Excerpt from
By Flowing Waters
Chant for the Liturgy
(A Collection of Unaccompanied Song for Assemblies, Cantors, and Choirs)
by Paul F. Ford
© The Order of St. Benedict, Inc., Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced by any means, without the written permission of The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321.
Contents
COMMONS
Common of the Dedication of a Church
Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Common of Apostles
Common of Martyrs
Common of Holy Men
RITUAL MASSES, MASSES FOR VARIOUS NEEDS, AND VOTIVE MASSES
I. Ritual Masses
III. CHANTS FOR THE ORDINARY OF THE MASS
Suite I
Suite II
Suite III
Suite IV
Suite V
Nicene Creed (Latin)
Nicene Creed
Apostles' Creed
Apostles' Creed in Question Form
COMMON TONES
I. Doxologies for the Processional Chants in the Eight Modes
II. Alleluias at the End of Processional Antiphons for the Easter Season
APPENDIX
I. The Rite of Sprinkling
II. The Universal Prayer (Prayer of the Faithful)
III. Communion Chants
IV. Miscellaneous Chants
PERFORMANCE NOTES
INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR ASSEMBLY EDITIONS
INDEXES
I. Biblical Index
II. Index of Chants
A Liturgical Foreword
In the fall of 1965, the Catholic bishops of the world assembled in council took part in daily eucharistic celebrations. At the time one element of those Masses seemed innovative as well as highly successful: The sacred song consisted of simple chant melodies, as settings for antiphons and verses from the biblical Book of Psalms. Today the present collection, By Flowing Waters: Chant for the Liturgy, is in direct succession to those great liturgical moments.
With near unanimity the assembled bishops had already decreed that the critical editions of the Gregorian chant for Latin liturgies should be augmented: "It is desirable also that an edition be prepared containing the simpler melodies, for use in small churches." Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome with its Sistine and Julian choirs was hardly a "small church," but the fruit of the conciliar decision was first experienced there. What was achieved was not some radical innovation but the sound recovery of a sound tradition: song integrated into the liturgy, song not beyond the capacity of an ordinary gathering of Christian believers, song following both the Hebrew and the Christian legacy of the psalms of David.
By 1965 the liturgical use of the language of the people instead of Latin had become almost universal. Nevertheless the Latin Graduale Simplex of 1967 and 1974—which was the next stage of simple psalm chants for the eucharist—demonstrated several influential principles. First was the commitment to a restoration of psalmody as the song of the Church in the eucharist—and not merely in the liturgy of the hours, which unhappily remains largely limited to the ordained and to religious. Next was the norm of noble simplicity, which permits the whole assembly of worshipers to sing psalms and antiphons to simpler melodies and especially melodies (and texts) that could be employed on repeated occasions throughout a season—instead of the impossible rule, rarely observed, of a fresh and complex chant for each Sunday celebration. This was not only a norm of simplicity but also one of diversity and openness.
Our experience for more than three decades has allowed the broadest and healthiest freedom in the choice of sung texts for Mass. But the pride of place for the psalms has not yet been truly achieved despite official encouragement. As an example, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a fundamental 1967 decree that was promptly confirmed by the Apostolic See, regularly preferred psalmody even as it opened the way to a freer choice of diverse responsorial songs and hymns at Mass. Carefully and correctly, however, it limited the many alternatives for the chants between the readings to "other collections of psalms and antiphons in English, as supplements to the Simple Gradual, including psalms in responsorial form, metrical and similar versions of psalms . . ."
In turn, the admirable openness to diversity that is coupled with priority for psalmody demands the kind of sung resources that Dr. Paul Ford has prepared for the present book. On the one hand are the best traditions of simple and unaccompanied chant that meet the expectations of esthetic quality and musical scholarship, well supported by Dr. Ford's rationale and exposition. On the other hand and more important, this is a collection for congregations of praying Christians. It is not beyond the singing capacity of ordinary assemblies, cantors, and choirs, but is always faithful to the psalms of holy Scripture. As the conciliar fathers declared: "To achieve the reform, progress, and adaptation of the liturgy, it is essential to promote that warm and living love for Scripture to which the venerable tradition of both Eastern and Western rites give testimony."
Neither the Hebrew nor the Greek Scriptures can be completely or perfectly reflected in any single English dress. This is particularly true of the song of the Hebrew psalms and the antiphons as well. The version of the psalms in the present collection is from the approved Catholic edition of the New Revised Standard Version. The translation has been chosen for the very high quality of its language—based upon a traditional style, but successfully contemporary and singable. It has the additional advantage of its ecumenical acceptance, which is particularly important in the light of the dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum. The latter demanded fidelity to the best critical text of the Scriptures and opened the door to ecumenical collaboration in biblical translation.
All in all, this makes By Flowing Waters an invaluable contribution, for which the English speaking churches will long remain in Paul Ford's debt. He has combined liturgical and musical scholarship with an intense pastoral commitment and purpose. The door was opened by the Second Vatican Council, with its dedication to liturgical reform, progress, and adaptation. Today the door needs not only to be kept open but to be opened still more widely. Dr. Ford's undertaking is in the fullest harmony with the conciliar spirit, a spirit that today must be supported anew.
Frederick R. McManus
Introduction
There is a New Testament text to which, for centuries, the Church has turned whenever she wishes to discuss liturgical music, dedicate musical instruments, and encourage church musicians.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God (Colossians 3:16 NRSV).
The movement is first from the Word outside to the Word inside, from ears to heart. The meaning of the phrase "dwell in you" is "make a home in your heart." Only after the Word has begun to make its home in our hearts does it rise to the surface and overflow in spoken wisdom and sung gratefulness.
But music does not come only at the end of this process. Music, especially song, also has the gift to open the heart to receive the Word and to allow the Word to be ruminated upon so that the full home-making, life-changing power of the Word may work its effect. But in all this the Word of God has priority.
The music in By Flowing Waters: Chant for the Liturgy has ancient sources but only one Source, the Word. Anyone familiar with the history of chant knows that the original Greek and Latin words themselves "created" the music that was meant to convey them to the heart and then to express the heart's fullness. This volume has two objectives and one goal. With respect to the antiphons, acclamations, hymns, and songs its whole aim is to allow the music which expressed the meaning of the original words to try to convey the same meaning to those who speak English. With respect to the psalmody (the ways to sing psalms, canticles, and other long texts) its whole aim is to let these ancient tones become the tunes to carry the Hebrew and Greek poetry (the 102 psalms, and 19 canticles of the Bible used in this book) which is freshly translated into English in the New Revised Standard Version.
By Flowing Waters contains nearly 700 authentic chants and songs based on authentic chants for use by assemblies, cantors, and choirs. This treasury is intended to be an example of the best and most accessible of the Roman Catholic plainsong tradition. It is also intended to be ecumenical in its use of the NRSV, its design for eucharistic worship in liturgical churches, and its adaptability by free churches who wish to add chant to the sung prayer styles of their congregations. Everywhere the goal of this book is to let the text be primary and the music its servant.
By Flowing Waters includes the entire repertory of the Graduale Simplex, as well as a ninth suite of psalms and antiphons for the last weeks of the Church year. It also includes the entire repertory of Jubilate Deo (the universal chant collection authorized by Pope Paul VI in 1974) with fresh English lyrics as well as the original Latin and Greek. It also provides settings for singing the readings based on the models provided in the 1973Ordo Cantus Missae. Thus this volume is complete for those who want to chant the entire renewed liturgy according to the model envisioned by Vatican II, incorporating new adaptations in English of ancient Greek and Latin chants for the Order of the Mass and for the Ordinary of the Mass.
This volume attempts to reintroduce the singing of the psalms in the eucharistic service. It employs psalm verses with great variety and freedom of choice. It reestablishes the antiphon as a refrain and the response or alleluia as a true response. It presumes an orientation of the people toward psalms, which includes an understanding of the imagery and the historical and cultural background of the psalms. Preparation for the use of By Flowing Waters should not be merely musical but requires a study of the religious values of the psalms or psalm verses. In addition, those who sing the texts must appreciate that the words of different speakers are placed on their lips—now the words of the Lord, now the words of the psalmist, etc. For this reason this book incorporates the division between cantor and choir put forward by Richard S. Hanson in his three-volume edition, The Psalms in Modern Speech (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968) mentioned throughout the Performance Notes (pp. 417–428).
By Flowing Waters is intended to appeal to those cantors looking for resources for unaccompanied song for eucharistic liturgy and to restore to cantors a version of their own proper book (as the sacramentary belongs to presiders, the lectionary to readers, and the gospel book to deacons). It hopes to contribute to the revitalization of the ministries of psalmist, cantor, schola cantorum, and choir. Designed to be especially useful at times and in settings where and when there are limited resources (that is, one trained cantor), this collection also aspires to find a home in university chapels, convents, monasteries, cathedrals, and other settings with great choral and instrumental resources. By reintroducing musicians, composers, and liturgists to the responsoria brevia style of the responsorial psalms and alleluia psalms (that is, where the response is one or two or even three "alleluias") and the other litanic ("call and response") forms in this collection, it hopes to illustrate and underscore the work of worship on the part of all worshipers, thus giving new meaning to the word ‘liturgy' and to the keynote of the liturgical renewal, "full, active, conscious participation." The litanic/ responsorial style of the entire collection tosses the work of worship back and forth between the cantor and the assembly.
This volume wishes to attract those who are intrigued by the idea of using chant. It is familiar to those who grew up with chant while at the same time accessible to those who are unfamiliar with chant. Musicians and liturgists who know plainsong know that modal music in free rhythm "wears longer" and "delivers" the text unobtrusively. The songs in By Flowing Waters allow the melodies which arose from the singing of the texts in their original Latin and Greek to live again through harmonious weddings to English translations of these texts. At one time the product of ancient European Christian cultures, the authentic chants and the songs based on authentic chants in By Flowing Waters can serve as a common meeting ground for today's diverse and sometimes antagonistic musical cultures—in this sense it aims to be "transcultural."
How and Why This Book Came to Be
From childhood I have loved to sing in church. In former days I have loved to lead the singing of my schoolmates from desert grade school through farming community minor and major seminary, the singing of my fellow monks at a desert monastery, and the singing of my co-worshippers at Evangelical graduate school and Roman Catholic parish. For the most part, this song was supported by wonderfully resonant buildings, so that even and perhaps especially when it was unaccompanied, its simplicity conveyed the words right down into the heart. There remains nothing more lovable (and often lovelier) to me than the sound of my fellow human beings joined in song to celebrate God in all the moods and seasons of life. I suspect that most pastoral musicians have similar feelings.
It is sometimes said that Catholics can't sing. Thomas Day explains this "inability" by pointing out that Catholics missed their musical apprenticeship:
What was Day's prescription to parishes?
Most parishes should go back, as it were, return to the primitive state they never really knew, and try to go through a stage of development that they missed. They need to lower their expectations . . . a greater use of unaccompanied chantlike singing would make sense. The most homely church music ever written, the most folklike of all music for congregation is any kind of chanted dialogue (preferably unaccompanied) involving priest, cantor, and people.
By Flowing Waters is an unofficial version of the second of two official song books of the Roman liturgy, the Graduale Romanum (the Roman Gradual) and the Graduale Simplex (the Simple Gradual). As the sacramentary is the presider's book, the book of the gospels the deacon's and the lectionary the reader's, the "gradual" is the liturgical book belonging to schola cantorum, the school of cantors, the professional liturgical singers (but such collections almost always include songs for people). As John Ainslie said in his Introduction to The Simple Gradual for Sundays and Holydays:
The four principle characteristics of the Simple Gradual guided the preparation of By Flowing Waters. First, the chants are interchangeable within a particular period of the Church year or in relation to a particular occasion. Second, it attempts to reintroduce the singing of the psalms in the eucharistic service. Its third characteristic is its purpose: It affords a greater opportunity for community participation in song—especially through congregational singing of brief refrains and responses to the longer verses sung by a cantor, schola, or choir. Fourth and finally, it enlarges the options and increases the flexibility of the sung parts of the eucharistic liturgy.
The style of the songs of the Simple Gradual is what could be called litanic or responsorial, the call of the cantor and/or choir and the response of the assembly. The music of these songs is drawn from the treasury of what is commonly called Gregorian chant but might more accurately be called plainsong. In fact the Simple Gradual contains Mozarabic (Old Spanish) and Ambrosian (Milanese) chants as well as Gregorian chants. All of these melodies are hundreds of years old and some may have their origins in the music sung by women and men at worship in the first half-millenium of the Christian experience.
The Simple Gradual is also innovative in its brief, almost litanic responses to the first reading, in the litanic alleluia psalms, and the antiphons of acclamation during Lent. By restricting its palette of melodic colors to nine patterns for the psalm responses and to six for the alleluia psalms, the Simple Gradual achieves the goal of all good ritual music: familiarity with variety. By recovering the eight so-called ecclesiastical modes, the Simple Gradual expands the range of human emotion capable of being expressed by music. And the music wears well.
The litanic style of the Simple Gradual is its greatest virtue. The call and response way of singing makes the assembly work and it makes cantors and choirs work at making the assembly work (the chief vocation of the pastoral musician). This is important for several reasons: liturgy is everyone's work and not just the achievement of experts witnessed by an appreciative audience; the litanic style is not, however, too much work —its familiarity and variety contribute to a lively exchange between the assembly and its ministers; finally, this work drives home the meaning of the text of the Word of God.
Thus song and music chosen for liturgy have a "ministerial function because sacred song, closely bound to the text . . . forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy. [It] will be the more holy the more closely it is joined to the liturgical rite, whether by adding delight to prayer, fostering oneness of spirit, or investing the rites with greater solemnity." In light of what Colossians 3:16 says, liturgical music enhances the movement of the Word into the heart, draws the hearts of all participants into unity, and educes from these hearts wisdom and prayer.
How and Why the Simple Gradual Came About
The Simple Gradual began to be collected in the early 1960s and was used experimentally at the daily Masses during the final period of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Archbishop Bugnini tells the complex story of its origins in his indispensable history, Reform of the Liturgy.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (as well as the Appendix by the U.S. Bishops) refers to the Simple Gradual at three critical points, when it discusses what can be sung at the entrance (26), between the readings (36), and at communion (56). Music in Catholic Worship similarly refers to it (60 and 63). In order of official preference, the Simple Gradual would seem to rank after texts assigned in the Lectionary and Sacramentary and after the Roman Gradual but before any other collection of psalms and antiphons or supplementary and substitute songs and hymns.
Two printings of the first edition (1967) and two printings of the second typical (or normative) edition (1975) were made. The second edition incorporates the Kyriale Simplex (a collection of simpler but authentic chant ordinaries) and some elements of the Ordo Cantus Missæ (the music for the dialogues, acclamations, and other texts of the Mass) as well as all the changes consequent upon the revision of the General Roman Calendar, the psalter, the Roman Missal, and the Lectionary. The International Committee (now Commission) on English in the Liturgy prepared an official translation of the first edition in 1968; ICEL added a fine, freeing essay, "Introductory Information for Composers and Publishers."
We yet await an official, complete edition of the Simple Gradual. What you now hold in your hands is a humble effort to join an ecumenical, inclusive language English translation of each text to an authentic chant melody adapted to convey the sense of the text.
Celebrating eucharist with this wedding of new texts to old tunes calls for a surrender of culture and sub-culture on behalf of all who use By Flowing Waters for worship. It is claiming too much to say that chant is transcultural. What little we can say with certainty about chant is that it represents a melange of eastern and western European musics from perhaps before the fourth century to the thirteenth, musics which seem to show the influence of Judaism and Islam. It is enough to say that this chant speaks for no one's precise culture now and therefore it is transcultural to everyone now and yet it preserves the memory of the matrix cultures through which Christianity passed on its way to the world church at the end of the twentieth century.
It could be argued that chant is too culturally specific. I argue that the simple chants of By Flowing Waters represent one transcultural point of departure for the second phase of the liturgical renewal which we are just beginning. As Chupungco reminds us, the first phase is the recovery of the Roman Rite and the second phase will be its reinculturation.
Conclusion
Why U.S. Catholics Didn't, Don't, Won't, Can't, and Could-be-taught-to Sing are secondary questions. Why Sing is also a secondary question. Why Worship At All is the primary question.
Right-brain, intuitive answers to that primary question can be found in Poulenc's "The Dialogues of the Carmelites" or in the more recent story of the Franciscan who stepped forward from the ranks of prisoners in Auschwitz and volunteered to take the place of the young husband and father in the hunger bunker. What happened next is well known and yet still amazing: From the place where captors and captives had expected the hellish howls of men whose parched and famished bodies began to consume their own protein came the sound of hymns and songs. Fr. Kolbe had gotten his fellow condemned to sing until day by day, one by one, the song diminished. Finally Maximilian's solitary voice was stilled by an injection of carbolic acid.
Left-brain, discursive reasons for worship can be found in much of the original and subsequent documentation of the liturgical renewal. Here is a passage which may serve to represent them all:
For he continues his priestly work through the agency of his Church, which is unceasingly engaged in praising the Lord and interceding for the salvation of the whole world.
May this effort at Englishing the Simple Gradual and other chant resources contribute to that song.
Paul F. Ford, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology and Liturgy
St. John's Seminary
Camarillo, California
The Epiphany, 1999
How to Use This Book
This section is devoted to help you to get the most out of By Flowing Waters. The first pages of this "how to" section concern the heart of this book, the music for seasons and the saints; these pages will also give you the key to using the commons, the ritual and votive masses, the masses for various needs, and the liturgy of the dead. The most important directions are printed in semibold type.
For the signs used in the actual music, see "Signs" at the end of this explanation.
Abbreviations
Whenever the following explanation directly cites the official Introduction to the Graduale Simplex, you will see "GS" and the paragraph number, in parenthesis. "LMI" indicates the 1981 Introduction to the Lectionary and "GIRM" indicates the Introduction to the Sacramentary. Any chant marked "Jubilate Deo" means that this chant is found both in the Graduale Simplex and the resource called Jubilate Deo; such chants are presented in English and the original Greek or Latin in order to keep alive among Catholics of the Roman Rite a minimum shared repertory.
A Word about Pitch
The pitch in authentic chant is not fixed. When my editors and I decided to make the chants of this book available in modern notation, we decided to limit our range to C–d and to use key signatures with no more than two sharps or flats. Because the music offered here is in the movable Do system, performers should feel free to transpose any chant into keys which will invite the greatest participation for the particular assembly to which they are ministering.
Musicians
Next a word about the persons needed for the singing of the chants of By Flowing Waters. The minimum number is one cantor and an assembly. But provisions are made throughout the book (indicated by score expressions and/or underlined verse numbers) for one or two psalmists, a schola (a small group of psalmists or cantors, usually four) or scholas, two or more cantors, a choir or choirs, and choirs and even the assembly divided into women and men or children and adults, depending on the level of solemnity. Whether these music ministers are vested and move in procession will also depend on the level of solemnity and the practice of your parish. The need for and kind of accompaniment will depend on the acoustic of your worship space as well as the level of solemnity.
The Graduale Simplex gives special prominence to the psalmist, a role defined by the 1981 Lectionary for Mass: Introduction as follows:
When any verse of a chant between the readings is meant to be sung by more than one psalmist (indicated by the underlined verse number), these psalmists may form a schola to sing such verses from the ambo (if it can accommodate them), or from near the ambo, or from some other suitable place (LMI 33 and 34; GIRM 36).
Psalms sometimes need to be sung by different solo and ensemble voices so that all may understand who it is who is speaking in the psalm (God, an individual, a man, a woman, men, women, two different choirs, pilgrims, residents, and the like). Such nuances are discussed in the Performance Notes section on pp. 417–428 under the name of the season or feast.
The Antiphonary
The Antiphonary is the heart of the Graduale Simplex: It contains two kinds of chants for seasons, feasts, commons, and rituals: processional chants and chants between the readings. Instructions about matters specific to seasons are found at Advent Season I, Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday of Lent, Easter Season I, and Ordinary Time I. Some individual celebrations have instructions peculiar to them, which are spelled out at each celebration.
For the great solemnities of the church year, as well as for feasts which, when they fall on Sundays in Ordinary Time, take the place of such Sundays, the Graduale Simplex offers a suite of processional chants and chants between the readings especially chosen for the day: "In the Proper of Saints there are proper chants for the celebrations that have precedence when they coincide with a Sunday" (GS 16).
GS 15 says, "In the Proper of Seasons not every Sunday has its own proper chants; instead there are one or more formularies for each liturgical season that may be used on the Sundays throughout that season. Each feast of the Lord does have proper chants." A later paragraph in the same document gives permission to "mix and match" antiphons/psalms and responses/psalms within a season: "When more than one formulary is given for the same season, the choice of one of them is optional, according to what seems best for the occasion. Some parts may even be chosen from one formulary and some from another" (GS 21). Such choices would depend on what the assembly knows already or can be taught easily.
But these choices also depend primarily on the Liturgy of the Word proclaimed that day, particularly the communion song, which in the tradition has always tried to show the reception of the eucharist as the fulfillment of the readings, especially the gospel. The overarching rule guiding the selection of songs to be sung at any liturgy is the following:
There are two basic kinds of chants in the Graduale Simplex, processional chants and responsorial chants. Each kind has its own guidelines.
The Processional Chants
Not counting the chant for the gospel procession for the moment, there are three processional chants in the Graduale Simplex: "the entrance, offertory, and communion chants . . . made up of an antiphon, verse, and reprise of the antiphon" (GS 13). At least one verse must be sung and all the verses provided may be sung, plus the doxology (Glory to the Father, etc.) which is found on pp. 375–378. If the antiphon is well-known to the assembly or if it is well-rehearsed, the cantor sings up to the asterisk and then the assembly continues to the end. If the antiphon is being introduced to the assembly, the cantor sings the entire antiphon through and then the assembly repeats the antiphon. The assembly repeats the antiphon after each verse and after the doxology, as the official introduction says:
People familiar with chant will notice that each verse of these processional chants is intoned, that is, there are preparation tones (a note or group of notes for each of the italicized syllables) which lead up to the recitation tone (the pitch at which most of the words of the psalm verse are sung).
Suggestions for abbreviating the number of verses to be sung are found in the Performance Notes. But why would you want to sing many verses? In order to accomplish the four goals of the entrance song and the three goals of the communion song! About each of these songs the General Instruction of the Roman Missal tells us:
The function [of the communion song] is to express outwardly the communicants' union in spirit by means of the unity of their voices, to give evidence of joy of heart, and to make the procession to receive Christ's body [and blood] more fully an act of the community (GIRM 56i)
If one had to say what is the most important processional chant to be sung, it would be the communion song. For this reason GS 21 says:
But, as is indicated at the end of this volume, p. 386, other suitable chants may be chosen at will.
The Chants between the Readings
These chants are perhaps the greatest "innovation" of the Graduale Simplex. They are based on the simple responsories, the responsoria brevia, of the ancient Liturgy of the Hours in both monasteries and cathedrals.
There is a critical difference between the customary way responsorial psalms and alleluia psalms (that is, where the response is one or two or even three "alleluias") are sung today and the way they are sung in the responsoria brevia style. We are used to the psalmist singing the entire responsorial antiphon which is then repeated by the assembly; then the psalmist usually sings two (or even more) verses of the psalm or canticle and then the assembly repeats the antiphon. In the responsoria brevia style, the psalmist begins to sing the psalm and the response emerges from within the text. If the assembly knows the response well or if it is well-rehearsed, they can sing the response immediately; if they do not, the psalmist sings the response as it emerges from the text and then the assembly repeats it. The assembly repeats the response after each verse of the psalm.
To illustrate this difference, see the responsorial psalm 3, Psalm 80 with the response, "Come and set us free, Lord mighty God." The psalmist begins by singing: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!" If the assembly knows the response well, they can sing it immediately; if they do not, the psalmist sings it as it emerges from the text and then the assembly repeats it.
This is even clearer in the responsorial psalm 12, Psalm 122 with the response, "Let us go to the house of the Lord!" The psalmists (notice that the verse number is underlined) no sooner sing, "I was glad when they said to me," than the assembly (if they know it) replies, "Let us go to the house of the Lord!" (If the assembly do not know it, the psalmists sing "Let us go to the house of the Lord!" as it emerges from the text and then the assembly repeats it.) In fact the Performance Note for this psalm says that it is best performed by two scholas alternating on the verses (e.g., schola one sings verse 1, schola two sings verse 2, etc.), in imitation of the way the crowds of pilgrims, schola two, sang this song as they entered Jerusalem, to the encouragement of the residents of the city, schola one.
As another example, see the alleluia psalm 5. The psalmist sings, "Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob"; and, if the assembly knows to sing the alleluia at this point, they can sing it immediately; if they do not, the psalmist sings the alleluia as it emerges from the text and then the assembly repeats it.
As a final example, see the alleluia psalm 23. This is a double alleluia psalm, of which there are seven kinds in this book. (For the most successful participation, these double psalms ought to be rehearsed before the liturgy.) The psalmist sings, "O sing to the Lord a new song"; and, if the assembly knows to sing the first alleluia (or set of alleluias, as applicable) at this point, they can sing it immediately; if they do not, the schola or choir may sing the alleluia. The psalmist then sings, "for he has done marvelous things"; to which the assembly responds with the second alleluia (or set of alleluias, as applicable).
Thus, there are the five kinds of chants between the readings:
a. [1] a responsorial psalm, with psalm verse or [2] Alleluia as the response;
b. [3] a psalm without a response, traditionally called a "tract";
c. [4] an Alleluia with psalm verses for the seasons when the Alleluia is sung or [5] another gospel acclamation without Alleluia for the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter (GS 14).
And how are these options arranged and used?
a. Outside Lent and the Easter season, the responsorial psalm is sung after the first reading; after the second reading, the psalm with Alleluia as the verse or the antiphon Alleluia with its own verses.
b. During Lent, after the first reading, the first responsorial psalm is sung; after the second, either the second responsorial psalm or an antiphon of acclamation or a tract.
c. During the Easter season, after the first reading the first or second psalm with Alleluia as the verse is sung; after the second reading, either the second psalm with Alleluia as the verse or the antiphon Alleluia with its verses.
Whenever there is only a single reading before the gospel, a single chant may be chosen at will from those appropriate to the reading. At least five verses of a psalm, chosen at will, are always sung, whenever more than five are given (GS 21).
Chants for the Order of the Mass
Any special directions for the use of this section is found in the rubrics throughout the section. Your use of these chants will depend on the level of solemnity of the day in question as well as how your parish wishes to celebrate such days.
Chants for the Ordinary of the Mass
The Mass parts provided are numbered sequentially in order to make it easier, as desired, to have an Ordinary made up of selections from the different settings. Rather than singing the entire Agnus Dei/Lamb of God, the congregation may simply respond with the miserere nobis/have mercy on us and dona nobis pacem/grant us peace.
Levels of Solemnity
Throughout this explanation I have used the term "levels of solemnity" (or synonyms) to remind church musicians of an essential principle: Every use of the ceremonial, environmental, and musical options found in our liturgical books must clearly show that solemnities are more important than feasts, and that feasts are more important than memorials and ordinary days. The "Table of Liturgical Days according to Their Order of Precedence" is printed in every sacramentary and lectionary but few see it as what it is: a topographical map of the Church's annual liturgical journey. In light of this principle of graduated or progressive solemnity, local liturgists must reassess their local "traditions" concerning the use of incense, the book of the gospel, candles, processional cross, number and vesture of ministers, processions, vesture, flowers and branches, and banners. Of course, "pulling out all the stops" is not necessarily the best way to increase solemnity; it can often be oppressive; sometimes "less is more." In many communities the music is made to bear the full weight of implementing the progressive solemnity —an unfair burden. Nevertheless musicians must reexamine not only what gets sung, but who sings it, and how it is sung.
Tempi and Accidentals
There are no tempi marked in this book. The flow of the words themselves and their intelligibility in your worship space should dictate the rate of singing. Each phrase should retain its natural word accents with the unaccented syllables sung in a style more legato rather than less.
The only one accidental in chant is Ti-flat, usually indicated by the flat sign but in Mode IV by the natural sign. The accidental "remains in effect only throughout the word in which it occurs or up to the nearest solid bar line (i.e., Quarter Bar, Half Bar, Full Bar, or Double Bar)."
Signs
In the body of the book the following signs have the following meanings:
Psalm numbers are printed in their Hebrew and Vulgate numbers whenever these two numbers differ; "V" means the psalm number of the Vulgate edition. Any reference after the colon indicates the verse of the psalm or other text (usually biblical) from which the antiphon or response is taken. In responsorial psalms the citation in parenthesis indicates the source of the antiphon; if this citation is only a number, it indicates that the antiphon is from a verse of the same psalm as the responsorial psalm.
Information printed above the staff in the right corner indicates biblical source for the responsorial psalm, tract, or alleluia psalm, as well as the cultural family of the particular chant when it differs from Gregorian chant, usually Mozarabic (Old Spanish) or Ambrosian (Milanese).
R indicates the assembly's response. V indicates the verse sung by the psalmist(s), cantor(s), schola(s), or choir(s).
Underscoring of a verse number means this verse may sung by the choir or by schola rather than by the cantor.
Underscoring of any syllable indicates that this syllable in sung to two or more notes as indicated by the psalm tone, usually by a solid slur but sometimes by a dashed slur.
Slurs which occur above two or three notes at the same pitch indicate distrophas or tristrophas (respectively), and they are performed by a slight pulse on each note. Slurs which occur above two notes within a group of three or more notes over one syllable indicate a pressus, and they are performed by an emphatic intensification, rather than a pulsation, of the two notes tied together.
Italics at the beginning of a verse indicate the intonation of the psalm tone; one, two, and even three syllables may form this intonation; italics toward the end of the first or second line of verse indicate syllables which precede the musical accent(s).
Bold indicates the syllable(s) on which the musical accent(s) fall(s). Bold at or near the beginning of a verse indicate the musical accent(s) in the intonation of the special double responsorial psalm tones. In several modes and responsorial tones the bracket above bold syllables in the final cadences indicates that the musical accent is distributed evenly over these syllables.
Acute accents (´) indicate the syllable on which (or, in the case of an underlined syllable, during which) the pitch rises at the beginning of the middle or final cadence of the particular psalm tone.
Grave accents (`) indicate the syllable on which (or, in the case of an underlined syllable, during which) the pitch falls at the beginning of the middle or final cadence of the particular psalm tone.
The asterisk (*) in an antiphon indicates an option; at this point in the antiphon the choir or even the assembly may join the cantor, either in the repetition of the antiphon after each verse or even at the very first intonation of the antiphon. The asterisk in a psalm tone or text indicates the middle or mediant cadence, "the temporary stopping place in the middle of the psalm verse which divides the verse into two parallel phrases, thus accommodating the parallel structure of the Hebrew psalmodic poetry."
The dagger (†) is the sign of the Flex, the "momentary drop in the melody in the event of a very long line of text prior to the mediant cadence." The use of the dagger with the abbreviation "E.S." indicates alternate endings which add the word "alleluia" for use during the Easter Season.
The superscript comma (’) in a responsorial psalm, tract, or alleluia psalm indicates the place where a pause for breath may be taken. The following note shapes are defined thus:
The filled-in notehead indicates the basic unit of pitch duration. When it is enclosed in parentheses, the note is optional. When it is modified by a horizontal line (episema), you slightly emphasize the syllable by prolonging the tone. When it is modified by a jagged line, you "lengthen the note or notes preceeding it"; the quilisma note itself "is sung lightly, leading to the following note." The open notehead doubles the basic unit of pitch duration. The stemless double whole notehead indicates the reciting tone in a psalm tone.
The bar lines are defined thus:
The incise or quarter barline "shows the smallest phrase unit; avoid taking a breath at this point." The half barline indicates the completion of a larger segment; "normally a breath may be taken here." The dashed barlines (used only in the psalmody) indicates that the note(s) which follow the dashed barlines indicate either of the two ways to sing the mediant cadence, depending on the pointing (the marking) of the psalm; in other words, everything up to the dashed barline is common and only what follows the dashed barline is different.The full barline indicates the termination of a complete musical phrase; "this should be followed by one or two rests." The double barline indicates the end of the piece or the place where, when two different groups are singing, they alternate.
A Note to Scholars
In your perusal of this volume you will notice that, in the psalmody, I have disaggregated neumes and abbreviated intonations, when setting some psalm verses using processional psalm tones I, III, IV, VI, and VII, as well as the responsorial psalm tones C 2, C 3, D *, E 1, E 2, E 5, E 5 *, and E *. (It was easier to keep the rules in processional psalm tones II, V, and VIII and in responsorial tones C 1, C 4, C *, D 1, E 3, and E 4). In the antiphons, acclamations, hymns, and songs I have treated many phrases more syllabically than you might have preferred. I had two rules in mind: When the text in question was to be sung by the assembly, the tune needed to be straightforward, singable, and unfussy; when the text was to be sung by the cantor, choir, or psalmist, the psalm tone needed to convey the sense of the psalm easily to the assembly, in natural sounding English.
In the context of Gregorian melodies, my sense is that English syllables are stressed in two ways: a) by lengthening them, and b) by singing them on the first note which moves above or below the tenor or dominant of the mode. Thus, these syllables must be naturally stressed English syllables. English also prefers strong endings (or, to use Hiley's terminology, English prefers accentual cadences rather than cursive cadences18), so I paid special attention to the use of the tones in their mediant and final cadences. Let me explain what my reasoning was systematically by speaking of intonations and cadences in the psalmody and of modal and melodic integrity of the antiphons, acclamations, hymns, and songs.
Intonations in the Psalmody
When we are speaking about intonations, we are talking about how to handle the singing of unstressed syllables which precede the first stressed syllable. Here I have been guided by the exemplary piece of Mozarabic chant in the Graduale Simplex, pp. 454–459, 654 of this volume. There you can see intonations that are accentual rather than cursive. The fullest form of the intonation (podatus-clivis, similar to psalm tone VII) is reserved for anapestic words like benedícam and exquisívi and for the paeonic word magnificáte. The modified intonation form (punctum-porrectus) is reserved for iambic words like gustáte and vallábit and for anacrusistic syllable(s) as in the phrase in Dómino or in the word respícite. The abbreviated intonation form (podatus) is reserved for trocaic words or phrases like ípse and quis es and for dactylic words like dívites. In my marrying of the NRSV translation of Psalm 34 to this tune, I used the fullest form for phrases like "I will bless" (v. 1), the modified form for phrases like "my soul" (v. 2), and the abbreviated form for phrases like "Come, O" (v. 11).
Performing this marriage ceremony taught me greater sensitivity to English stresses and ways to achieve them using plainsong psalm tones, a sensitivity and methods which I have applied to the intonations of the processional psalm tones I, III, IV, VI, and VII. I added an extra preliminary punctum to tones I, III, IV, and VI so that I could accommodate anapestic words and phrases in these ones; I also removed the standard preliminary punctum when the verse began with trocaic or dactylic words or phrases. In tone VII I disaggregated the podatus and clivis in intonations which begin with anapestic words or phrases.
Cadences in the Psalmody
Abrupt mediation On July 8 and December 12, 1912, the Sacred Congregation for Rites gave permission, in the case of verses which terminate on monosyllables, for abrupt mediations in psalm tones with mediants of one accent (tones II, IV, VI, and VIII). Psalms in English has many more such verses than psalms in Latin, so I used this permission extensively.
Disaggregation of neumes In explaining the responsorial psalm tones of the Graduale Simplex (pp. 440–445), the editors point out that when the psalm verse ends with a dactyl, an extra note may be inserted or the podatus or clivis may be disaggregated into its components, that is, into two notes (pp. 440, 442, 443, and 444). One can see in these directives a preference for cadences that are more accentual than cursive. I regularly used these flexibilities throughout this book, not just in responsorial psalmody but also in processional psalmody, whenever I could not apply the standard rules. I was particularly concerned about wedding any psalm verse which ends with a trochee or a trocaic phrase or a dactyl or a dactylic phrase with any processional psalm tones which ends with a dotted podatus (I a 2, VII c, VII d), a dotted clivis (I f, III a, VII c 2, VII a), or a torculus (I g 2). I also worked painstakingly with any processional psalm tone whose final cadence consists of one accent with preparatory syllables meant to be sung on two-note neumes. Because my rule has been that the psalm tone needed to convey the sense of the psalm easily to the assembly, in natural sounding English, I carefully disaggregated any neume which tended to lend musical stress to an unstressed English syllable.
Modal and Melodic Integrity of the Antiphons, Acclamations, Hymns, and Songs
As I said above, my sense about singing English to Gregorian melodies and modes is that lengthening of any syllables (singing them longer or on two or more notes) stresses these syllables and that these syllables need to be naturally stressed English syllables. I wanted to enable assemblies to sing these melodies somewhat easily. Since the original melodies are in many cases centonized, I looked not only at melodies in the same mode but the same melody applied to different sets of words to discern the melodic scheme common to all. Frequently enough this scheme is very syllabic and thus more suited to an English text.
I take full responsibility for the errors and decisions made in this book and beg those who use it to write me about any corrections and improvements they would suggest (paulfford@sjs-sc.org). Corrections will be available over the World Wide Web at (http://www.litpress.org/ byflowingwaters) and will be incorporated in future printings.
Paul F. Ford