La formula EUOUAE

La formula EUOUAE serve per il canto, ma non per ragioni ritmiche quanto piuttosto come aiuto mnemonico alla esecuzione dei toni gregoriani. I toni salmodici gregoriani sono otto (più il tono peregrino, di uso molto particolare e circoscritto, il tono detto in directum e alcuni altri toni di uso molto raro), ciascuno dei quali è caratterizzato da una melodia mediana (da fare all’asterisco del versetto, per chi è pratico della Liturgia delle Ore) che è sempre uguale, mentre la melodia conclusiva, alla fine del versetto, può variare notevolmente, ed è indicata da una lettera dell’alfabeto; per es. l’indicazione 1f significa primo tono, conclusione in fa (il che comporta una specifica melodia della conclusione del versetto); oppure 1g3 significa primo tono, conclusione in sol, con una specifica melodia finale che differisce da quelle g1 e g2, pure terminanti in sol.
Poiché ricordare a memoria i sette toni (ovvero le melodie da fare prima dell’asterisco) è semplice, almeno per chi pratica la salmodia con canto gregoriano, mentre ricordare le numerose melodie finali sarebbe molto complesso, al termine dell’antifona con relativa melodia viene posto il testo EUOUAE, con sopra la melodia della specifica conclusione finale da utilizzare per quel salmo; e così la sua esecuzione è facilitata.

EUOUAE is an abbreviation used in Latin psalters and other liturgical books to show the distribution of syllables in the differentia or variable melodic endings of the standard Psalm tones of Gregorian chant. It derives from the vowels in the words “sæculorum Amen” of the lesser doxology or Gloria Patri, which ends with the phrase In sæcula sæculorum, Amen.

EUOUAE es una regla mnemotécnica que se utilizó en la música de la Edad Media para hacer referencia a la secuencia de tonos en el pasaje “sæculorum Amen” de la doxología menor, Gloria Patri que termina con la frase in sæcula sæculorum, Amen. (por los siglos de los siglos, Amén). En las fuentes de canto llano la differentia, es decir, la fórmula melódica que debe ser cantada al final de cada línea de salmodia, se puede escribir sobre cualquiera de las letras EUOUAE, en representación de la primera y la última vocal de Sæculorum, Amen.

EUOUAE é um mnemônico que era usado em música medieval para denotar a sequência de tons na passagem “sæculorum Amen” da doxologia menor, Gloria Patri, que termina com a frase In sæcula sæculorum, Amen. Em cantochãos, a differentia, isto é, a fórmula melódica a ser cantada no final de cada linha da salmódia cantada, poderia ser escrita com as letras EUOUAE, representando a primeira e a última vogal de “sæculorum Amen“.

EUOUAE est un mnémonique utilisé dans la musique médiévale et le chant grégorien pour représenter la séquence de neumes correspondant au passage «sæculorum, Amen» du Gloria Patri.

Cosiness (Gemütlichkeit) – H. U. von Balthasar

An element lacking in good taste has crept into the liturgy since the (falsely interpreted) Council, namely, the joviality and familiarity of the celebrant with the congregation. People come, however, for prayer and not for a cozy encounter. Oddly enough, because of this misinterpretation, one gets the impression that the post-conciliar liturgy has become more clerical than it was in the days when the priest functioned as mere servant of the mystery being celebrated. Before and after the liturgy, personal contact is entirely in place, but during the celebration everyone’s attention should be directed to the one Lord.
The tendency of a congregation to celebrate itself instead of God will increase, imperceptibly but unfailingly, if its faith in the reality of the eucharistic event wanes. When an almost rudimentary Church, gathered to await her Lord and to let herself be filled by him, considers herself from the outset as a church to which nothing essential can be added, the eucharistic celebration will degenerate into mere symbolism and the congregation will be celebrating nothing but its own piety which existed already and feels corroborated by the community’s repeated gathering.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Worthiness of the Liturgy, in New Elucidations, Ignatius Press.

Dom Hugh Somerville Knapman OSB on the new Mass


Mass as envisaged by the new Missal

As argued in an earlier post, some of the changes introduced in practice are not even required by the modern Missal, such as facing the people during the Eucharistic Prayer. Nor is Communion in the Hand. The modern Missal assumes that the priest is facing East, and that Communion is on the tongue. There was of course permission given for the option to face the people, and a limited indult for Communion in the hand. Both have had dire consequences for the worthy celebration of the modern liturgy, and are foreign even to the new Mass. The failure here is in the pastors not in the Church herself.


This is not actually mandated by the new Mass

Some have a clear idea of the remedy for liturgical abuse and poor attendance at Mass. (…) The first step surely is to celebrate the liturgy according to the rubrics laid down by the Church, to do in fact as the Church intends to do.

Read the full post by Dom Hugh Somerville Knapman OSB here.

PDF Booklet • Christmas Midnight Mass (36 pages)

From http://www.ccwatershed.org:

We can pretend we don’t care about what other choirs are doing—but it’s a lie. Let’s be honest: We music directors always want to see what other groups are singing, and from which scores. Feel free to download our Midnight Mass booklet:

* *  PDF Download • Midnight Mass Booklet (36 pages)

It looks so simple when placed in a booklet like that…but it has taken us a while to learn all that music. Rehearsal videos for all the music can be found here—for each individual voice!

Latin Mass Directory – United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

From the Association for Latin Liturgy website:

Entries are arranged in alphabetical order of English counties, but with the Greater London section placed at the beginning; Scotland and Ireland are at the end. We include all churches which we have been informed use Latin in the current Ordinary Form of the Mass.
The Directory may be viewed here or downloaded here.

The accuracy of the Directory depends upon reports by users. Please send these to enquiries@latin-liturgy.org

A few words about language…

And finally allow me to say just a few words about language. Here again there are two points to consider, which between them open the possibility of a whole range of varying decisions and practice. On one hand, using the magnificent terminology of Hellenistic culture, the Roman Canon calls the action of the Mass rationabile obsequium—an action of the word, an action in which spirit and reason play their part. The Word of God wants to speak to man, wants to be understood and answered by him. That is why in Rome, in about the third century, when Greek was no longer generally understood, they made the transition from Greek, which had hitherto been used in the Eucharist, to Latin. But there is also a second point. The Church later hesitated to make use of the developing national languages of Europe in the liturgy, first of all, because for a long time they had not attained the literary level or the unity of usage that would have permitted a common celebration of the Eucharist over a wide area; but then also because she was opposed to anything that would give a national identity to this mystery, because she wanted to express in the language, too, the inclusive character that reaches out beyond the boundaries of place and time. She was able to keep on with Latin as the common liturgical language because she knew that, while it is, in the Eucharist, also a matter of comprehensibility, yet it is more than comprehensibility—that this demands a greater, more mature, and more inclusive understanding than that of mere comprehension: she knew that, here, the heart must also understand.
After what we have said, use of the vernacular is in principle justified. It would be a danger only if it were to drag the Eucharist back into the realm of national culture. It would be a danger only if we were to push our translation to the point where only what was immediately comprehensible or, even, obvious in everyday terms remained. In any such translation you would have to omit more and more, until the essential meaning disappeared. Because things are as they are, we should gratefully accept both: the normal form of Eucharist is in the vernacular, but we should not on that account forget to pray it, to love it, in the common language of the Church over the centuries, so that in this unsettled and changeable world, in which the nations are forever meeting and mingling with each other, we are still able ever and again to worship together and, in that language, to praise the living God together. Here too, we should rise above a fruitless dispute and become one in the multiplicity the Lord has given us; one in recognizing and in loving the understanding and comprehensibility but also the inclusiveness that transcends the rationality of what is immediately understood.

(Joseph Ratzinger – Theology of the Liturgy – Ignatius Press)

Dominica IV Adventus – 23 Dec 2018

Ant. ad introitum Is 45, 8
Roráte, cæli, désuper, et nubes pluant iustum;
aperiátur terra et gérminet Salvatórem.

Non dicitur Glória in excélsis.

Collecta
Grátiam tuam, quǽsumus, Dómine,
méntibus nostris infúnde, ut qui, Angelo nuntiánte,
Christi Fílii tui incarnatiónem cognóvimus,
per passiónem eius et crucem
ad resurrectiónis glóriam perducámur.
Per Dóminum.

Dicitur Credo.

Super oblata
Altári tuo, Dómine, superpósita múnera
Spíritus ille sanctíficet,
qui beátæ Maríæ víscera sua virtúte replévit.
Per Christum.

Præfatio II de Adventu.

Ant. ad communionem Is 7, 14
Ecce Virgo concípiet, et páriet fílium;
et vocábitur nomen eius Emmánuel.

Post communionem
Sumpto pígnore redemptiónis ætérnæ,
quǽsumus, omnípotens Deus,
ut quanto magis dies salutíferæ festivitátis accédit,
tanto devótius proficiámus
ad Fílii tui digne nativitátis mystérium celebrándum.
Qui vivit et regnat in sǽcula sæculórum.

Adhiberi potest formula benedictionis sollemnis.

© Copyright – Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Messalino in PDF con letture in lingua italiana (da stampare su fogli A3 fronte/retro)

Missalette in PDF with readings in English (to be printed on A3 sheets, front/back)

Why Latin is the correct and fitting language of the Roman Catholic liturgy

Peter Kwasniewski:

The error that led to the abolition of Latin was neoscholastic and Cartesian in nature—namely, the belief that the content of the Catholic Faith is not embodied or incarnate but somehow abstracted from matter. Thus, many Catholics think that Tradition means only some conceptual content that is passed down, irrespective of the way in which it is passed down. But this is not true. Latin is itself one of the things passed down, together with the content of all that is written or chanted in Latin. Moreover, the Church herself has recognized this point on a number of occasions in singling out Latin for special praise and recognizing in it an efficacious sign of the unity, catholicity, antiquity, and permanence of the Latin Church.

Latin thus possesses a quasi-sacramental function: just as Gregorian chant is “the musical icon of Roman Catholicism” (Joseph Swain), so is Latin its “linguistic icon.”

Full article here.

Artículo completo en Español aquí.

Bishop Strickland: Receive Communion on the Tongue while Kneeling

Bishop Strickland’s tweet on Saturday, December 15:

Ways to receive Our Lord as King of the Universe… read and reflect on the Sunday Scriptures, plan your whole weekend around receiving your King, wear your best garments, spend time in quiet, kneel to receive Him, receive Him on the tongue, offer silent time of thanks after mass.

(Reported by Brian Williams here)