Tridentine Community News

Tridentine Community News (March 8, 2009):

FSSP Showcases Assumption-Windsor’s Chant Sheets
In past columns, we have discussed the official sources for the Gregorian Chants of the Church. The Liber Usuális and other books published by the monks of Solesmes are the principal references. The altar missal used by the priest contains musical settings of the Preface and various parts of the Ordinary of the Mass. As far as we know, however, there is no official book in print containing the music for the priest’s chanting of the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, and Postcommunion. The altar missal has the texts for these Propers, of course, but no music. The Liber doesn’t have the music either, as it is primarily a book for the choir.

Musical purists might point out that the Liber has the “tones”, or musical guidelines for chanting these Propers. In other words, learn how to chant one Epistle, and you can chant them all. That may work for someone who has a natural skill for music, but many a priest would prefer clear sheet music that leaves no doubt as to how these parts of the Mass should be sung.

Recognizing this gap in available support materials, Mr. Michel Ozorak, a chant expert and longtime member of Windsor’s Tridentine Mass Community, began to create in early 2007 a complete set of sheet music for the Collect, Epistle, Gospel, and Postcommunion of the Sundays and Holy Days of the Church Year. Fr. Peter Hrytsyk has been using the Chant Sheets for over a year. Bishop Earl Boyea also uses them, as do the deacons and subdeacons at our Solemn High Masses.

Fr. Josef Bisig, co-founder of the Fraternity of St. Peter, noticed these Chant Sheets during his visit to Assumption in November. In an impressive endorsement of Michel’s work, the FSSP is in the process of posting the Epistles and Gospels (in the Tonus Antíquior) on the web site of Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary at:www.fsspolgs.org/chant.html. The FSSP recognizes that such a resource is of great value at this point in Church history, when numerous new priests are trying to master the Extraordinary Form with a minimum of training materials. Congratulations and God’s blessings for taking this initiative, Michel!

New Web Site for Assumption-Windsor
After the existence of the new Chant Sheets on the FSSP web site was recently mentioned on The New Liturgical Movement blog, requests started to arrive for sheets with the Gospel in the alternate Ad Libítum tone, as well as for sheets with the Collect and Postcommunion. These inquiries became the motivation for a long-overdue updating of the web site for the Extraordinary Form Mass at Assumption Church, www.windsorlatinmass.org The new site includes a page with all of the Chant Sheets, including the Collects, Epistles, Gospels (in both the Tonus Ad Libítum normally used at Assumption and the Tonus Antíquior preferred by the FSSP), and Postcommunions.

All of the Latin/English Propers Handouts for the year and all of the Tridentine Community News columns going back to the beginning in 2006 have been posted in PDF format. Recordings of the Assumption Tridentine Choir and various photo slide shows have also been included. Further video and audio files will be posted over time, as visual and auditory beauty can be a more eloquent way to convey a concept than words.

We welcome any suggestions that you may have for both the Assumption and St. Josaphat web sites, as these are important forms of outreach in our day.

[Comments? Ideas for a future column? Please e-mail tridnews@stjosaphatchurch.org. Previous columns are available at www.stjosaphatchurch.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Josaphat bulletin insert for March 8, 2009. Hat tip to A.B.]