Views from the Choir Loft

How To Chant The Readings At Mass

Corpus Christi Watershed · May 27, 2013

THE FOLLOWING VIDEO takes you step-by-step through the process of chanting the Gospel in English. Deacons might find this video useful, since many are called upon to sing the Gospel.

The video requires you to download:

1. A Score Illustrating Different Tones [pdf]

2. Instructions on this tone in Latin & English [pdf]

HE FIRST READING at Mass is often sung to the “Prophecy Tone,” which was reserved for the Old Testament Lessons in the Extraordinary Form. Here is a PDF document that explains how to do it:

How to chant the 1st Reading in English & Latin

The Second Reading is often sung to the tone that was used for the Epistle in the Extraordinary Form. This PDF document explains how to do it:

How to chant the 2nd Reading in English & Latin

My favorite Gospel tone is called “more ancient” by the Solesmes books:

Singing the Gospel in English & Latin (ANCIENT TONE)

Here is what some people the “more recent” tone for the Gospel:

How to chant the Gospel in English & Latin (SIMPLE TONE)

By the way, all the parts of the Mass are sung according to the “Toni Communes” in the 1974 Graduale by Solesmes. Generally speaking, these are identical to what Abbot Pothier published as the Editio Vaticana around 1908.

N.B. For these, I have borrowed from the work of Professor W. A. Jurgens (Saint Mary Seminary, Cleveland).

How does a priest know how to correctly chant the readings (1st Reading, 2nd Reading, & Gospel) using the Prophecy tone, the Epistle tone, and different versions of the Gospel tones (according to the rules in the Liber Usualis) in ENGLISH ?

Examples (written out) of the different tones for chanting (PDF)

Mp3 Audio Recordings of the different tones:

01 Galatians Chapter 5
02 Gospel (John 15)
03 Wisdom Chapter 3
04 Thessalonains Chapter 4
05 Gospel (John 11)
06 Romans Chapter 8
07 Gospel (John 19)
08 Exodus Chapter 34
09 II Corinthians Chapter 13
10 Gospel (John 3)

Written out examples of chanting the readings at Mass, with free MP3 recordings

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

“Music List” • (Christ the King Sunday)

This coming Sunday—24 November 2024—is Christ the King Sunday (a.k.a. “Final Sunday in Ordinary Time”). Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. You’ll notice we’re learning Moreau’s “Congregational Polyphonic Enhancement” for the OUR FATHER. And the the Mode 3 ENTRANCE CHANT is utterly sublime.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Entrance Chant” • Christ the King

Download the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON in English for the Solemnity of Christ the King (24 November 2024). It mimics the Mode III Latin version in a truly spectacular way. Corresponding to the vocalist score is this free organ accompaniment. If you’re someone who enjoys rehearsal videos, I attempted to sing it while simultaneously accompanying my voice on the pipe organ.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • (33rd Sund. Ordinary Time)

This coming Sunday—17 November 2024—is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. Some have expressed interest in perusing my “ORDER OF MUSIC.” If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. You’ll notice we’re learning Moreau’s “Congregational Polyphonic Enhancement” for the OUR FATHER. For the record, our opening hymn is particularly beautiful. So is the Mode 6 ENTRANCE CHANT.

—Jeff Ostrowski

The Breviary in the Life of the Laity

Recently I have been enjoying looking through the inaugural (1927) edition of a 20th-century liturgical magazine called Orate Fratres. The July 1927 issue included an excellent article by a Chicago laywoman named Ellen Gates Starr entitled “The Delights of the Breviary: From the Point of View of a Lay Woman.” As we in the 21st century have recently undergone a (blessed!) re-translation of the missal into English, and as we await with joyful hope (please God, before Jesus comes back!) a similar re-translation of the breviary, the opening of her article reminded me of that old saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Nearly a hundred years ago, she penned words that could just as easily have been written today: “It is indeed a privilege to be allowed any participation, however slight, in the liturgical movement in the Church – the movement to bring back the classics of devotion, the Missal and the Breviary, into general use by the laity. The wonder is that they should ever have fallen into disuse. Nothing can take the place of these great universal prayers of the Church, the prayers of the Mass and the divine Office. One has only to know them to find them indispensable. And alas, how few of the laity know them!” I know that I have been tremendously nourished by regular praying of the breviary as of late, and my wish is that you and I, dear reader, may continue to nourish our interior lives with the official prayer of the Church, which present to us (in the Mass) and extend (in the Office) the fullness of Christ’s greatest gift to us – the gift of Himself – in the Most Holy Eucharist.

—Daniel Tucker

Principles vs Preferences

I ran into this idea recently: principles vs. preferences in planning out a curriculum or music lineup. In this idea, it is imperative to not misconstrue personal preferences into principles—that the music (or subject matter) is great because: “I have good taste, and I like it.” De gustibus… Education, study and docility to the Magisterium of the Church on matters of liturgical music must be present in those who make the music at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Hours. Who knows? Maybe you might start to prefer the music that is fitting according to the principles Catholic Sacred Music?

—William J. Fritz

Liquescent Notes in the Official Edition

The official edition—the EDITIO VATICANA itself—is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes. If you wish to see a perfect “apples-to-apples” comparison, click here. Such “inconsistency” was not owing to ignorance on the part of Abbat Pothier: the manuscripts themselves are inconsistent when it comes to liquescent notes.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’