Monica,
--- On Fri, 3/16/12, Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> Sorry - I would question a lot of what you are saying. It depends
what
> you mean by "smaller" Catholic churches. Most peasants lived in
small
> scattered rural communites and the clergy who ministered to them
were
> not necessarily highly educated or particularly musical.
[CW]
In the old Catholic Church, there was not a "just go with what you've
got" attitude: many things were decreed by detailed law. The Church
aimed at a highly uniform practice - "catholic" in the literal sense of
the word. The expectations were quite exacting and specific. (Note
below that all churches were required to possess several musical
books.)
Susan Carroll-Clark writes that each church needed to have, "One
chalice of silver or silver-gilt, a cup (or ciborium) of silver or
pewter to hold the Host during the Eucharist, a pyx to display the
consecrated Host and another for the unconsecrated bread; a pewter
chrismatory for holy oils, along with a censer and an incense boat,
three cruets, and a holy water vessel; one fixed stone altar with
cloths, canopy, and frontal; one stone font for baptisms; two
statues--one of the patron saint, the other of the Virgin Mary;
candlesticks (including one for the Paschal candle and processional
candlesticks), two great crosses (one portable, for processions), a
nuptial veil for marriages, a pall for coffins, bells (including
handbells for processions), a lantern to carry before the priest
when he visited the sick or dying; at least two sets of vestments;
and books: a manual for the offices, an ordinal (for the offices
throughout the year), a missal (words and order of the Mass), a
collect book for prayers, books of saints' legends, a gradual for
the music, a troper for other services not covered in the other
books, a venitary for the psalms said at matins, an antiphoner for
the canonical hours, a psalter, a hymnal, copies of the statutes of
the synods; ---and a big chest to hold everything! How elaborate
these basic furnishings were depended on the church; in the later
Middle Ages, guilds devoted to maintaining the church furnishings
became very common, each church vying with the next to outdo each
other in the splendor of the vessels and vestments, far outstripping
the bare minimum listed here."
I suppose one could argue that just because the books of plainchant
were required to be present was no proof that they were ever
actually used. The rule certainly suggests that they were expected
to be used, however.
> If they did
> perform plainsong it would not have been a la Solesmes.
[CW]
I never suggested elaborate settings, in fact, I argued against it. Be
careful not to project our modern notions of quality on past periods.
Today when contemplating chant, we tend to look for compositional
complexity in the form of things such as length, broadness of range and
elaborate melismas. Pieces that include these features are more likely
to catch the attention of modern scholars and performers and are
therefore more likely to be performed/recorded. Modern listeners then
assume that these qualities are defining features of the genre. Chant
comes in many varieties, however. In addition to complex melismatic
constructions, there was also a body of simple syllabic settings which
would be very easily accessible to less skilled singers or clergy.
Undoubtedly, many items were also sung to improvised psalm tones. As
Ron mentioned in his reply, chant was functional music.
I would be very hesitant to base the musical competency of ancient
clergy members on the lack of facility of priests today! In olden
times, I believe that some minimal musical training may have been
part of studying for the priesthood. Those in the monastic orders at
least all gathered to sing the hours in plainchant many times daily
(and nightly!)
> Attendance at Mass may have been mandatory (was it?) but that doesn't
> prove that everyone attended or that they would have been
particularly
> reverent when they did.
[CW]
To put it in modern terms, one might say that just because it is
illegal to drive the wrong way down a one way street doesn't mean
everyone regularly obeys the law.
Church scholar Manuel Garrido O.S.B. writes, "The moral obligation to
participate in the eucharistic sacrifice on Sundays dates from the very
beginning of Christianity, although it did not become a definite law of
the Church until the fourth century...The obligation to attend Sunday
Mass exists. It is a commandment of the Church which binds under the
penalty of grave sin... Modern scientific investigation also proves
that this custom is from the time of the apostles."
I don't have hard facts regarding the general rate of compliance with
this rule or the level of appropriateness of behavior demonstrated by
ancient church goers. Due to the top-down nature of society at the
time, it is highly probable that the vast majority of poor schleppers
just did as they were told. If you DID decide to skip out on church to
hang around ye olde tenant dirt farm, I doubt too many contemporaries
would think you were giving off a cool rebel vibe. (James Dean's
influence on mediaeval teen age behavior is vastly overrated today.)
More likely, a vigorous beating or a torture session administered with
great glee was in your near future.
> The whole service would have been in Latin -
> which most peasants would not have understood.
[CW]
This is why churches employed professional artists to illustrate
biblical stories through paintings, frescos, statues and stained glass.
> The clergy would often
> have been separated from the "congregation" by the screen.
[CW]
...and entirely audible.
> When I said "happy clappy" stuff I meant it would have been the sort
of >"popular" music that they were familiar with.
[CW]
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, the Church's voluminous sets of
regulations ultimately sought catholic uniformity of practice and
behavior. I find the suggestion that region-specific folk or popular
music was tolerated on any kind of regular basis in church extremely
unlikely.
Chris
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