In this article, Father Hermanagild Jayachandra, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Church in Boulder, CO, will be celebrating the first year of his monthly Novus Ordo Latin Mass. By all accounts, it's been an overwhelming success.
Aimee Milburn, the music director, needed to help the parishioners appreciate the liturgical riches:
“It was too much to expect parishioners to suddenly pronounce Latin words and sing Gregorian chant,” she said.Good for them.Her solution was to form a Gregorian schola, a small choir, to chant the Latin and gently lead the people in the prayer responses and songs. Four men from St. Martin’s agreed to take on the challenge. “They love music, and practiced for several weeks,” said Milburn. Within a few months Milburn expanded the schola to include several female voices.
[Via Spirit Daily]
Embarking upon a major research project, Milburn searched the Internet as well as published materials to find the Latin for the Novus Ordo Mass.
It seems rather odd that it took so much trouble, what with the parish holdings and those of the archdiocesan office of worship. I think that other members of the CMAA as well as myself would be more than happy to help as well. Maybe this phrasing resulted from some license the reporter took with the actual interview. It is, however, reprinted verbatim on the parish Web site.
"It was too much to expect parishioners to suddenly pronounce Latin words and sing Gregorian chant," she said.
This also seems a little odd in an urban setting. However, any vocalist knows that with sufficient repetition (and good support) the congregation can sing anything written for it; any parish musician sooner or later comes to realize that what may be the point where boredom tempts himself may well just barely be the beginning of congregational assimilation. I imagine that the biggest obstacle is that they are just celebrating their thirteenth occasional Mass with this music.
All that being said, I wish them well in their own discovery of the many-faceted riches of chant.