Altar Boys

Last night, seven of us assembled in the glass-fronted & soundproof 'crying room' at the back of St Maragret’s, the Novena group were in the church itself.

There was some reminiscing from the older members about serving as altar boys for the Latin Mass in the fifties and sixties (and even earlier ;o).

Edinburgh altar boys from 1957. Note the soutane worn by the lad second from right.
Buttons badly done-up.

Several stories emerged, all better than mine, so I kept quiet. My embarrassing story was that I had used a metal torch filled with marbles for the Holy Thursday liturgy because we didn't have the requisite rattle. And, when I shook it during the Mass, the top flew off and the marbles flew out and bounced noisily down the aisle.

A 'What not to do' illustration. 

Aye, Right. We never misbehaved.

We began by praying the Our Father and then revisited the Salve Regina, remembering to sing 'O dulcisVirgo Maria' in one breath. After one false start, we sang the prayer to the end, only to hear a burst of applause from outside the door. 

It was quite gratifying. 

And I didn't mind because there was no liturgy and the ladies weren't in the nave of the church.

Normally I'm with Cardinal Ratzinger on clapping: 'Whenever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment'. 

I'm happy to clap a for achievements or anniversaries announced at the end of Mass as is the practice of our Parish Priest, Father Joe. (I'd be Mister Miserable in some of the American Catholic churches I've heard about where visitors are introduced and applauded after the Creed and the choir is applauded during Mass).

There was much talk from the ladies looking forward to our schola going to Holy Spirit for the monthly Latin Mass.

When we restarted our session, we began planning for the Mass at Holy Spirit church and agreed that our Schola would stand, either at the back of the church or next to the organ when we pray those parts of the Mass which we feel confident about singing .

Alan will act as Cantor. 

I'd say that our chant skills were good with the Kyrie and fair with the Creed and the Sanctus. But let's wait for Alan's opinion at the end of next week's meeting.

In the Kyrie, Alan reminded us to sing KyriAY and to emphasise le-i, rather than ending on a big sounding SON. Lightness at the end..... 

During the Credo, I made another Pigs Ear of the Porrectus (high note, low note, high note).

Alan suggested that, when someone in the Schola knew that they had made a mistake, they should raise their hand. Then he wouldn't have to stop and go back to review the entire passage. Alan said that this was normal practice in Choir Circles,

He meant me. 

But he was kind enough to generalise over my Pigs Ear (I keep missing the count of the note which is one-two-three. But we have to spot the double notes just before, as after Et homo factus est. So - one, two. Then high note, low note, high note.

We went on to sing the Sanctus, where there are hidden 'doublers' hm..hm as in the middle neume of Sanctus.

Alan spoke about the dots after some notes. There is debate about how these are to be interpreted. Alan's preference is that they slightly lengthen the note. But most importantly, they are to ensure that there is a clear stop before the next word. We tried this and it made for clearer pronunciation.

At the end of our practice, we went into the church, genuflecting as we arrived near the Sanctuary before singing the Salve and then making a first attempt at the monastic Compline. More of which later.

But a great excuse to post this video of the first Monkly IT help-desk advisor:

Doom Dah Dum, doo-dah, Dah Dum

… if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team!

I travelled to Edinburgh for the Latin high Mass on a snowy Sunday 20th at 11.30.

It was part of training and development for the young men who have been learning how to serve the old rite in the Holy Spirit over the last few months.

We managed to get together by about 10.20 and then headed off for Ravelston. On the way, I was asked whether there would be any men serving. I didn't know but guessed yes (I was correct).

When we arrived, the lads took themselves off to a quiet side pew near the back of the church until Father Emerson encouraged us to the front, so that we could see what was going on, ‘that’s why you’re here, after all’. We were there to watch how his crack, A-Team of servers did things. There was a gray-haired MC and three young men serving, probably undergraduates. We noticed several differences in the way they did things.

Afterwards, over coffee, we spoke to Father Emerson and the MC about the differences. We had a vote and decided to change the bells for consecration from two-two-two, to one-three-one.
I was also given a copy of the how-to manual, Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described. This will take some reading.

The manual has content on the Schola and chant as well as where-to-stand diagrams, this from Easter:

The Mass was sung from start to finish, with less kneeling and less things for servers to do than in the Low Mass. The congregation knew the setting and joined in with gusto.
The schola/choir and organ were at the back of the church and were of professional standard, apparently built around some experts from Edinburgh University. Their Gregorian chant was excellent, although I didn’t know the setting (we newcomers will be working on the Missa de Angelis for some time yet).

I took the lads for lunch in the nearby Museum of Modern Art, courgette soup and veggie wraps. After looking at the menu for a while we left and went to McDonalds. I had asked what they fancied and MackyDees emerged as the favourite.

Gentlemen, are you ready to proclaim your Faith?

Six of us met in the Hall, weather, lectures and a bicycle malfunction kept others away.

There was talk of the flu jag and also several jokes about the news of supermarket hamburgers containing horsemeat. My favourite was 'My Lidl Pony'.

We began with prayer, Glory be to the Father.
Alan led us through Salve Regina several times. By the end, we sounded quite convincing.
He emphasised the lightness of voice and the focus on the words. We were encouraged to think of the meanings of the words. Instead of ending with 'O dulcis.....Virgo Maria', we should make it clear that 'sweet' applies to the Virgin Mary. So sing it as 'O dulcisVirgo Maria'.

In the Kyrie, Alan argued that the last syllable should sound 'ay' rather than 'ey'. And we learned to watch his conducting hands. He also gave us the metaphor of a relay-race for the Schola joining the Cantor after his introduction. We had to begin running before he got to the hand-over.
Some of us would make a pretty unlikely team of relay sprinters, but we got the message.

During the Sanctus, I worked out the liquescent neume in Hosanna, while Alan explained the need both to stop clearly at the end of words while flowing into the next word, as in '...Sanctus. Dominus Deus...'

After this Alan asked 'Gentlemen, are you ready to proclaim your Faith?'
Somewhat arresting.
But we knew what he meant. We had never prayed the Credo together but our first attempt wasn't too bad. I was able to follow the notes and even got to grips with Jack's Pig's Ear:

Porrectus A high note, a low note, and a high note.
The line starts at the first note and goes down to the middle note.

There are lots of them in the Creed.

 Alan asked us to try to sing 'Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et vivificantem' in one breath.

During all of this enthusiasm, we agreed to sing the parts of the Mass in Holy Spirit at 5.00pm on 3rd February.
Then on to 'Anyus Dei', where Alan showed us how the liquescent in 'tollis' sounded.
It is more like a run-up to the L than a humming sound.

We closed with 'Ave Regina caelorum' which none of the Schola knew. But we were able to limp along and we brought a cheer to Alan's face.

Click to enlarge

Hail, Queen of Heaven. Hail, Lady of Angels.

Hail root, hail and gate from which the Light of the world was born.

Rejoice glorious Virgin, fairest of all. Fare thee well most beautiful, and pray for us to Christ.

Our next session will beThursday 24th January, probably in the church.

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Fred Stone came to lead us because Alan was unwell. He has the man-flu that just keeps giving and sounded terrible on the phone.

We met in the crying room at the back of St Margaret’s where I had set up the speakers while the Novena group were praying in the church itself. I was planning to use the CD Alan had suggested: A Gregorian Advent and Christmas by the London chant group Pro Cantione Antiqua.

There were only five of us for this first meeting of the New Year and we began with a prayer for the miraculous healing of the Director of my course at Maryvale, Canon John Redford. This is for the canonisation of the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman:

‘O God, who raised up Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman to be a model of those who seek for the truth and find it in full communion with the Catholic Church, graciously grant as a sign of his full sanctity the miraculous healing of Canon John Redford, who followed the same spiritual path, in order that he may continue his work of teaching and writing for your glory, who live and reign for ever and ever, Amen.’

Read more here, http://www.maryvale.ac.uk/index.php?id=507

including Father John explaining the theology…..He would.

The altar at Maryvale: Newman said Mass every day while he lived here

 and Fr John has said Mass at this altar for the last twenty years.

Back to the Schola:
Fred began by teaching us some useful tips and tricks. When a Cantor leads the Kyrie, the last note of the ‘e’ is the first note of the Christe response, all you have to do is keep it in your head while the Cantor completes ‘eleison’. Easy,
if you can hold a note in your head while someone else is singing something else.

Much more fun was learning how to sing the transition to the final Kyrie. This involves a full octave upwards. Fred remembers how to do this by humming ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ – the first two notes of ‘Somewhere’ are the precise distance apart for the transition from ‘..son’ to ‘Ky..’

Brilliant!

In the example below, the 'Somewhere' shift is on either side of the double line in the middle.

 Click to enlarge

I played the recording of Kyrie VIII, then used the recording to practice. We listened to the first Kyrie, sang along with the second, then sang a third and fourth ourselves. This worked well and we repeated it several times.

Next we tried the same thing with the recording of Agnus Dei VIII, following a quick reminder of the pronunciation, ‘Ahnyoos Dahyi’ and ‘miisss’ rather than ‘mizz’.

Fred showed us how the transitions from a Cantor to the Schola (shown by an asterisk between the words) ended and began with the same note (Dei….qui, etc). This should make things easier if we ever get to sing at Mass. And if we have a Cantor.

The process of listen-to-recording, singalong-to-recording, sing-unaccompanied worked so well that we used it to try the Sanctus. We were better at the Porrectus (Jack’s Latin for pigs-ear). But Fred corrected us. Someone was mispronouncing Sabaoth. Fred was looking at me when he explained that the ‘h’ is silent, it should sound like SabaoT (a bit like the anti-tank round).

Here is a very clear version with words and notation:

 

Click the little box at bottom-right to see the dots more clearly.

Fred reckoned that we had enough time to try Gloria VIII before our finish at 9pm. We listened to the whole thing a couple of times then tried it for ourselves. Fred sang as Cantor, alternating with us. A trick he had spotted in the recording by Pro Cantione Antiqua. This would make it less stressful for us to sing this prayer in a Mass.

After a couple of rehearsals, we went into the church and prayed the Gloria together before the Altar.

Gloria in excelsis Deo.