Any Catholic visiting Paris who cares about the liturgy makes a bee-line for the church of St-Eugène et Ste-Cécile in the 9è arrondissement. Let's face it, even before the fire the liturgy at Notre Dame was pretty awful.
The Schola Ste-Cécile is arguably the best liturgical choir in France, and specializes in French music of the 16th to 18th centuries. It is visiting England this week, and I caught up with it in Oxford this morning, for the Solemn Mass of the feast of St Bernard celebrated in the chapel of Balliol College (yes, our Anglican brethren are happy to let us use their venues).
It's a mixed choir and although the men wear clerical choir dress the women dress simply in black. In a chapel setting they sing in choir and are therefore visible, rather than the normal Catholic practice of singing from a choir loft.
The chant and the polyphony were superbly done, but this was not a concert by any means. The Solemn Mass (1962) was largely as Pius XII had left it four years before, and gives the lie to the idea that he was a liturgical revolutionary (although he was no liturgist, and made some bad calls by listening to so-called experts).
I had my Liber Usualis in front of me, but found that following rather than singing gave me a better sense of participation. I could involve myself more closely with what was happening at the high Altar, with no distractions. I was also acutely aware of the continuity of what was unfolding before me. In word and action it had hardly changed in half a millennium. There is also a great sense of unity. The priest preached a short homily in French which perhaps not everyone in the congregation would have understood, but otherwise there were no language or translation issues. When, at the end of Mass, everyone sang the simple Salve Regina, this sense of unity was strongly reinforced.
Tomorrow, after another Solemn Mass at the Oratory, the choir will sing Vespers in the Sarum Rite, which pre-Reformation England shared with many places in northern France. This is an example of unity in diversity, far removed from the present-day babel of tongues and wide variations of practice which characterize the Novus Ordo.
Later in the week the choir will be singing at a Solemn Requiem Mass for Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie and the Prince Imperial (killed in the Zulu war) at Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire, where they are buried. In London there is also a Mass in the Dominican Rite and a Byzantine Rite liturgy at the Ukrainian cathedral.
The choral tradition in England was able to survive the Reformation and the Civil War. In France, it suffered grievously as a result of the Revolution and was almost killed off altogether by Vatican II.
Nice to see a wedding picture---unfortunately Catholic weddings have declined severely over the years---even my large parish in Atlanta can go weeks without a wedding.
You would be pleased to know that the last time I was at Notre Dame, an English school choir (I can't recall the name of the school) sang the Ordinary in Latin and it was beautiful. They concluded the Mass with the Salve Regina. My French host and I sang it together. It was nice to sing in our common liturgical language, Latin, since my French is no longer very good.
6 comments:
Very cool!
Semper Fi!
Many Marines in photo to include seminarian slight behind me to camera left!
Slightly off-topic, but here goes:
Any Catholic visiting Paris who cares about the liturgy makes a bee-line for the church of St-Eugène et Ste-Cécile in the 9è arrondissement. Let's face it, even before the fire the liturgy at Notre Dame was pretty awful.
The Schola Ste-Cécile is arguably the best liturgical choir in France, and specializes in French music of the 16th to 18th centuries. It is visiting England this week, and I caught up with it in Oxford this morning, for the Solemn Mass of the feast of St Bernard celebrated in the chapel of Balliol College (yes, our Anglican brethren are happy to let us use their venues).
It's a mixed choir and although the men wear clerical choir dress the women dress simply in black. In a chapel setting they sing in choir and are therefore visible, rather than the normal Catholic practice of singing from a choir loft.
The chant and the polyphony were superbly done, but this was not a concert by any means. The Solemn Mass (1962) was largely as Pius XII had left it four years before, and gives the lie to the idea that he was a liturgical revolutionary (although he was no liturgist, and made some bad calls by listening to so-called experts).
I had my Liber Usualis in front of me, but found that following rather than singing gave me a better sense of participation. I could involve myself more closely with what was happening at the high Altar, with no distractions. I was also acutely aware of the continuity of what was unfolding before me. In word and action it had hardly changed in half a millennium. There is also a great sense of unity. The priest preached a short homily in French which perhaps not everyone in the congregation would have understood, but otherwise there were no language or translation issues. When, at the end of Mass, everyone sang the simple Salve Regina, this sense of unity was strongly reinforced.
Tomorrow, after another Solemn Mass at the Oratory, the choir will sing Vespers in the Sarum Rite, which pre-Reformation England shared with many places in northern France. This is an example of unity in diversity, far removed from the present-day babel of tongues and wide variations of practice which characterize the Novus Ordo.
Later in the week the choir will be singing at a Solemn Requiem Mass for Napoleon III, Empress Eugénie and the Prince Imperial (killed in the Zulu war) at Farnborough Abbey in Hampshire, where they are buried. In London there is also a Mass in the Dominican Rite and a Byzantine Rite liturgy at the Ukrainian cathedral.
The choral tradition in England was able to survive the Reformation and the Civil War. In France, it suffered grievously as a result of the Revolution and was almost killed off altogether by Vatican II.
Nice to see a wedding picture---unfortunately Catholic weddings have declined severely over the years---even my large parish in Atlanta can go weeks without a wedding.
John Nolan,
You would be pleased to know that the last time I was at Notre Dame, an English school choir (I can't recall the name of the school) sang the Ordinary in Latin and it was beautiful. They concluded the Mass with the Salve Regina. My French host and I sang it together. It was nice to sing in our common liturgical language, Latin, since my French is no longer very good.
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