{"id":37146,"date":"2017-08-16T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T20:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=37146"},"modified":"2017-08-16T18:02:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T23:02:00","slug":"once-again-antiphons-or-hymns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/","title":{"rendered":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Holy Day Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the abbey yesterday, bookended by the two alternatives we often talk about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Entrance antiphon in the <em>lovely <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/assumption-entrance-antiphon-rice\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-37154\">English chant setting of Richard Rice<\/a>.\u00a0Congregation sang the free-rhythm antiphon \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,\u201d cantors sang the beautiful through-composed Mode 7 chant verses, all with simple organ accompaniment. (I took the liberty of adding in slurs to make the text underlay clearer for the singers.)<\/li>\n<li>Closing hymn: \u201cHail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above.\u201d No further comment needed to explain this one. Although \u2013 I looked up and saw two young people giggling when this began, and I wondered whether they knew this piece from Whoopee Goldberg and not from church-going, and thought it funny that we were doing a piece from a famous movie. Maybe not, who knows.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The people really sang on the closing hymn, and seemed to enjoy a rousing rendition of an old favorite. Opening antiphon, not so much. Oh, it was OK &#8211; but only really strong by the final antiphon (after one psalm verse and one vernacular <em>Gloria Patri<\/em> verse), and even then more sound from the monks\u2019 side of the choir than the guests\u2019 side.<\/p>\n<p>I found opening antiphon <em>beautiful \u2013 <\/em>contemplative, alluring, evocative, reverent, \u201cmonastic.\u201d But still, my first thought was that it didn\u2019t work because some of the lay people seemed uninvolved, or unmoved, or perhaps bored.<\/p>\n<p>My second thought was this: not so fast. Should we assume that seemingly less external engagement is an accurate reflection of people\u2019s inner state? Does deep, contemplative participation maybe look \u201cuninvolved\u201d to the superficial observer? Should we liturgical planners be less insecure, less worried about instant results, and more trusting that the beauty of the liturgy speaks to people?<\/p>\n<p>My third thought was more political. \u201cFr. Nick will love this,\u201d I thought to myself. \u201cBut Fr. X probably dislikes it and thinks our traditionalism is shutting people out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And on cue, Fr. Nick said to me in the refectory at supper: \u201cThanks \u2013 the antiphons at Mass were really beautiful!\u201d (There was also a communion antiphon, a metered setting, and of course a Responsorial Psalm which in this case was a simple chant setting composed by me.) But Fr. X said nothing to me \u2013 either because his opinion wasn\u2019t what I thought it was or, more likely, the monks who dislike something are slightly less likely to speak up right away.<\/p>\n<p>So then: thanks to Fr. Nick for the feedback, and thanks especially to Fr. X for his!<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? How do you think about antiphons, hymns, and response they seemingly elicit from worshipers?<\/p>\n<p>Do check out Richard Rice&#8217;s antiphons &#8211; they&#8217;re wonderful.<\/p>\n<p>awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Holy Day Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the abbey yesterday, bookended by the two alternatives we often talk about: Entrance antiphon in the lovely English chant setting of Richard Rice.\u00a0Congregation sang the free-rhythm antiphon \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,\u201d cantors sang the beautiful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3118,21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-music-chant","category-music-hymns"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Holy Day Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the abbey yesterday, bookended by the two alternatives we often talk about: Entrance antiphon in the lovely English chant setting of Richard Rice.\u00a0Congregation sang the free-rhythm antiphon \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,\u201d cantors sang the beautiful [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1f253be22c50796444dc3d93f75cb50a\"},\"headline\":\"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns?\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":464,\"commentCount\":29,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"2_ARS CELEBRANDI\",\"Music: Chant\",\"Music: Hymns\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/\",\"name\":\"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/16\\\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"description\":\"Worship, Wit &amp; Wisdom\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"width\":1340,\"height\":209,\"caption\":\"Home\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1f253be22c50796444dc3d93f75cb50a\",\"name\":\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Anthony Ruff, OSB\"},\"description\":\"Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/aruff\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home","og_description":"Holy Day Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the abbey yesterday, bookended by the two alternatives we often talk about: Entrance antiphon in the lovely English chant setting of Richard Rice.\u00a0Congregation sang the free-rhythm antiphon \u201cA great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun,\u201d cantors sang the beautiful [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/","og_site_name":"Home","article_published_time":"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":411,"height":90,"url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anthony Ruff, OSB","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anthony Ruff, OSB","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/"},"author":{"name":"Anthony Ruff, OSB","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1f253be22c50796444dc3d93f75cb50a"},"headline":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns?","datePublished":"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/"},"wordCount":464,"commentCount":29,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["2_ARS CELEBRANDI","Music: Chant","Music: Hymns"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/","name":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns? - Home","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-08-16T20:46:00+00:00","dateModified":"2017-08-16T23:02:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/16\/once-again-antiphons-or-hymns\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Once Again: Antiphons or Hymns?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","name":"Home","description":"Worship, Wit &amp; Wisdom","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization","name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","width":1340,"height":209,"caption":"Home"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1f253be22c50796444dc3d93f75cb50a","name":"Anthony Ruff, OSB","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Resize-Anthony-Ruff-1-96x96.jpg","caption":"Anthony Ruff, OSB"},"description":"Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/aruff\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37146"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37157,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37146\/revisions\/37157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}