[Magdalen] Education.

[Scott Knitter]

On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen
<magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> For example, I remember the puzzlement and shock visiting Scott K's
> Ascension, Chicago in the early 1960's while I was singing in a Twin
> Cities Anglocatholic parish.  The shock was that the Minor Chant  Proper
> didn't sound anything like the Minor Chant Proper I knew.

Our interim O/C, Jeffrey Smith, does a wonderful job of educating
through his weekly newsletter items. He can impart a lot just with a
quick comment in the hallway, too. Someone last Sunday complimented
him on how beautiful the choir's rendition of parts of the Schubert
Mass in G was...light and melodic. He thanked the complimenter and
added, "Well, Schubert wrote songs, not operas." Best to approach the
Mass more like songs, making sure the melodies are beautifully brought
out rather than the bigness of the texture, which can be overblown and
result in choral yelling. (That's my interpretation; Jeffrey made only
the brief comment.) And the soloists in the Benedictus qui venit need
to sing their bits as songs rather than part of an operatic quartet
finale.

Anyway, Jeffrey is not averse to accompanying the minor propers, and
he does so wonderfully.

For some reason, the Gloria Patri has dropped out of our Introit, but
that happened before Jeffrey arrived. I've never heard why. I'm still
always ready to bow for the Gloria Patri and it doesn't happen. I'm
assuming it's either to reduce standing around once the altar and
celebrant have been censed, or because it's not given in place in the
current Graduale Romanum (although I believe it is meant to be
there...it's not given because it's sung to the psalm tone, and it's
given in the back of the book).




-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA