The Offertory chant is probably the most neglected proper in the ordinary form of the Mass. The overwhelming habit here is to just sing some random hymn or listen to some piece that the pianist or small choir has worked up. Most Catholics are shocked to learn that there is a specific chant and text assigned to his procession as part of the liturgical structure of the Roman Rite.
The offertory text for the 9th Sunday in Ordinary time is Sperent in te. Here are some options.
The Anglican Use Gradual which is also in print:
The Simple Choral Gradual by Richard Rice:
The Palmer-Burgess Gradual which is also in print.
And finally the normative option, the Gregorian from the Roman Gradual or Gregorian Missal, and an MP3 of the same.
Why is there no antiphon for this chant printed in the altar missal? That has always puzzled me. It wouldn’t take up much room.
Yes, I think this is strange too, and it is a major contributing factor as to why people think this is the "intermission" rather than anything liturgical. The rationale here for keeping it out of the Missal is ostensibly that the antiphon belongs solely to the choir and thereby appears in the Graduale not the Missale. The Missal is supposed to just cover the celebrant parts – though I note that this principle is not consistently applied.
Mr. Tucker, How right you are about the offertory chant. It seems as if it has been ages since I last heard it sung in Latin or the vernacular.
Houses of religious communities such as the Dominicans , Benedectines,or Anglo Catholic parishes seem to be about the only places left where one comes across a chanted offertory.
Jeffery,
We have re-instituted the chanting of the Offertory Antiphon each week in my parish (I'm the pastor) using the Gregorian Missal published by Solesmes in 1990. My question is this: I often see the Offertory antiphon in various musical settings with verses from the psalms. Where do these verses come from and more importantly, where can I find them? Thanks for any help.
An embarrassment of riches. Such beauty – how fortunate we are!
Father Kowalski,
I don't know if this is still helpful, but the 1958 instruction De Musica Sacra states, "But if the Offertory antiphon is taken from a psalm, it is then permitted to sing additional verses of this same psalm." (27b)
http://www.adoremus.org/1958Intro-sac-mus.html
Just a technical distinction: the offertory is often called an antiphon, but it is, in fact a responsory. Antiphons alternate with psalm tones (as the introit and communion, but responsories have melismatic verses (as the graduals and alleluias and there verses given here), often with the repeat of the last part of the respond after the verse, as for the offertories. It is thought that in the earliest usage, the offertories may have been sung with psalm-tone verses, but I think that is just a surmise; what we have in musical notation is the melismatic verses. The confusion is undoubtedly due to the fact that the verses fell out of use in the 12th or 13th centuries, and since then only the "responsory" itself was given, without any verses, so it was not clear any more which it was. Now with melismatic verses again available for use, it can be recognized as responsorial.