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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhile many others sing a \u201cg\u201d instead:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a hypothesis about how this variant has arisen. Instead of the triple knock on the \u201ca\u201d (\u201cto the Lo[rd]\u201d) the variant creates a sequence, where a three-note falling motif is repeated a step lower, followed by a further curtailed repetition, on \u201cLord,\u201d at the cadence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This suggests that the non-music readers are adjusting the notes of the chant to accommodate them to patterns that are perhaps more familiar to the modern ear\u2014patterns that include melodic sequences, and the brief hint of a regular time signature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of evolution is not surprising and is ubiquitous in the history of church music. Taken to an extreme, one could imagine the endgame of such a process\u2014a somewhat fanciful version of the whole dialogue, with one more sequential smoothing, nestled in triple time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d be interested to know if anything like this has been encountered by PrayTell readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming back to the single-note dissent that is a regular part of my own experience: what, if anything, might be done? There seem to me to be three options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Point out the error to the assembly and teach the correct manner of singing the response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Accept the expression of the vox populi and instruct choir and cantors to fall into line with promptings of the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Shrug, and add this case to the list of unresolvable musical anomalies, filed under \u201cherding cats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This might seem a trifling matter, but it does provide a kind of petri dish for testing approaches that have far wider application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael O\u2019Connor teaches in the Christianity and Culture program at St. Michael\u2019s College in the University of Toronto, where he holds the Bennett Family Chair in Christianity and the Arts. He is a Lay Dominican.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Excerpts from the English translation and chants of The Roman Missal <\/em>\u00a9 2010, International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MICHAEL O’CONNOR — When the priest and people sang the preface dialogue, it was sung faithfully to the notation found in the missal; this was particularly noticeable to me because it is not what I am now used to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":66086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,1394],"tags":[2056,3906,1699],"class_list":["post-66076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-chant","category-music-mass-settings","tag-liturgical-music","tag-michael-oconnor","tag-sensus-fidelium"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Picture2-600x127.jpg\")
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