Sunday, December 30, 2007

USCCB petitioning for GIRM change

Paul Ford, writing in the MusicaSacra forum, links this document, which is completely new to me. The USCCB is petitioning for a change in the GIRM translation that makes it clear that the Missal propers are for spoken and not sung Masses. This confusion has persisted for 37 years, during which time it has been unclear whether there were propers in the new Mass (Music in Catholic Worship strongly implied that the answer is no) and whether the texts in the Sacramentary were to be spoken or said. Much of the confusion is due to the fact that the Gradual--the schola's music of the Mass--appeared 4 years after the text for the new Mass appeared.

Anyway, we can hope that this change goes through, so we can finally clear up this mess. It completely boggles the mind. By the way, it seems that this change came about because of the article in Sacred Music by C. Tietze.

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