NorthernTenor wrote:That assumes the whole congregation should sing at all times and in places. This is a strange warping of the ideals of the Liturgical Movement, not least in its concentration on externals. In practice, every place will have its happy medium somewhere between the congregation singing everything and nothing.
Quite. The role of a choir is fairly redundant under the following conditions.
A The entire ordinary and proper are sung by the entire congregation.
B The music is easily learned by the congregation.
C There is an organist to play the melody for the rest of the congregation.
Under such conditions, the most a choir is doing is leading the singing, but the organist and the people in the rest of the congregation can do that anyway, except perhaps when they're learning an item.
I don't think the intention behind the Vatican II documents would be to reduce so deliberately the role of choirs in this way, ie, by having the entire ordinary and proper sung by the whole congregation. Speaking of composers, Sacrosanctum Concilium (121) says the following.
"Modos autem componant, qui notas verae Musicae sacrae prae se ferant atque non solum a maioribus scholis cantorum cani possint, sed minoribus quoque scholis conveniant et actuosam participationem totius coetus fidelium foveant."
(Let them produce compositions which have the qualities proper to genuine sacred music, not confining themselves to works which can be sung only by large choirs, but providing also for the needs of small choirs and for the active participation of the entire assembly of the faithful.)
This quoque indicates that the activity of composing music which the whole congregation can sing is not restrictive but additive to the activity of composing music which (it is assumed) only large choirs can sing. One might argue that large choirs can sing anything that an ordinary congregation sing, but that is clearly not the point here. I'm sure that it is such a perception of the role of choirs which lies behind the language in paragraph 29 which runs as follows.
"Etiam ministrantes, lectores, commentatores et ii qui ad scholam cantorum pertinent, vero ministerio liturgico funguntur. Propterea munus suum tali sincera pietate et ordine exerceant, quae tantum ministerium decent quaeque populus Dei ab eis iure exigit."
(Servers, lectors, commentators, and members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical function. They ought, therefore, to discharge their office with the sincere piety and decorum demanded by so exalted a ministry and rightly expected of them by God's people.)
