Here is another link to resources for singing the Mass.



And the link:
http://www.saintmeinrad.edu/monastery_l ... ducts.aspx

Look in the third column of listings in the gray area and click on "Presidential Prayers."


I know some priests who have used this particular resource. I have also used St. Meinrad's edition of the Exultet and sung Gospels for Good Friday.

We have a wonderful elderly deacon with a very rough, gravel-y voice, who always sings "Let us proclaim the mystery of faith." Then the pianist plays 4 chords (to get us back in tune, maybe) and the congregation sings "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again." I love LOVE that the deacon sings the intro, even though his voice is so bad.

I would rather a priest sing badly. We have one who does that. I approve.



I know; I want to sing, but I don't have any idea what the jargon means.

My priest does not sing any of his parts at all, and it makes me sad. I would rather have it sung, even poorly, than not at all.

You know, as important as music is in the Catholic faith, you would think that we would learn at some point HOW to sing.

So many of us would love to sing loudly joyfully....and in tune. Alas, I can't carry a tune. And many I speak to say the same thing, they sing, but they know they sing terribly.

Padre,
For what it's worth, the only time I ever heard the novus ordo sung (or at least parts of it) was on EWTN... and I saw at least a couple times with some visiting priests/bishops that their singing/chanting was pretty bad. Some, even if they had had some training, seemed absolutely tone deaf.

I've also heard some pretty bad chant from priests doing the TLM.

(EDIT: about the novus ordo... I just recalled that I heard a lot of priests chant the "through Him, with Him, in Him..." .... some good, some bad...)

But I'll say this.... it never bothered me that a priest had a bad voice when chanting any part of the Mass. If there was bad voice/chant, it neither enriched nor degraded(?) my Mass experience. The priest is called to sing/chant the Mass -- I think it should just be understood that some people can sing better than others.
Maybe I was a little proud at the bad singers/chanters because I realized that some of them KNEW they were bad at singing/chanting, but they did it anyway because that's what's called for.

Greetings,

When I was young, early 70s, every mass was sung. I still have the tunes echoing in my head.

peace

Fortunately Orthodox seminaries still require chant instruction. However, there is a problem in that many of the boys heading off to seminary have had inadquate training as the parishes don't always chant as much as they should. The priests chant (our priest has a gorgeous voice, but he's retiring in November after some 54 years in the priesthood), but many parishes rely on fancy choral music where, IMNSHO, it does not belong, so the end result is a general lack of familiarity with chanting. Further, many of the readers are simply readers and not really trained Psaltis, and the main chanted service of Orthros is not very well attended. Lots of contributing factors.

At any rate, the chant class I'm in was started to prep one of our two seminary students (the other one I guess didn't feel it necessary) prior to departing for seminary. He is going to seminary in Thessaloniki (The thought of attending seminary in such a Biblical location is so cool), and the expectation there is that people coming in are already schooled in chant. Fortunately, we have a Psalti here in San Diego who was trained by the former (I think he left) Protopsalti of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. That's the other piece of the puzzle in Orthodoxy. Chanting is a tradition which is most appropriately passed down from one chanter to another. There are books, and you can learn from them, but the subtleties of the art are best passed down.

Now that I've digressed in multiple different directions, I'll cease.

TP - I'd sing out and let God sort it out.

Don't be shy.
--Ann