was suddenly changed to the optimal music, the propers of the Graduale Romanum:

• Unfamiliar tunes
• Modal music
• Latin language
• Proper texts

The Hymn Tune Introits are of way of managing the change to proper texts in the safest possible, most incremental way, by making only one of these four changes necessary at the beginning. Congregations sing tunes they know, in modern music with modern notation, in English. But, they are able to use the vocabulary and sense of the proper texts.

The Advent Calendar is a way to dress up the Advent season easily. Copies may be freely made for parish use and left at a convenient place in the church. At the beginning of daily Mass, when the Entrance Antiphon is normally sung, the priest or music director or designated layperson simply begins singing the antiphon to any familiar hymn tune that would match the words. The tune for All People That on Earth Do Dwell would work, for example, or Creator of the Stars of Night. Everyone can join in, and behold, the first barrier to singing propers has been painlessly overcome. Now the people have in their hands and in their voices the words of the Liturgy that are usually kept from them.

This month’s Adoremus Bulletin has a very fine treatment of the Introits and an alternative design for the Advent Calendar. Either version may be freely used in parishes or schools.

Here is a link to the Funeral Mass of Domenico Cardinal Bartolucci. May he rest in peace.

Every year on a Friday morning in late spring, St. Dominic’s church in southwest Washington DC is packed to overflowing as Dominicans, their relatives and friends come to witness the ordination of the newest Dominican Fathers of the Eastern Province in the large acoustic space.

Over the last two years, the Schola of Dominican friars have been travelling from the province’s formation house of studies (pictured) at the opposite end of town to St. Dominic’s to make a record, In Medio Ecclesiae.

Having attended Masses and Vespers sung by the friars for over a decade, I’m a big fan of the unified sound they achieve with the apparent effortlessness of those who sing together all day, every day. Choir directors know how hard this unity is to orchestrate, but the schola, conducted by Fr. James Moore, OP, of the Western Province, sings as one, with a sense of strong forward motion. The sound is manly and joyful.

The majority of the pieces are motets; one, an original composition by one of the friars in formation, is a highlight of the entire album, Thine Are the Heavens, by Br. Vincent Ferrer Bagan, OP. Other pieces include chanted Latin antiphons to Sts. Dominic and Thomas Aquinas, and there are several hymns, sensitively arranged and sung.

Proceeds of the album, available now for download and soon to be printed as CDs, will support the ever-growing student brother population as they prepare to become Dominican priests and consecrated brothers in service of the Church.

This wonderfully insightful video explains why young people are often drawn to richer forms of liturgical expression.

An old Slovakian carol invites us to “See how the Virgin waits for Him.” During Advent it can be very refreshing to focus on the person of the Blessed Mother, with perhaps a Marian prelude or Communion meditation each week.

The hymn “Mary the Dawn” might be particularly appropriate.

Or here is something that may be new to many–but can be found in the St. Gregory Hymnal.