Updated – Non Solum: Posture of the assembly during the Psalm

A follow-up to Jonathan Day’s Non Solum post in March:

Our parish celebrates a solemn Latin Mass every Sunday, Missal of Paul VI, with the support of professional musicians.  The music itself ranges from modern composers to polyphony and chant; the standard of music is very high.

In the past, the psalm was read by the reader of the first lesson, with the congregation saying a response between verses. Recently, we started to sing the psalm, in English, with the choir and congregation alternating verses and response. Congregational participation in singing the psalm has been increasing, but we would like to see more of it.

Would asking the congregation to stand to sing the psalm with the choir encourage more participation? Is it even rubrically legitimate to ask them to stand?

Please comment below.

The original post duplicated part of Jonathan Day’s Non Solum post from March.

Nathan Chase

Nathan P. Chase is Assistant Professor of Liturgical and Sacramental Theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, MO. He has contributed a number of articles to the field of liturgical studies, including pieces on liturgy in the early Church, initiation, the Eucharist, inculturation, and the Western Non-Roman Rites, in particular the Hispano-Mozarabic tradition. His first book The Homiliae Toletanae and the Theology of Lent and Easter was published in 2020. His second monograph, published in 2023, is titled The Anaphoral Tradition in the ‘Barcelona Papyrus.’

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Comments

24 responses to “Updated – Non Solum: Posture of the assembly during the Psalm”

  1. Fr. Jack Feehily

    How does this practice articulate the principle that music is the servant of the liturgy? Do we gather to offer the Eucharist with and in Jesus Christ for the purpose of being regaled by professional musicians? Catholics have been criticized for years by non-Catholics wondering about all that “up and down” sort of stuff. Sorry, but I believe the assembly should be fully participating in the Kyrie and the Gloria, not just by sitting and being “edified” by glorious renditions by professional musicians. I believe that was a decadent practice in the Mass of old and does not need to be disinterred in the 21st century.

    Reply
    1. Adam Wood

      @Fr. Jack Feehily – comment #1:

      Wow.

      Reply
    2. Bill deHaas

      @Fr. Jack Feehily – comment #1:
      Fr. – it is opera.

      Reply
  2. Adam Wood

    >>Sorry, but I believe the assembly should be fully participating in the Kyrie and the Gloria,

    So, you would or wouldn’t approve of a refrain-style Gloria in which a cantor sings the verses?

    >>does not need to be disinterred in the 21st century

    How terribly inclusive of you.

    Reply
  3. Todd Orbitz

    What’s described is the standard practice at most places I know of that have retained orchestral Masses. It is the standard practice at the Vatican. I see no problem at all with it.

    Optima legum interpres est consuetudo.

    Reply
  4. Brian Palmer

    I suggest the entrance rite is usually too long and drawn out. Have the Gloria as the entrance hymn of both people and choir standing. During Lent and Advent an appropriate psalm replaces the Gloria. Get right to the Collect and readings.

    The Kyrie in Greek to be sung by people and choir as the response to the petitions in the Prayer of the Faithful.

    Reply
    1. Adam Wood

      @Brian Palmer – comment #6:
      What?

      Reply
  5. Fritz Bauerschmidt

    Didn’t we discuss the first part of this question a few months back?

    Reply
    1. Nathan Chase

      @Fritz Bauerschmidt – comment #8:
      Thanks Fritz for reminding me we had already posted on the Kyrie and Gloria. For some reason my master list of Non Solum topics did not reflect that. I have since updated the post to focus the discussion on the posture of the assembly during the psalm.

      Thanks, and sorry for the confusion!

      Reply
  6. Charles Day

    My limited experience is that my congregation and everyone who will sing the Psalm response does so. Standing would not add to it. What I think does add to congregational response is to make it simple enough for non-professionals to follow. People want to sing if they have the ability to do so.

    Some have criticized Fr. Jack, but he makes basically the same point that was made in a recent post about cantors: if it all arcs to you and not Christ, you’ve overplayed your hand and missed the point. For too many musical types, I get the impression that they think “it’s Showtime, folks” when Mass begins.

    Reply
  7. Paul Inwood

    I, too, thought we had had this discussion before.

    There is a fundamental difference between the Responsorial Psalm, which is designed to be reflective and to be sung sitting down, and the Communion Psalm, which is also reflective but is designed to be sung while walking in procession. End of story.

    If Jonathan and others think that the singing of the responsorial psalm response by the people can be improved, then part of the answer lies in how the assembly is animated, not by changing its posture. The way that the cantor does (or does not) elicit a response from the people is crucial, and some of that depends not only on the technique of the cantor but on the cantor’s personality and attitude and the building up of a relationship with the people.

    I would also say that the quality of the responses that we are asking people to sing is a big factor. Many responses show bad word-setting, or are uninspiring, or have the wrong tessitura, or a combination of some or all of these. If you were sitting in the pews, you wouldn’t want to sing mediocre stuff like that, so why should they? At a conservative estimate, I would say that 90% of the responses out there are not fit for purpose. They are tedious, utilitarian Gebrauchsmusik which will never lift up and inspire our people and even change their lives, and I include in that music by people who, in my opinion, are sufficiently talented to do better.

    People will dispute this with me, and that, for me, simply proves that they do not “see” the problem. We have spent 45 years providing people with responses that they actually mostly don’t want to sing. And the response is the thing that makes the difference. You can get away with a less-than-ideal setting of the verses if you have got the response right.

    I think this derives in part from a lack of imagination in dealing with the response texts on the part of composers, in part from a lack of understanding of what assemblies can do and what “switches them on”, and in part difficulties with the wording of the responses themselves, particularly in the USA and Australia where the ICEL responses hold their defective sway. The trouble is that people pick up a published collection of psalms and think that because it is in print it must therefore be OK. That’s an assumption which needs to be challenged, and which doesn’t just apply to psalm settings!

    Reply
  8. Earle Luscombe

    Paul Inwood @#11, your comments while interesting, and I do agree with a lot of what you said, lack a few examples of what you consider to be good response texts. Could you give us a few?

    Reply
  9. William Earl

    “Would asking the congregation to stand to sing the psalm with the choir encourage more participation?”

    Absolutely. But that is not the question a Catholic musician asks.

    Reply
  10. Ron Jones

    Personally, I would like to see most all of the current contemporary psalm settings intended for use as a responsorial, overhauled and rewritten. Most of that list works well as communion procession music but not as responsorial psalms. They are either too wordy, too long, too dramatic, trying too hard to be musically relevant to what used to be the current pop style, or in some cases, just boring. Lately, I think the quality of the music written for this purpose in the liturgy has improved greatly. But they are so few and far between. I’m over the days of looking for something “catchy” in favor of something prayerful. The position of sitting during the psalm reflects and supports the need for prayerful settings. It’s not the Alleluia and should not be approached as such. It’s a time to reflect upon and respond to the Word of God. That’s why we sit. And in my own experience, the more simple the melody, the better the singing.

    Reply
  11. Sean Whelan

    I firmly believe in what Paul Inwood has said – choose GOOD psalm settings and the people will sing. I hand pick each psalm based on tunefulness, how it echoes the emotion of the text, and a few other factors. The cantors would probably prefer that I just stick to simpler settings, but the extra effort pays off. I just spent two days selecting the psalms through September. I use every resource I can find – WLP’s Lectionary Psalms, Notre Dame Psalms, Guimont, Gelineau, Lyric Psalter, Cry Out With Joy, Psallite, Psalms for the Church Year, Lead Me Guide Me 2, and individual settings I’ve picked up over the years. It’s worked beautifully in the 4 parishes I’ve been at, both rural and city. Just today, the organ shorted on me during the psalm, so I had to continue it a cappella(Cantor backed out on me an hour before due to illness, hence just me.) and they beautifully belted out Steve Warner’s Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord. It was touching really, but that’s just how they respond every week.

    Reply
    1. Linda Reid

      @Sean Whelan – comment #15:
      Yes, Sean! I do the same and get the same results – some of the psalmody I select is even meant to be sung a capella! And everyone sits.

      Reply
  12. STEVEN SURRENCY

    As a non-musician, all I ask is that you be consistent year to year. I love going to mass and, after the first few organ notes, recognizing the psalm to be sung. I think participation, in the long run, calls for more repetition and less novelty.

    Reply
  13. Todd Flowerday

    Jack’s comments at #1 are strong, but largely spot-on.

    I would take a small objection to my colleague Paul’s observation about “reflection.” The Psalm is also Scripture, and its placement in the liturgy implies it is part of the proclamation of the Word. It is the one text of the proclaimed Word put, in part, on the tongues of the assembly. If I had the repertoire, I would have no problem dispensing with the responsorial format and singing the psalms through.

    As for the question given, if the people are starting to sing it, let them sit. And continue giving them accessible and appropriate repertoire. I found the common psalms useful 35 years ago when my parish was first singing the psalm. Is that a TLM option?

    Reply
    1. Roger Evans

      @Todd Flowerday – comment #17:

      Yes, the psalm is in the Bible, but it’s not scripture to be proclaimed. Our “responsorial” psalm (I put responsorial in quotation marks because, in English, we sing it antiphonally, unlike in the Simple Gradual/By Flowing Waters and in the languages of some other countries where the responsorial form is retained) is not to be proclaimed, but sung. It stands in place of the Gradual, which was/is a musically more elaborate and textually much shorter psalm. I’ve always found interesting the explanation of what it’s for that Amalarius of Metz gave in the 9th century. He said that, since we’re to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, our first opportunity to be doers of the word is to sing the response to the reading. Not a bad idea to use in animating assemblies to sing!

      Reply
  14. Gerry Davila

    I’m all for using the Psalms, Alleluias, acclamations, and tracts from the Graduale Simplex, and/or their musical formulae (drawn, I believe, mostly from the short responsories of the Office). We’ve used them to great success, even applying the formulae to the psalms in the Book of Blessings.

    As for posture, I say sit.

    Reply
  15. joseph mangone

    I have never seen any congregation(roman, anglican, lutheran, etc) stand for the psalm whether it is sung or said. I agree with Fr jack and others in this post: choose clear, simple psalms that people can pick up and sing and you will fulfill what is required in the liturgy. Bringing in paid musicians goes against the purpose of worship. Every parish has talented musicians that can be asked “or called” using their talents and gifts for the praise and glory of God.

    Reply
  16. David Jaronowski

    joseph mangone : Bringing in paid musicians goes against the purpose of worship. Every parish has talented musicians that can be asked “or called” using their talents and gifts for the praise and glory of God.

    I must strenuously disagree.

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      @David Jaronowski – comment #20:

      I think Joseph Mangone was not commenting so much about paid musicians as about trained musicians who have received musical training but not necessarily liturgical or pastoral formation. Some musicians are “too musical”, too performance-orientated, and the music they inflict (not too strong a word) on congregations is, while no doubt aesthetically very satisfying, too complex, too discursive, too concerned with music and not enough with prayer. I could go on. But I do not think that these musicians form more than a minority of paid liturgical musicians. Clearly Joseph has encountered more than his fair share of that minority.

      By the way, in case anyone should misunderstand, the characteristics I have mentioned apply right across the stylistic spectrum, and not only to the usual suspects.

      Reply
  17. Paul R. Schwankl

    If I remember correctly, the responsorial psalm brought Marty Haugen into composing for Catholic worship: he took a job with a Catholic parish, was scandalized by the low quality of the settings available for the psalm, and set out to do better himself.
    I appreciate Paul Inwood’s frustration with what’s out there, but the psalm is a tough assignment for a composer. (I think he himself did all right with “Center of My Life.”) The main reason, I think, is that psalms as Scripture require especially full, active, and conscious participation from the worshiper; without it, they can melt into a mass of God-is-so-great clichés. Bringing that participation about through a musical setting is not easy. I’ve said part of the Office most days for forty or fifty years, and I still don’t connect with the psalms as I would like to.

    Reply

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