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It is often said that history is written by the victors. Our previous post detailing the minutes of the meetings of the Commission for the General Reform of the Liturgy discussing what to be done with 1 May leaves no room for what the attenders felt about what they were discussing. One must note that the authors and personalities quoted were sympathetic to the liturgical reform. Father Carlo Braga is a known collaborator of Archbishop Annibale Bugnini. Cardinal Ferdinando Giuseppe Antonelli, O. F. M., on the other hand, whose point of view Father Nicola Giampietro, O. F. M. Cap. explored in his book, was relator general of the Sacred Congregation of Rites at the time of the meetings on Saint Joseph, later secretary to the committee entrusted with the implementation of the reforms of Sacrosanctum Concilium. Contemporary authors obviating bias oftentimes come across sounding like an accommodating triage nurse summoning the next patient through the hospital intercom. For that, we may remain in the dark about what many of them actually felt before, during, and after the changes.
If the feast was established in 1955, and the new propers were released in 1956, why then does the 1957 liturgical book for the choir not contain the melodies? The simple answer would be this: The Sacred Congregation of Rites did not like the new feast. The Pope himself needed to intervene in order to force the Congregation to publish the Office and Mass of the new feast in 1956. It would take four more years for the Congregation to finally set the new propers to chant. The diary of Cardinal Antonelli simply presents the facts chronologically, meticulously cataloguing each and every item tackled and treated, every problem discussed and resolved, every solution proposed and approved, every reflection contemplated and considered, even presenting everyone as cooperating to achieve the goal of the task placed in their charge, enough for us to somehow conclude that nothing but the sheer bulk of the work caused the delay. From the clinical emotion-agnostic realm of meeting minutes, let us shift to that more sensational and thought-provoking province of popular reaction. We will let Fr. Jean Crété’s testimony [1] speak for itself for précising his account might reduce its power:
Fr. [Didier] Bonneterre recognises that this decree signaled the beginning of the subversion of the liturgy, and yet seeks to excuse Pius XII on the grounds that most people, except those who were party to the subversion, are thought of today as having been ignorant as to what was going on. I can, on the contrary, give a categorical testimony on this point. I realized very well that Pius XII’s decrees were just the beginning of a total subversion of the liturgy, and I was not the only one. All the true liturgists, all the priests who were attached to tradition, were dismayed. The Sacred Congregation of Rites was not favorable toward the proposed innovations, which were the special work of a modernising commission. When, five weeks later, Pius XII announced the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, which caused the ancient feast of SS. Philip and James to be transferred, and which replaced the Solemnity of S. Joseph, Patron of the Church, there was open opposition to it. For more than a year the Sacred Congregation of Rites refused to compose the Office and Mass for the new feast. Many interventions of agents purporting to represent the pope were necessary before the Congregation of Rites agreed, against their will, to publish the Office in 1956—an Office so badly composed that one might suspect it had been deliberately sabotaged. And it was only in 1960 that the melodies of the Mass and office were composed—melodies based on models of the worst taste. I relate this little-known episode to give an idea of the violence of the reaction to the first liturgical reforms of Pius XII.
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L’abbé Bonneterre reconnaît que ce décret marque le début de la subversion de la liturgie, mais cherche à excuser Pie XII en disant qu’à l’époque personne, en dehors des hommes du parti de la subversion, ne pouvait s’en rendre compte. Je puis au contraire lui apporter sur ce point un témoignage catégorique. Je me rendais très bien compte que ce décret n’était que le début d’une subversion totale de la liturgie ; et je n’étais pas le seul. Tous les vrais liturgistes, tous les prêtres attachés à la tradition étaient consternés. La congrégation des rites n’était pas du tout favorable à ce décret, œuvre d’une commission spéciale. Lorsque, cinq semaines plus tard, Pie XII annonça l’introduction de la fête de saint Joseph artisan, l’opposition se manifesta ouvertement : pendant plus d’un an, la congrégation des rites refusa de composer l’office et la messe de la nouvelle fête. Il fallut plusieurs interventions du Pape pour que la congrégation des rites se résigne, de mauvaise grâce, à publier à la fin de 1956 un office si mal composé qu’on peut se demander s’il n’a pas été saboté volontairement. Et c’est seulement en 1960 que furent composées les mélodies (qui sont des modèles de mauvais goût) de l’office et de la messe. Nous racontons cet épisode peu connu pour donner une idée de la violence des réactions suscitées par les premières réformes liturgiques de Pie XII.
Hopefully, at this point, the reason is now clear.
Left to right, up: (1) Start of the entry of the feasts of May in the 1957 Liber usualis, two years after the feast was established, and one year after the new propers were approved, showing omission of the new feast of Saint Joseph the Worker; (2) entry for 1 May in the 2015 Ordo Divini Officii published by the PCED, indicating that for the Mass of Saint Joseph the Work, the Mass Adiutor of the suppressed Solemnity of Saint Joseph may be used; (3) photocopy of the appendix to the 1964 Liber usualis containing the propers of Saint Joseph the Worker set to chant, with imprimatur dated 1 April 1961.
There appears to have been a blueprint materialising in the innovative minds of the reformers of that time, and to its consequences we are now heirs. If we leave out the feminist undertone, appropriating Mrs. Lintott’s take on the meaning of history for ourselves becomes too irresistible: “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men” [2]. In our case, it’s “men of the cloth”. Nothing is perhaps more damning to a once-in-vogue worldview than when the judgment of history reaffirms the wisdom of tradition: From the highest of the three liturgical ranks (first class) in the 1962 Missal, the new feast descended to the lowest of four (optional memorial) in the 1970 Missal. Let us ask Saint Joseph in these trying times, to guide all of us who look upon him as our champion and the protector of Holy Mother Church, that we may offer our travails, our labours, our sorrows, for the preservation of the Holy Catholic Faith.
Ut in omnibus laudetur Dominus.
[1] Jean Crété, Le mouvement liturgique: Itinéraire (January 1981) p. 133. [2] Mrs Dorothy Lintott (Frances de la Tour) in The history boys, dir. Nicholas Hytner (Fox Searchlight Pictures: 2006).
Earlier this year, the site containing links to the sheets music edited and revised by Mons. Abel Di Marco expired. Having salvaged most of the partitures, we have recatalogued them here so that church musicians working to promote Catholic sacred music can continue accessing this treasure.
Copyright remains with Mons. Di Marco. We have assumed this task purely for pastoral purposes, and we neither foresee nor expect any form of monetary compensation for or profit from it. You can access them in our Resources > Chant Resources page (directly here).
May God bless and continue to bless the labours of church musicians throughout the world!
Pius XII officially instituted the Commission for the General Reform of the Liturgy on 28 May 1948 [1]. The Commission held its inaugural meeting on 22 June that year in the presence of Cardinal Micara. What to do with 1 May this Commission discussed many times. What eventually ended as the feast day of Saint Joseph the Worker was initially earmarked for the feast of the Queenship of Mary. And so, examining the minutes of the meetings of the Commission, we have to begin with the feast of the Queenship of Mary.
Everything that has anything to do with 1 May apparently began in the Commission’s 30th meeting on 27 November 1953, the last meeting under Cardinal Micara. At this meeting, Father Antonelli informed the Commission that the Secretariat of State forwarded two letters sent by two bishops requesting the Holy Father to establish a feast to honour Mary as Queen of the world, adding conspicuously that the Holy Father was not disposed to such a request [2]. Mons. Carinci observed that the two letters would be added to a pile of some two hundred letters bearing the same petition. In their following meeting on 12 January 1954, the first meeting under Cardinal Cicognani, Father Antonelli communicated to the Commission that other petitions concerning the institution of a feast to honour Mary as Queen of the world had arrived [3].
In its 32nd meeting on 22 January 1954, the Commission debated on the title of the feast honouring the Blessed Virgin as Queen. Father Löwe proposed Regina mundi, quoting Leo XIII and Pius XII [4]; Mons. Dante favoured a specific title, forwarding Regina coeli et terrae [5]; Dom Albareda insisted that the title should be related to the feast’s theological foundation [6]. Father Bea agreed with Dom Albareda, and everyone agreed that the title should be left unspecific as Festum B. M. V. Reginae[7], and that the feast should be assigned to 1 May [8].
In its 33rd meeting on 5 February 1954, Father Bea thought that the selection of 1 May for the Queenship of Mary should be explicitly made known as having been done in deference to the popular piety which had consecrated May to the Blessed Virgin [9]. The definitive text of the report to be presented to the Holy Father regarding this feast would be examined in the Commission’s 34th meeting on 19 February 1954 [10]. With the report approved by the members and subsequently submitted to the Holy Father, the Commission undertook as their agendum the revision of the liturgical calendar in their next meetings.
In its 38th meeting on 9 April 1954, with the report from the Secretariat of State, sent by Mons. Montini, Pro-Secretary for Ordinary Affairs, informing the Commission that the Holy Father was pleased with the report presented by the Sacred Congregation of Rites regarding the feast of the Queenship of Mary, and had approved its institution [11], the Commission, after tackling the feast of Saint Gabriel the Archangel [12], proceeded to fix the Queenship of Mary on 1 May [13], transferring the feast of Saint Philip and Saint James to 4 May [14].
After this meeting, the Commission continued to deliberate on the reforms concerning the calendar and concerning the ceremonies of Palm Sunday [15]. Only after these did it tackle once again the feast of the Queenship of Mary, in its 45th meeting on 19 October 1954, eight days after Pius XII issued the encyclical Ad coeli Reginam [16] , establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary on 31 May. At this meeting, Mons. Dante informed the Commission that the Pope wanted to assign the new feast to 31 May in order to keep 1 May free for an eventual feast of Cristo operaio [17], Christ the workman, it seems (yes, Christ, not Saint Joseph). However, Mons. Dante observed that, owing to the thirty-five possible dates of Easter, there would be nineteen occasions when the Queenship of Mary would be impeded on 31 May; whereas, on 1 May, only four such occasions it would be impeded [18].
In its 46th meeting on 22 October 1954, Cardinal Cicognani read a letter from the Pro-Secretary Mons. Montini communicating to the Commission the Holy Father’s desire to fix the date of the Queenship of Mary to 22 August, transferring the Immaculate Heart of Mary to 31 May [19]. This, however, did not materialise, and the two feasts retained their dates (to be switched later by Paul VI), with the propers of the Queenship of Mary promulgated by decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, dated 31 May 1955 [20].
In the meantime, the Holy Father articulated his determination to assign the feast of Saint Joseph the Woker to 1 May on 1 May 1955, towards the end of his speech to members of the Associazioni Cristiane Lavoratori Italiani (ACLI) [21]. He called it the feast of San Giuseppe Artigiano (the same terminology used by the Commission, first Latinised as Sanctus Ioseph Operarius, later changed to Sanctus Ioseph Opifex a year after). That the Pope’s determination stemmed from a desire to Christianise a communist observance doubtless obtains clarity in his own words [22]:
[…] accepted by Christian workers, and as though receiving the Christian chrism, 1 May, far from being a reawakening of discord, hatred and violence, it is and will be a recurring invitation to modern society to fulfill what is still lacking from social peace.
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[…] accolto dai lavoratori cristiani, e quasi ricevendo il crisma cristiano, il 1° maggio, ben lungi dall’essere risveglio di discordie, di odio e di violenza, è e sarà un ricorrente invito alla moderna società per compiere ciò che ancora manca alla pace sociale.
In the Commission’s subsequent 51st meeting on 24 June 1955, the last meeting for the period 1954–1955, Father Antonelli informed the Commission that amongst their calendared agenda for the next period would be the examination of the Office and Mass of Saint Joseph the Worker [23]. This began in their next meeting on 7 October 1955, scrutinising the schema prepared by Father Löw with the help of Father Antonelli, which had been distributed to the members beforehand [24].
In the 59th meeting on 17 January 1956, the Commission continued the examination of the Office and Mass of Saint Joseph the Worker, fixing parts and modifying others, admitting new compositions, assigning new pericopes [25]. Refining the work further, in the 62nd meeting on 6 April 1956, the Commission reviewed the Office and Mass of Saint Joseph the Worker in order to root out those parts that emphasised manual labour, changing pericopes, substituting responsories, and recomposing the lessons of the second nocturn according to the speech of the Holy Father to the ACLI the previous year [26].
Eight days later, on 14 April 1956, the Sacred Congregation of Rites finally announced by decree the institution of the new feast, prescribing for it the highest liturgical rank, perpetually transferring the feast of Saint Philip and Saint James to 11 May, and abolishing the Solemnity of Saint Joseph (what was for a long time known in the Philippines as the Patronazgo del Glorioso Señor San José), reappointing the epithet Patron of the Universal Church to the new feast [27]. In his speech that year to the ACLI, after the first celebration of the new feast in the Vatican, Pius XII announced [28]:
With the effusion of a Father and with the authority of a Supreme Shepherd, We not only welcomed your just desire, but, as a gift withdrawn from the heavenly treasures, We also instituted the liturgical feast of your patron, Saint Joseph, the virginal husband of Mary, the humble, the silent, the just labourer of Nazareth, so that in the future, your special Protector before God, your safeguard in life, may become your guardian and defender in the travails and trials of labour.
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Con effusione di Padre e con l’autorità di supremo Pastore non solo accogliemmo il vostro giusto desiderio, ma, come dono attinto dai tesori celesti, istituimmo la festa liturgica del vostro Patrono S. Giuseppe, lo sposo verginale di Maria, l’umile, il silenzioso, il giusto lavoratore di Nazareth, affinchè fosse in avvenire il vostro speciale Protettore presso Dio, il vostro palladio nella vita, a tutela e a difesa nei travagli e nei cimenti del lavoro.
At least in terms of the liturgical texts, the existence of the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker was by this time sealed.
Appendix to the 2001 Nocturnale Romanum containing the proper chants for the Matins of Saint Joseph the Worker, correctly attributing authorship of the hymn to Father Evaristo d’Anversa (together with Father Vittorio Genovesi, S. J., was hymnographer for the Sacred Congregation of Rites from the reign of Pius XI). The date 1968 does not refer to the year of the composition; it refers to the year Father d’Anversa died. As of January 1956, the two hymns Te, pater Ioseph and Aurora solis nuntia were already existent.
There appears to have been a blueprint materialising in the innovative minds of the reformers of that time, and to its consequences we are now heirs. When it comes to weighing Pope Pius XII’s actual contribution to the beginnings of the liturgical reforms, there are at least two tendencies: one, the Holy Father desired, directed, approved, and sanctioned the radical changes that came out of the Commission; another, that certain personalities in the Commission duped the Holy Father into authorising the obscene mutilations visited upon the Liturgy. Father Bonneterre, however, proposes a third tendency: The Holy Father encouraged the reform without fully grasping its consequences, as there was no way of predicting its outcomes in the first place. In his own words [29]:
Thus, with the purest of intentions, Pius XII undertook reforms that were required by the good of souls, but without realising, as would have been impossible, that he was thereby undermining the foundations of the Church’s liturgy and discipline at one of the most critical moments in their history, and, above all, without being aware that he was putting into practice the program of the deviated Liturgical Movement.
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Pie XII a donc entrepris, en toute pureté d’intention, des réformes exigées par les besoins des âmes, sans se rendre compte—et il ne le pouvait pas—qu’il ébranlait la liturgie et la discipline à une des périodes les plus critiques de leur histoire, et surtout sans réaliser qu’il mettait en pratique le programme du « Mouvement liturgique » dévoyé.
The good abbé then suggests that it would be an exercise in injustice and frustration to paint the Holy Father unorthodox merely by what he had caused to be carried out. And we concur. Explaining away the mild irony liaising orthodoxy with auto-demolition often seek after plausible reasons, such as age-mediated facultative impairment or time-aided physical debilitation. We think, however, that we must be allowed to feel that sensation of sorrow typically following the discovery that we have been somehow cheated of our own inheritance. Liturgical, for that matter. Fr. Bonneterre continues [30]:
In concluding this brief study of the liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII, it is our duty to remind the reader of their perfect orthodoxy, guaranteed by that of the Pope who promulgated them; but we must also recognise that, in retrospect, for the reasons given above, they constitute the first stages of the “auto-demolition” of the Roman liturgy.
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Pour conclure cette trop rapide étude des réformes liturgiques du Pape Pie XII, nous avons le devoir de rappeler leur parfaite orthodoxie, garantie par celle de celui qui les a promulguées, mais il nous faut reconnaître aussi qu’elles constituent, pour les raisons que nous avons expliquées, les premières étapes de « l’autodémolition » de la liturgie romaine.
Let us ask Saint Joseph in these trying times, to guide all of us who look upon him as our champion and the protector of Holy Mother Church, that we may offer our travails, our labours, our sorrows, for the preservation of the Holy Catholic Faith.
Ut in omnibus laudetur Dominus.
|» Next part: Propers in chant
[1] Carlo Braga, La riforma liturgica di Pio XII (Roma 2003) p. iv. — Names burned into the annals of the chaotic liturgical changes served in this Commission: Clemente Cardinal Micara and Gaetano Cardinal Cicognani as presidents; Annibale Bugnini, secretary; Joaquín Anselmo María Albareda y Ramoneda, O. S. B., Ferdinando Giuseppe Antonelli, O. F. M., Augustin Bea, S. J., Carlo Braga, Alfonso Carinci, Cesario d’Amato, O. S. B., Enrico Dante, Amato Pietro Frutaz, Josef Löw, C. Ss. R., and Luigi Rovigatti as members. The Commission’s mandate ended in 1960 upon constitution of the Preparatory Commission for the II Vatican Council. [2] Verbale della 30a adunanza, no. [452]. See: Nicola Giampietro, O. F. M. Cap., Il cardinale Giuseppe Ferdinando Antonelli e gli sviluppi della riforma liturgica dal 1948 al 1970 (Rome 1998), p. 327. [3] Verbale della 31a adunanza, no. [465]. See: Ibid. [4] Verbale della 32a adunanza, no. [487]. See: Op. cit., p. 329. [5]Ibid., no. [488]. See: Op. cit., p. 330. [6]Ibid., no. [489]. See: Ibid. [7]Ibid., nn. [491]–[492]. See: Ibid. [8]Ibid., no. [493]. See: Ibid. [9] Verbale della 33a adunanza, no. [513]. See: Op. cit., p. 331. [10] Verbale della 34a adunanza, no. [527]. See: Op. cit., p. 333. [11] Verbale della 34a adunanza, no. [612]. See: Op. cit., pp. 339–340. [12]Ibid., no. [613]. See: Op. cit., p. 340. [13]Ibid., no. [617]. See: Ibid. [14]Ibid. [15] Verbale delle 39a, 40a, 41a, 42a, 43a, e 44a adunanze. See: Op. cit., pp. 342–349. [16]AAS 46 (1954) p. 638. [17] Verbale della 45a adunanza, no. [735]. See: Nicola Giampietro, O. F. M. Cap., op. cit., p. 349. [18]Ibid., no. [736]. See: Ibid. [19] Verbale della 46a adunanza, no. [749]. See: Op. cit., p. 351. [20]AAS 47 (1955) pp. 470–480. [21] Pope Pius XII, Allocution Poco più (1 May 1955) near the end: AAS 47 (1955) p. 406. [22]Ibid. [23] Verbale della 51a adunanza, no. [802]. See: Nicola Giampietro, O. F. M. Cap., op. cit., p. 355. [24] Verbale della 52a adunanza, no. [808]. See: Op. cit., pp. 355–356. [25] Verbale della 59a adunanza, nn. [854]–[865]. See: Op. cit., p. 360. [26] Verbale della 62a adunanza, nn. [917]–[919]. See: Op. cit., p. 365. [27]AAS 48 (1956) p. 237. [28] Pope Pius XII, Allocution Vivo e gradito (1 May 1956) at the beginning: AAS 48 (1956) p. 287. [29] Didier Bonneterre, Le Mouvement Liturgique (Escurolles 1980) p. 105–106; cf. trans. Suzanne Robinson, et al. The Liturgical Movement (Kansas 2002) pp. 72–73. [30]Op. cit., p. 111; cf. op. cit., p. 77.
It has come to our attention that certain Traditional groups push forward with the celebration of a misa cantada even when no schola is present to sing. Now, we can dispense with the schola when we deal with the ordinaries of the Mass. The congregation can sing Missa de Angelis from memory, supposing they still remember it, and have a collective vocal apparatus capable of executing it. We all know, however, that a misa cantada requires at least one cantor, trained or at least experienced in chant or psalm tones, to sing the propers. So, in the case presented above, schola carente vel cantoribus absentibus, the propers were played from recordings.
Is this allowed? The resounding answer is: No, it is not allowed!
If there is no schola, the logical, human, and pastoral recourse would be to celebrate a misa rezada.
But, sir! But, sir! Is playing the propers from recordings forbidden? Of course, it is forbidden! By Pope Pius XII, no less! Below are extracts from the 1958 Instruction De musica sacra (English here; original Latin here). First, that instruments at Mass should be played personally:
60. c) Finally, only instruments which are personally played by a performer are to be used in the sacred liturgy, not those which are played mechanically or automatically.
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60. c) Denique ea tantum musica instrumenta in sacra Liturgia admittuntur, quae personali artificis actione tractantur, non autem quae modo mechanico seu automatico.
And, second, that sound-producing machines which mimic, and not merely amplify, the capabilities of the human voice, can be used only outside the liturgical action:
71. The use of automatic instruments and machines, such as the automatic organ, phonograph, radio, tape or wire recorders, and other similar machines, is absolutely forbidden in liturgical functions and private devotions, whether they are held inside or outside the church, even if these machines be used only to transmit sermons or sacred music, or to substitute for the singing of the choir or faithful, or even just to support it.
However, such machines may be used, even inside the church, but not during services of any kind, whether liturgical or private, in order to give the people a chance to listen to the voice of the Supreme Pontiff or the local Ordinary, or the sermons of others. These mechanical devices may be also be used to instruct the faithful in Christian doctrine or in the sacred chant or hymn singing; finally they may be used in processions which take place outside the church, as a means of directing, and supporting the singing of the people.
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71. Usus instrumentorum et machinarum « automaticarum », uti sunt : autoorganum, grammophonium, radiophonium, dictaphonium seu magnetophonium, et alia eiusdem generis, in actionibus liturgicis et piis exercitiis, sive intra sive extra ecclesiam peragendis, absolute vetatur, etsi agatur tantum de sacris sermonibus vel Musica sacra transmittenda, vel de cantoribus aut fidelibus in cantu substituendis aut etiam sustentandis.
His tamen machinis uti licet, etiam in ecclesiis, sed extra actiones liturgicas et pia exercitia, cum agitur de audienda voce Summi Pontificis, Ordinarii loci, vel aliorum oratorum sacrorum ; vel etiam ad fideles in doctrina christiana vel in cantu sacro aut religioso populari instituendos ; denique ad populi cantum dirigendum et sustentandum in processionibus extra ecclesiam peragendis.
Actuosa participatio is predicated on the actual and present action of the human person, a sentient, rational, and intelligent being created by God in His very image, capable of recognising God his own Creator, worshipping Him, and rendering Him adoration, veneration, and honour.
Use the recordings for practice, for seminars, for conventions, for talks. Chuck the record player out when it’s time for Mass, or the First Friday Benediction, or the fiesta novena. God forfend we transform the Mass into mere aesthetic experience replete with a panoply of pleasing vocals produced from the throat of a creature formed by human hands! God is not worshipped by machine.
Get your copy of the Liber usualis. (You can also get your copy of the Graduale Romanum.) Since today is the start of the novena for the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, let us locate his propers. Naturally, these will have to be in the proper of the saints. What more, it falls on 1 May, so finding it should be not difficult, because it will have to appear immediately after the heading announcing the feasts of May. If you fail to find these, try looking again. You might have just overlooked them in your haste.
If you found it on your first, second, and third try, congratulations! You’re probably holding a 1961 edition of the Liber. If you’ve scanned the index at the back, perused the calendar at the front, looked at each page of the section for May, and found nothing—absolutely nothing, zilch, nil, nada!—then you’re holding either a 1954 or 1957 edition.
Right to left, down: (1) Feasts for May begins with SS. Philip and James in the 1954 Liber usualis, a year before the feast was established; (2) feasts for May begin with S. Athanasius in the 1957 Liber usualis, two years after the feast was established, and one year after the new propers were approved; (3) feasts for May begin with Saint Joseph the Workman in the 1961 Maryknoll Missal, six years after the feast was established, five years after its propers were approved,and one year after the melodies were published.
Why is finding the propers edition-dependent? Well, the simplified answer is this: The feast is new. But, as everything embosomed by Holy Mother Church can assume layers of meaning, the real answer is as expected rather nuanced. For there appears to have been a blueprint materialising in the innovative minds of the reformers of that time, and to its consequences we are now heirs. We will split this discussion into three parts in the hope that more will be coaxed to take a second glace at the smaller helpings. In the meantime, let us ask Saint Joseph in these trying times, to guide all of us who look upon him as our champion and the protector of Holy Mother Church, that we may offer our travails, our labours, our sorrows, for the preservation of the Holy Catholic Faith.
In the tradition of liturgical chant, there sometimes happens that a new liturgical text is approved and in need of a liturgical chant. When such happens, there are at least two approaches. One, compose a new chant for the new text. Two, adapt an existing chant to the new text. In our venerable sacromusical establishment, this second approach is called contrafactum. In the diaphanous world of meme-mediated subculture-saturated profanity-gravitating musical trends, however, it is called parody.
And so, we’ll have a last-minute April fool’s post. Uhm, well, it’s just a rehash. Fourteen years ago—yep, that’s before Summorum Pontificum, when attending a Traditional Latin Mass was, in the words of Michael Brendan Dougherty, accompanied by a “fugitive feeling”—a parody of two Les Mis anthems surfaced here. And so, we reproduce the second, parodied from Do you hear the people sing (A la volonté du peuple in the original French) below. If you will be prevailed upon to sing the parody, elide the middle syllable on Catholics to produce CATH-licks; and pronounce des Prez as de-PREY,Solesmes as so-LEZ-mey, and Victoria as Vick-TOH-ree-ya. What is it they said? Ah, ¡hagan lío!
(We’ve added notes to clarify mentions that might not be immediately forthcoming.)
Do you hear the Catholics sing?
Singing polyphony and chant?
It is the music of a people
Who have thrown out trendy cant!
When the choirs all agree: Tra le sollecitudini[1]!
Our hymns and chants will sound
And resound again!
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Will you join in our travail?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the altar rail
Is there a world you long to see?
Then join in the fight
That will bring back the rite of the free!
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Do you hear the Catholics sing?
Singing Gesualdo[2] and des Prez[3]?
It is the music of a people
Come to shining Solesmes[4]!
When the Haugens[5] hit the road
And Palestrina[6] marches in
Our hymns and chants will sound
And resound again!
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Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance?
Some will fall and some will live;
Will you stand up and take your chance
Against Vosko[7], Mahony[8], RENEW[9] and liturgical dance[10]?
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Do you hear the Catholics sing?
Singing Victoria[11] and Byrd[12]?
It is the music of our people
It will no more go unheard!
When the OCP[13] is out
Our Te Deums[14] will begin:
Our hymns and chants will sound
And resound again!
[1]Motu proprio on sacred music issued by Saint Pius X, 22 November 1903 [2]Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa (8 March 1566 – 8 September 1613), Italian late Renaissance composer, famous, amongst other pieces of his composition, for his Tenebrae responsories [3]Josquin des Prez (c. 1450/1455 – 1521), Renaissance composer from the Low Countries, widely considered as the first master of polyphonic vocal music of the high Renaissance [4] Commune in the Sarthe department and Pays-de-la-Loire region of northwestern France; location of the Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, the Benedictine monastery that published chant books that are still used for the Traditional Mass [5]Marty Haugen (born 30 December 1950), American composer of sacred popular music in the Lutheran liturgical tradition; known in the American Catholic liturgical establishment for his Mass of Creation [6]Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525 – 2 February 1594), Italian Renaissance composer, whose work is considered the pinnacle of Renaissance polyphony [7]Richard Vosko, Ph.D., Hon. AIA (born 1943), American Roman Catholic priest of the Diocese of Albany, known for his work in the redesign and renovation of many churches in the US, with emphasis on the relevance of the word of God in the modern age [8]Roger Michael Cardinal Mahony (born 27 February 1936), American cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Los Angeles, under whose term the Italianate old Cathedral of Saint Vibiana was sold to the city of Los Angeles, and the postmodern/deconstructivist new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels was built [9]RENEW International, a Catholic ministry organisation incorporated under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Newark, which, according to its website, “fosters spiritual renewal in the Catholic tradition by empowering individuals and communities to encounter God in everyday life, deepen and share faith, and connect faith with action” [10] A misnomer applied to aberrant practices where dance, often categorised as interpretative, is incorporated in the sacred liturgy, apparently for the counterproductive and counterintuitive purpose of enriching and aiding liturgical experience [11]Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548 – 27 August 1611), Spanish Catholic priest and Renaissance composer, ranked with Palestrina and di Lasso as one of the most important Counter-Reformation composers [12]William Byrd (c.1539/40 or 1543 – 4 July 1623), English Catholic Renaissance composer, known for his recusancy and his outstanding musical legacy to Anglican worship and to the Roman Catholic Church [13]Oregon Catholic Press, a nonprofit publishing company headquartered in Portland in the state of Oregon, which, according to its website, is “committed to providing the very best resources, music and service to Catholic parishes and worshipers all over the world” [14] Incipit of the Latin hymn of thanksgiving
In the morning of 14 April 1912, Low Sunday, three Catholic priests, the English convert priest Father Thomas Byles, the German Benedictine priest-monk Father Josef Peruschitz, and the Lithuanian Byzantine-rite priest Father Juozas Montvila, said Mass for second- and third-class passengers of the RMS Titanic. That night, as Father Byles was walking in the upper deck while praying the Office, the ship struck an iceberg, from which collision she would later sink. Twice he refused to board a lifeboat, electing instead to remain with the rest, praying the Rosary until the very end, hearing confessions, and giving absolution. With him perished his two brother priests, who, having likewise declined to board a lifeboat, ministered to the passengers until the ship sank to the icy abyss.
Father Byles sailed for America in order to officiate the marriage of his brother in New York; Father Peruschitz, to take up his position as principal in a Benedictine high school in Minnesota; Father Montvila, to serve a Lithuanian parish in Massachusetts, after having been having been punished for ministering to Uniates and eventually pressured by the Russian authorities who outlawed Catholicism in his native Lithuania.
Ut Dominus Deus noster concedat nobis sacerdotes sanctos.
Vigil Masses, in the Roman Rite, are typically threshold points. We are quite there, but not quite there yet. A vigil Mass is an oxymoron. Something bittersweet. And, for the Easter Vigil, the flow typically expresses this sort of split personality. The sorrow of Lent, broken once on Maundy Thursday, finally dissipates on Holy Saturday, partially when the Gloria is sung once again, and fully when the Alleluia returns for good. But, even so, after the Alleluia is sung, that sweet song of praise of God, we then sing a gradual in the tone of the Lenten canticles and tracts, that bitter and prolonged cry to God in penitential seasons.
Le Christ aux Limbes | Anonyme | xxe siècle
Between the 10th and 12th centuries, the Church’s longing for the joy of the alleluia enabled Her cantors to prolong the chanting in a melismatic iubilus, which eventually admitted a variety of texts, which consequently evolved into prosae or sequentiae in their own right. Aquitaine in France produced four for the Easter Vigil (Iubilate Deo, omnis arva; Iam turma coelica laeta; Hoc pium recita plebs; Omnes, iubilate cordeque laetate), and one for the Pentecost Vigil (Pangamus carmina). Benevento in Italy produced another in two versions, one being longer than the other, for the Easter Vigil, Lux de luce. The region of Ravenna, on the other hand, also in Italy, produced its own musical incarnation of the apparently longer Beneventan version.
The Aquitanian exemplar, whose source manuscript is Paris lat. 903 (Gradual of St. Yrieix), folio 76v, features a long melisma that is more prolix than what we are privileged to sing nowadays. The longer Beneventan version, on the other hand, draws source from the manuscript Benevento MS VI.34, folio 112r. Finally, the Ravennate version, we are informed, is found in Padua MS A.47, folio 129. This manuscript is dated 11–12th century, but the chant itself has been dated to as early as the 8th century, in parentheses at the moment while conclusive evidence remains forthcoming.
In 1971, Dr. Kenneth Levy transcribed the manuscripts and published a critical study of the sequence. From his transcriptions, we produced a copy in Gregorian notation (click on the image to access the file), taking the liberty to add an Amen and an Alleluia at the end (it is a sequence, after all). While resurrecting this sequence in its proper place, both in the vetus and novus ordo, will no doubt be termed patent antiquarianism, chanting it after the offertory or during Holy Communion will doubtless allow us to savour its powerful message of joy and hope.
Today is the Octave of Easter, also known as Low Sunday, also known as Quasimodo Sunday, also known as Dominica in albis deponendis, in Western Christendom. Most of Eastern Christendom, on the other hand, celebrate Easter today.
Incredulità di san Tommaso | Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio | 1601–1602
Χριστός ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and to those in the tombs,
granting life.
—
Christus resurrexit a mortuis,
morte mortem calcavit,
et euntibus in sepulchris
vitam donavit.
—
المسيح قام من بين الأموات
ووطئ الموت بالموت
ووهب الحياة للذين في القبور
—
Χριστός ανέστη εκ νεκρών,
θανάτω θάνατον πατήσας,
και τοις εν τοις μνήμασι
ζωήν χαρισάμενος.
Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. The He saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and put into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.
—
Venit Iesus, ianuis clausis, et stetit in medio, et dixit : Pax vobis. Deinde dicit Thomæ : Infer digitum tuum huc et vide manus meas, et affer manum tuam et mitte in latus meum : et noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis.
Get your copy of the Liber usualis. (You can also get your copy of the Graduale Romanum.) Since today is the start of the novena for the feast of Saint Joseph the Worker, let us locate his propers. Naturally, these will have to be in the proper of the saints. What more, it falls on 1 May, so finding it should be not difficult, because it will have to appear immediately after the heading announcing the feasts of May. If you fail to find these, try looking again. You might have just overlooked them in your haste.
Cappella Gregoriana Sanctæ Cæciliæ olim Xicatunensis 