Sunday, July 01, 2007

HELP! WHERE ARE THE COMMUNION ANTIPHONS?!

I am soooo confused.
I know it has something to do with the Pre-Vatican II Missal, and the current one...
Today, for the first time, at both Masses I sang the Communion antiphon from the Graduale Romanum with the Psalm verses, (compliments of CMAA?) it wasn't until after Mass that it occured to me to cross check it with the Sacramentary (the "Communion Antiphon" of which is also printed in my handy Today's Liturgy book, as well as any misallette you pick up, so I assume that's the one I'd want.
And I discovered that it's not even the same, for this particular Sunday, as well as many others!
The English translation of which I was hoping to find, would have been either from Psalm 102:1. "O, bless the Lord my soul..." or John 17: 20-21 "Father, I pray for them..." but the one given in my Gregorian Missal (and the Graduale Romanum?) was "Inclina aurem tuam..." Ps. 30:3. In an effort to find out if the Communion antiphons had just been scrambled, (because I can't translate the English in the Sacramentary into Latin to just look up what chant it should be, and I couldn't find a Sacramentary with English and Latin, and the only Latin one at the church was from 1961, and that just confirmed my suspicions that the Latin antiphons I was discovering were taken from pre-Vatican II,) I went through my Gregorian Missal's index in the back with the name of all the chants, and I cross-referenced where in the Bible they were each from (Ps. 30, etc.), so I could use that as a way to find if the antiphons I wanted were just listed under a different day. Even though some weeks have two English options for the antiphon, I still can't find some of them at all, and others of them are listed just under a different day.
SO WHAT AM I MISSING HERE?
I just want to do the right propers at the right time! I'm not planning the music for a Tridentine liturgy! (although in a few months or so I may...) The propers properly!
so where are all of the missing antiphons? (I looked at the introits also briefly, and this didn't seem to be a problem.) what am I supposed to use in 3 weeks for the 16th Sunday OT? I can't find either Psalm 110:4-5 "The Lord keeps in our minds the wonderful things he has done..." or Rev. 3:20 "I stand at the door and knock..."
ok, so I then thought I figured it out with this page: http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/propers1974.pdf
nope, it's the same as my Gregorian Missal...which, (my entire point is,) I would have thought was ok except that it still doesn't match any worship planning aid which I have before me...
can anyone please explain this?




but now, after that rant, here's my nice little story of the weekend.
so I just decided to give it a try, and just sing the Communion Antiphon with Psalm verses this morning, by myself. I know that people in the past have really liked it when I just sing one of the chants during the sprinkling rite, so I have a theory that they don't mind Latin if they just don't have to do it themselves. so I sang it, and several people told me after the first Mass that they really liked it, and then the same after the second one (but no one will tell me if they don't like it...they'll just tell the priest!) and I was talking to a lady who LOVED it, and she was telling me how yesterday she had gone to a one-day chant class thingy in Detroit and she had loved it, even though she never would have considered singing in the past. and I was like, "great! I'm gonna try and start a schola, especially if I keep getting the positive feedback that I've gotten today, cuz I don't want to be the only one singing...wanna join?" and she's like "sure! and my daughter would love to, also!" and then she went on to say how the guy who led the chant workshop was fabulous and would probably like come to our parish to do a workshop. I had actually heard about this workshop yesterday, and if I had heard about it earlier, I totally would have put it on the bulletin, and I'm sure more people would have gone, but that would be so awesome to get people to come at our church! and I would let the other good nearby parishes know, and then their people could come too! cuz I was getting kinda depressed earlier like thinking, "who on earth would be willing to take the time and learn all these chants to sing with me?" thats a big reason I'm feeling like I don't know what direction to go in...cuz I can't do this all myself! ok, I'm not making any sense anymore, I have so much I need to go do I need to get off the computer...argh, so much for Sunday relaxing...

6 comments:

Praying Twice said...

If you check an older copy of "Sacred Music" (I think it was about 3 or 4 issues ago), they speak about the difference between the GR's Communion Antiphons and those in the Lectionary.

The gist of it is that the GR's are actually the one's to be used when the rite is sung. When there is no singing, the Lectionary's is to be used. I don't have the article in front of me, but that's what I remember of it.

Mara Joy said...

thanks, that makes a lot of sense!
er, at least it helps to know that this is actually an issue that has to be dealt with.

http://www.musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/sm133-4.pdf

Jeffrey Tucker said...

Yes, it is enormously confusing. But the post above it right. If it is sung, turn to the Graduale.

Thanks for your work on this blog!

Stephen M. Collins said...

Hi Mara Joy.

The "Graudale Romanum" contains all of the "official" music of the Roman Rite - in Latin. The current edition, from which the current "Gregorian Missal" is derived, is new since Vatican II. The Propers were "re-ordered" to fit the new three-year cycle, AND some less-than-historic (wow, how subjective!) were eliminated.

If you are doing liturgical planning for Masses using the Missale Romanum 1962, then many things will be different. In my work, I play the organ for both Rites every Sunday, and I prepare the worship aid for the Traditional Latin Mass myself. I have a number of traditional pew Missals from that era, and my own 1962 altar Missal. For the Proper music, you will need either a "Graduale Romanum" from the era, or a "Liber usualis", the latter containing all of the GR plus all of the Office music.

I've also heard, but not seen the actual rubric, that Psal verses may be added to the Communion Antiphon when using the 1962 Missal. So the only question is which Communion for today!

Mara Joy said...

well, I'm not doing liturgical planning for the 1962 Mass...at least not yet, anyhow!

Bear said...

Another aspect of the problem was the translations and the work of ICEL. Part of the reason the new translation of the Mass is taking so long is because of the propers. The current propers, many of them, were simply made up by the translators, and bore little or no relation to the original Latin texts.