“Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.” – Ludwig van Beethoven
The music we sing at Mass can be divided into three categories – the Ordinary, the Propers, and Hymnody. This week, we explore the first of these. Just what is the Ordinary?
A number of weeks ago, I mentioned Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Op. 86 as perhaps the most impactful piece of music of my life. As an aspiring high school musician, this was the first “major” choral work I ever studied. (For the sake of this distinction, this has nothing to do with the key of the piece but rather the size and scope of the composition.) A five-movement piece for SATB choir, solo quartet, and full orchestra. Until then, all of the vocal work I had performed was with piano accompaniment, and all of the piano work I had done was either solo or accompaniment of a soloist. But now I was learning some of the most difficult music I’ve ever sung, and to what end? Not to showcase my own voice, but rather to be one small part in an ensemble with over a hundred moving parts, all working together in their own individual ways, to accomplish something far greater than any of them could produce on their own. And what was the end result? The Ordinary of the Catholic Mass. Beethoven (and countless other composers before and after) chose the words we use at every Mass as the text for this masterwork. Each movement was a prayer. Each section reflects our words, our actions, our beliefs that we celebrate at Mass.
I – Kyrie (“Lord, Have Mercy”)
II – Gloria (“Glory to God”)
II – Gloria (“Glory to God”)
IV – Sanctus/Benedictus (“Holy”/”Blessed is He”)
V – Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”)
Note that in most liturgies, the Creed is recited, not sung.
When we sing the Ordinary of the Mass, we sing the prayers that are constant and unchanging in every Sunday’s liturgy. But rather than dismiss them as “just ordinary,” or plain and lacking in any special qualities, I challenge you to view them as the prayer (not just the words) that are important enough to be ordained – placed in the highest level of importance – to the point where without them, the Mass ceases to be the Mass. They are the backbone, the very identity of the Church at prayer. Likewise, as the Ordinary is truly the most universal of prayers within the Church, they are not only the prayer of the day, or of our congregation, but as the Preface of the Mass tells us, the prayer that we join in the choirs of Heaven and Earth, past present and future. In the Mass, we are a small but crucial part of a whole that transcends the entirety of the Church.
Please accept this invitation to participate more fully, more actively, in our parish’s music ministry. If you are interested in singing in the choir, leading the congregation as a cantor,
or enriching our liturgy as an instrumentalist, email Shawn Gelzleichter at sgelzleichter@gmail.com or call the rectory at 781-662-8844.