The people started off strongly on From All that Dwell Below the Skies, so I thought I'd risk singing the Kyrie in true antiphonal style, simply intoning the Kyrie...Christe...Kyrie and letting the people respond. Didn't quite work on the first Kyrie, but they did fine on the Christe and final Kyrie, so I dropped out.
They were strong throughout. In addition to a complete Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Mysterium, and Agnus Dei), the priest, who loves to chant, led almost all of the dialogues.
The best was the last: "The Mass is ended, go in peace." "Thanks be to God." It was one of those rare congregational sounds: full, a capella, unified, and musical. That's what heaven will be like, I suppose!
2 comments:
" the priest, who loves to chant, led almost all of the dialogues. "
Color me jealous.
Our priests are all strong, musical singers, but like most people in liturgical music, their efforts, IMO, go into the wrong things.
Who CARES how loudly and lustily people sing the hymn chosen to stand in for the Offertory antiphon?
Sing the Preface, sing the verbum domini dialogue, intone the various parts of the Ordinary...
On the other hand, our congregations did sing fairly strongly at all four Masses this weekend, (well, I admit at 7:00 AM,, they were okay on the hymns... but strong on the Ordinary. We go about it wrong at my parish, but again, just IMO, and what do I know?)
(Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
It's true--we are always focusing on the wrong elements of "participative" liturgy. Always the hymns, never the propers. Never the dialogues.
I do like the way the Dominicans sing hymns, though. They emphasize strength and unity. Most congregations get a maximum of one of those right!
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