Missal antiphons

Singing — or not singing — the antiphons of the Roman Missal

by Paul Inwood

This is a revised and much-expanded version of comments made in several previous threads.

Purpose of the antiphons

Fr Pierre Jounel, the French liturgist and teacher who was a member of a number of the working groups of the Consilium in the years following Sacrosanctum Concilium, said in the course of a lecture in 1977 that those responsible for the liturgical reforms seriously contemplated omitting the antiphons from the 1969/70 Missale Romanum altogether. He said the only reason they retained the antiphons was so that those who wanted to continue to use the Latin chants of the Graduale could do so. The phrase he used was “to placate the Gregorianists”. Continue reading “Singing — or not singing — the antiphons of the Roman Missal” →

Nova Vulgata and New Grail (wonkish)

by Anthony Ruff, OSB

A regular Pray Tell reader was concerned about this comment by “anonymous” which we excerpted from GSGP:

Musicians should be particularly concerned, it seems to me, by the fact that the antiphons have come back in the form documented in section 2 of the Leaked Texts part of Rindfleisch’s article. What a shame that the seasonal appropriateness of some of those antiphons will be lost by 2010’s decision, contrary to LA, to nix the Vulgate base and go with the New Grail. 

 She writes:

What makes this person think that a new translation of the psalms–done according to the norms of LA–would be done without consideration of the Nova Vulgata? That’s quite an insinuation, it seems to me. And, if the Revised Grail Psalms are the preferred version for use at liturgy, then why not use them for those antiphons that are from psalms? I can’t speak to the comment about the loss of seasonal appropriateness that comes with the Revised Grail, but it seems to paint with a rather broad brush. 

Comments?

awr