Society of Saint Gregory

For Sea Sunday we have: 1) Eternal Father strong to save (a tradition which predates me. I did drop it one year and got thoroughly castigated,very painful...) 2) Like a mighty river flowing 3) Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin 4) Ave Maria, O Maiden, O Mother ( Our Lady is the patron o...

As I understood the catholic music books official position, you were required to use the words of the graduale, antiphonale, etc., but not the music. Hence composers like William Byrd were not showing any disrespect for the rules when they created their own "gradualia."

Two quick observations here: 1) Abuse was rife before reform started in a big way in 1965, the most common form being to belt through mass in a stream of muttering without waiting for the responses, which were made concurrently at the same speed. I have known Sunday mass, with homily, over in 25 min...

I actually went to a tridentine mass on Sunday, so I will report my feelings. I could have gone to my local parish where I usually go, but I just couldn't face the couple of elderly ladies singing "Praise and Worship" songs way out of time and tune which was on offer. A local Benedictine h...

I agree that there is a shortage of "bread and wine" hymns. One I use occasionally is "We celebrate this festive day" (CFE 773). It doesn't have the best tune, but taken moderately briskly with a slight staccato and the choir taught to give each syllable a distinct attack and cle...

Why do you feel you need four hymns when GIRM and CTM suggest three? Which three? I haven't got GIRM handy, but I thought the only place a hymn was actually allowed is a thanksgiving after communion. Our old PP forbade any attempt to move to the new GIRM, and the new man has not broached the subjec...

Claire - stick with it. You have made the right decision. I decided to learn to pedal in my teens, got frustrated, left it thirty years and finally got down to it seriously seven years ago. It is hard at times, especially as the pedals seem more of a hindrance than a help for quite a while, but they...

Thank you all. I did play the likely suspects to the choir after mass yesterday, and they plumped for "Melcombe", all recognising the third line, the pp included. I would never have guessed it from their various renderings of the first line though. One day I hope to get them to the plainso...

Thank you both for your kind thoughts. I have discussed it with the pp but he does not know the name of the tune he half remembers. The choir similarly only half remember the tune. In fact, if there is more than one chorister present, a little way in they start arguing about how it goes. The problem...

Our new pp wants to resurrect O Salutaris for benediction. I thought that this was no problem, and set about teaching the choir the gregorian melody for it. "We don't know that tune," they moaned. "What tune do you know?" I asked. They then sung me a polyphonic medley of microton...

Some useful definitions here: conservative/reactionary/stick-in-the-mud - someone who wants less change than me. moderate/reasonable/catholic - someone who wants the same as me. radical/progressive/vandal - someone who wants more change than me. Now that the terms are workably defined, let us contin...

I couldn't support translating "Dominus vobiscum" as "The Lord is here." I agree with what Contrabourdon wrote about the subjunctive. I support "May the Lord be with you." Back on the subject of "Verbum Domini," if there is to be no verb in the translation as ...

Hear! Hear!

There are a few places in the mass where there are phrases with no verb where you would expect a sentence with a verb. "Dominus vobiscum" is an obvious one, and translators have always put in "be". The "Corpus Christi" has already been pointed out, and there is even &qu...

I am generally in favour of chant in moderate quantities. I find attempts to set English words to Gregorian chant sound silly if the chant is too florid, but simpler styles can work well. The simple styles of psalm chant typified by Gregory Murray are useful, and many (but not all) Taize chants.