Communion Antiphon Lent 5 music setting

[dmu3tem]

Last Saturday evening I noted that the prescribed Communion Antiphon text was this:

'Has no one condemned you, woman? No one, Lord.
Neither shall I condemn you. From now, sin no more.'

Note the problems this poses to the composer:

This is a dialogue, and therefore needs to be sung by 2 solo singers (one male, the other female) viz:

Jesus (male singer): 'Has no one condemned you, woman?
Woman (female singer): 'No one, Lord.'
Jesus: 'Neither shall I condemn you. From now, sin no more'.

How can one be expected to ask a congregation to sing it?

Unless you adjust the text as follows (which the pundits forbid):

Jesus (male singer): 'Has no one condemned you, woman?'
Woman (female singer): 'No one, Lord.'
Jesus (male singer): 'Neither shall I condemn you.'
All: 'From now, sin no more'.

Even with this last there are some issues:

(1) How can we expect everyone to sing the last line if they have not been rehearsed before? (this pushes you in the direction of relying on a choir).
(2) How does the text 'work' in the service?
(a) Notice how it seems to operate like a theatrical drama which the congregation 'look in at' from the outside.
(b) I know that it is a 'clip' from the Gospel reading, but what sort of message does it convey? Is it saying to people: All women in the congregation who have had (or are having) extra marital relationships should give them up? Notice too how, when taken out of its gospel context (where males who misbehave themselves are condemned too), this can be read to imply that women are the principal protagonists in extra-marital relationships? In other words it can be argued that the very different inferences in the Gospel reading have been distorted. The text does not simply remind us of the Gospel message.

I would not be surprised to discover that such texts (for I am sure there are others) are here because 'they have always been there'; in other words it is the consequence of a reverence for the 'Roman Tradition'. Yet their content shows that they were designed for a very different environment; but before the 1960s such things passed largely unnoticed because they were all in Latin. Today should we not be asking those who draft (revise) the Proper readings to consider their impact in a modern vernacular Parish Mass?

[johnquinn39]

Today should we not be asking those who draft (revise) the Proper readings to consider their impact in a modern vernacular Parish Mass?

Yes.

Also, would it be better to have the Propers in sync with the 3 yr. cycle?

[Nick Baty]

We've discussed this so often on here. Interesting that the more traddy-inclined stick to the propers as published while those of us more liberal-minded improvise them to fit the liturgy. But I'm tired and it's been a stressful day!