Tony's November Chips Article

Sing to The Lord: Music in Divine Worship

The Church at Prayer

(part 2 of 4)

By

Tony Sievert

Last month I shared some of the commentary from Rev. Virgil Funk on the church document, "Sing To Lord: Music in Divine Worship". It focused on the first portion of the actual document which deals with the many reasons why we sing. The next section of STL is called, "The Church at Prayer" and this is some of what it talks about:

It deals with the "who's" of the Church at prayer and refers first to the individual roles of the bishop, the priest, the gathered liturgical assembly, and finally the ministers of liturgical music. It then goes on to speak about leadership and formation, music in Catholic schools, diverse cultures and languages, and Latin in the liturgy. Here are some of the highlights --

THE BISHOP (paragraphs 16-17) - "is assisted in his role by his staff…(to promote) sacred music together with pastoral liturgical action in the diocese." This refers to people like Rita Thiron in the Office of Worship who help the bishop in forming diocesan parishes in the ways of sound practices with regard to music and liturgy.

THE PRIEST (paragraphs 18-21) - The document gets more specific on the roles of the priest when it comes to music and the Mass: The priest should, "Sing the dialogues, such as "The Lord be with you," and the introductory dialogue of the Eucharistic Prayer, "Sing when the assembly sings except the memorial acclamation and Amen because these are in a call-and-response format", "When the assembly sings, sing with out being heard over the assembly. The microphone can be turned off if necessary." (alrighty then!)

THE ASSEMBLY (paragraphs 24-27) - The document addresses three concerns for the today's assembly; division in the assembly, musical formation of the assembly, and introducing new music. On the first point, it poses questions which we might ask ourselves about our assembly, "how can the faithful shun any appearance of individualism or division." On formation, it talks about singing being one of the most important ways that the assembly fully, actively, consciously participates, and how vital musical formation is in having this happen. It doesn't go into, per se, how to do it. Finally on introducing new music, in a similarly vague fashion, it says that a "pastoral judgement" must be made in deciding when and how often to introduce new music.

MINISTERS OF LITURGICAL MUSIC (paragraphs 28-47) - this is a large portion of this section of the document. Interestingly, it mentions the choir FIRST in order of discussion, which shows a way in which this document is placing particular emphasis on the choir. It says, "the choir must not minimize the participation of the faithful", and are to be drawn from the assembly (rather than be paid musicians).

STL also defines the term, "ensemble" as a form of choir that commonly includes singers and instrumentalists (like our Contemporary Music Group).

It says that choirs (and therefore ensembles) should sing:

BY ALTERNATING WITH THE ASSEMBLY DURING THE

Litanies, Kyrie, and Agnus Dei (Lamb of God)

Gloria or Creed, when composed with antiphons

Three processional songs (entrance, communion, and closing hymn)

THE CHOIR MAY SING ALONE DURING THE

Prelude

Entrance chant

Preparation of the gifts

Communion procession

Time after the reception of Communion

One of the things the document mentions that I find particularly interesting as a choir director, is that choir directors are discouraged from directing the choir when the assembly is singing so as not to give the impression that the choir is replacing the assembly's song. It also makes an important distinction by saying that the choir does not, "lead congregational singing, but.. sing(s) with the congregation (32).

The next portion of the document goes into some rather picky language discuss the roles of "psalmist" and "cantor". Historically in other Roman documents, these have been considered two different roles, in the United States we have often linked the roles of the psalmist and the cantor. STL has some language to it which goes along with combining these roles, (referring to the psalmist as "the cantor of the psalm"), but also recognizes the Roman legislation with the statement, "Although the psalmist's role is distinct from the role of the cantor, the two ministries are often entrusted to the same person." It gives these directives for the cantor:

- The cantor leads those dialogues STL assigns to the choir when the choir is not

present

- The cantor should control the volume of his/her voice when the assembly is singing

- Gestures should be modest and should not be designed to direct the assembly

- The cantor does not need to be seen every time the assembly sings, especially if the assembly knows its musical role

- The cantor, in performing his or her roles, does not use the ambo or wear a cassock

The Organist and Other Instrumentalists (paragraphs 41-44)

The major thing to notice about these paragraphs from STL are that there are some differences in the way that organ/instrumental solo music is designated for use as compared with what it says in Music in Catholic Worship. MCW (the earlier document), talks about the use of solo organ music as, "an instrumental prelude, a soft background to a spoken psalm, at the preparation of the gifts in place of singing, during the procession of the communion rite, and the recessional." STL refers to using solo organ music in all of these places EXCEPT as background to the responsorial psalm and during the communion procession. As organists and music directors, then, we are being encouraged toward singing exclusively in these portions of the liturgy primarily (good thing, because that’s how we do it at our parish!)

Director of Music Ministries (paragraphs 45-47)

"Sing To The Lord" is the first official document to list the title 'director of music ministries' as a unique role in parish ministry. So, as a director of music ministry, I can say that it feels good that we're going the official distinction we deserve!

The final paragraphs of this portion of the document, "Leadership and Formation", "Music In Catholic Schools", "Diverse Cultures and Languages", and "Latin in the Liturgy" all point to the need for competent and pastoral leadership when it comes to celebrating liturgy well. I am most intrigued by the final section on the use of Latin, as I, personally, am a huge fan of using Latin chants as part of worship (in a sparing and pastorally responsible way, of course). I think that to use Latin chants connects us in a very special way to the tradition of the Church and to the way in which Catholics have celebrated for centuries. I also appreciate the overtone in STL in speaking of the use of Latin in the liturgy as a unifying force particularly in light of the ever increasing desire to address multiculturalism and diversity in our celebrations.

I am continuing to study this document, and I hope I can continue to bring you what things I have learned from it both in these articles for "Chips" and in our worship at liturgy.

Soli Deo Gloria!