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One of the most beautiful experiences I had at the CMAA colloquium last summer was assisting at a Requiem Mass. It was so far removed from my prior experience of funeral Masses. Even though our parish had taken major steps to eliminate some of the innovations well-meaning family members tried to introduce into the funeral liturgy, and provided a limited selection of approved music, still it was far from a real Requiem.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I was called upon to fill in for the usual cantor at a funeral this week, and among the music I was to sing was the introit Requiem, and In Paradisum at the recessional. I vaguely remembered the introit from the colloquium, but had never learned In Paradisum. But neither that nor the bad cold I have could stop me from learning the pieces and showing up to sing them at the funeral.
One viewpoint on Gregorian Chant at funerals
There is a small group of dedicated ladies who make up the funeral choir, kind of the support force for the cantor. One of them told me that they had had a poor review on the previous funeral from a religious sister who worked at another area parish who attended that funeral. She just did not understand why St. Peter's was insisting on that old chant music. She thought it excluded participation of the people.
Now here was a teachable moment. I asked the choir member what she had said to the religious sister, and she had just replied, "Well it seems like the Pope is going more that way." Enough said!
Another viewpoint on Gregorian Chant at funerals (or any other Mass for that matter)
My edition of Zenit arrived and it contained the following. I don't think I need to say anymore!
Sacred Music Needs Governing, Says Director of Institute
States Deviations After Vatican II Have Been Rampant
ROME, NOV. 8, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Perhaps a pontifical office with authority over sacred music would correct the abuses that have occurred in this area, suggested a Vatican official.
Monsignor Valentín Miserachs Grau, director of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, said this at a conference last Saturday, marking the 80th anniversary of the diocesan institute of Sacred Music of Trent, L'Osservatore Romano reported.
The pontifical institute directed by the monsignor was originally established by the Holy See in 1911. It is an academic institution dedicated to teaching and also performing sacred music. But, Monsignor Miserachs said, "In my opinion, it would be opportune to establish an office with authority over the material of sacred music."
Need
Monsignor Miserachs contended that "in none of the areas touched on by Vatican II -- and practically all are included -- have there been greater deviations than in sacred music."
"How far we are from the true spirit of sacred music, that is, of true liturgical music," he lamented. "How can we stand it that such a wave of inconsistent, arrogant and ridiculous profanities have so easily gained a stamp of approval in our celebrations?"
It is a great error, Monsignor Miserachs said, to think that people "should find in the temple the same nonsense given to them outside," since "the liturgy, even in the music, should educate all people -- including youth and children."
"Much music written today, or put in circulation, nevertheless ignores not only the grammar, but even the basic ABC's of musical art," he continued. "Due to general ignorance, especially in certain sectors of the clergy," certain media act as loudspeakers for "products that, devoid of the indispensable characteristics of sacred music -- sanctity, true art, universality -- can never procure the authentic good of the Church."
A reform
The monsignor called for a "conversion" back to the norms of the Church. "And that 'norm' has Gregorian chant as its cardinal point, either the chant itself, or as an inspiration for good liturgical music." He noted that his recommendations are not related to Benedict XVI's document on the use of the 1962 Roman Missal.
"'Nova et vetera,'" he urged, "the treasure of tradition and of new things, but rooted in tradition."
Monsignor Miserachs suggested that contact with tradition should "not be limited to the academic realm, or concerts or records." Instead, "it should become again the living song of the assembly that finds in it that which calms their deepest spiritual tensions, and which makes them feel that they are truly the people of God."
I started downloading music from Rhapsody last Christmas, and now I've built a little library of favorites and ideas for various feasts throughout the year.
Here's what I have on my All Saint's Day list:
- Mass for Five Voices with Propers from the Feast of All Saints - The Sixteen
- Iste Confessor - The Sixteen
- Justorum Animae - William Byrd
- Justorum Animae - Orlande de Lassus
And here's the All Soul's Day list:
- Burial Sentences, "I am the resurrection and the life" - Elora St. John's Choir
- Introit Requiem Aeternum, Kyrie Eleison - American Boys choir
- Requiem Aeternum, Introito, Mode VI - Silos
- Sequence Dies Irae Dies Illa - (various versions)
- Lux Aeterna - Ambrose Karels, Silos
- Graduale and Introitus Requiem Aeternum - Gabrieli Consort
- Palestrina Missa Pro Defunctis - Chanticleer, The Sixteen and Harry Christophers
- Tractus Absolve Domine - Gabrieli Consort, William Lyons
- De profundis clamavi - Josquin des Pres
- O Domine Jesu Christe - Chapelle du Roi
- Offertory Domine Jesu Christe - Pierre de la Rue, Gabrieli Consort
- Antienne Amen Amen Dico Vobis - Benedictine onks of Notre-Dame de Triors
- Ludwig Daser, Dominus Regit Me - Capella Antiqua
- Illumina facem tuam - Dom Carlo Gesualdo
- Communion Qui manducat carnem meam - Monks of the Abby of Saint-Wadrille
I don't know why I wound up with so much more for All Soul's Day... I guess I really liked the idea of someday singing a full requiem Mass on this day, but it's not happening this year! I have, however, taught myself the Dies Irae. It's not hard. The St. Cecilia Schola very graciously provides the music here: Dies Irae. I like to sing it as a prayer with the intention of the Poor Souls who have no one to pray for them.
I just wanted to write a quick entry to note that the sacred music workshop, featuring training in reading and singing Gregorian chant and singing both chant and polyphony for Mass, was a success. Around 25 full attendees, plus a few who could only come for part of the time, received expert instruction from Fr. Robert Skeris in unison and legato singing, reading "square notes" (the neumes of Gregorian chant), and receiving tips for introducing (or re-introducting) Gregorian chant in the average parish.
Each participant received a copy of Gregorian Chant Master Class by Theodore Marier, which was a gift that will keep on giving... it includes a CD that demonstrates the examples given in the book for reading the different types of neumes and markings in chant, which makes it easy for one to continue to study reading and singing chant in the comfort of their own home. Once we walked through some examples of marking the rhythm of the chant in the pieces we were singing for Mass, identifying groups of two and three pulses (as all chant is made up of), the mysterious square notes started to make more sense. Though some of us may not have sung "do re mi" since gradeschool, we found it came in handy in reading chant, as the notes marked in chant are relative to a movable "do" or "fa" (the two clefs used in chant)... in other words there is no set starting note for a piece of Gregorian chant. The choir/schola director or cantor chooses a pitch in a comfortable range and the rest of the piece is based on that.
Time flew by... we only had time to learn one polyphonic motet, but it was a classic: Palestrina's Sicut Cervus. What a beautiful Communion piece!
I will have pics and videos to post in the (hopefully) near future... so more later!
