Peter Kwasniewski's article at Rorate Caeli (I do not endorse either) on repetion in the liturgy: https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2019/ ... gical.html

It dawned upon me while reading it that modern man may not hate repetition (my idea, not his):
Michael Jackson's "Thriller thriller thriller thriller", Lady Gaga's "Oh, oh, oh, oh" and Justin Bieber's "Baby baby baby" popular "repetitions".

Similarly with Latin/vernacular:
The Indian national anthem is in Bengali, a regional language spoken in the Eastern state named West Bengal (yes, you read that right). This language is spoken by a little over 8% of the population, but that doesn't deter others from expressing patriotism with our National Anthem.
There was a popular Malayalam song the lyrics of which were just random syllables.
In youtube comments of some Malayalam songs, I've read "I don't know this language but this music moves me" or similar stuff quite a few times.
I demand an exposition from all those who made "Gangnam Style" popular.

The liturgical movement was a mix of truthful observations, assumptions, historical accuracy, and historical misconception.

SC states (as the article notes):

“The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, and unencumbered by useless repetitions; they should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation.”

So, basically “useless repetitions” were axed so people can participate and understand better.

But as you noted, who is encumbered by repetition? It doesn’t seem to bother anyone today or make them not understand something. People 50 years ago weren’t stupid either - and I never saw any evidence that laity were bemoaning repetition.

It seems targeting the so-called “useless repetitions” was a hypothesis concocted by liturgical reformists, and instead of proving it they just pushed it ahead as an actual problem. Then, the “solution” comes by way of one dose of misunderstanding liturgical history, one dose of fabrication, and one dose of antiquarianism – mix with poor leadership at the top, bake for 5 years, lament.

Litanies, often distinctly marked by repetition, can be very powerful.