I am excited to announce two new chant projects in progress for use in the Personal Ordinariates for Catholics of the Anglican Patrimony. One is for priests and one for choristers.

The first project is one started very recently by myself and some friends. Many Catholics are familiar with the common tone the priest uses to chant the preface, the solemn tone, found here: https://youtu.be/eX-DnCtcVL0?t=4241. This is only one of three tones traditionally used in the Roman Rite. The Missale Romanum, the missal used for the Tridentine Mass, gives three tones to use for the preface: the ferial tone, the solemn tone, and the more solemn tone (titled “in praefatio tono solemniori”). The Anglican Missal adapts the ferial and solemn tones to English, however, I have not found adaptations of the more solemn tone, so this is a project I wanted to do for a few months now and just begun. I am writing the adaptations, and my friends James Scott and James Griffin review them and give input. James Scott also transcribes the prefaces into chant notation and I transcribe them into modern notation, so either can be used. James Griffin recorded the tutorial. The preface most properly goes with the preceding “preface dialogue” which would be best for the choir to learn and to print it in bulletins, however, many places do use the more solemn tone with a simpler dialogue tone. With the writing of this article, we have completed the Preface of the Incarnation, which is used from Christmas Eve to the Vigil of the Epiphany, exclusive, which I have posted it here for your downloading pleasure, available for free use. You can print them on a single sheet and insert them into Divine Worship: The Missal. I hope to write them for most of the prefaces; my current idea is all the prefaces except for the Preface for the Commemoration of the Dead, as the traditional rubrics in the Missale Romanum only permit the more solemn tone on days when the ferial tone is not prescribed.

Preface of the Incarnation (chant notation)

Preface of the Incarnation (modern notation)

Preface of the Incarnation MP3 tutorial for priests (must download from external site; I recommend the video instead) https://www.filehosting.org/file/details/768116/Preface%20of%20the%20Incarnation.mp3

Preface of the Incarnation video tutorial for priests

The second project is being done by James Scott. He is creating an English Gradual for the Ordinariates in the style of the Plainchant Gradual by the Rev. G.H. Palmer, Mus. Doc. and Francis Burgess. Although the Plainchant Gradual is currently in use in Ordinariate parishes, those who use them regularly will know that the texts do not match up all the time with Divine Worship. His project will set these traditional melodies to the text of Divine Worship, and he hopes to eventually set the entire missal. He is currently looking for trial participants and can be contacted at ordinariatechants at gmail dot com.

James Scott left Tulane University with a Master of Architecture in 2017 and has been a staff singer in several choirs. James T.M. Griffin is a Knight of Malta and instituted acolyte at St. John the Baptist, the Ordinariate parish in Bridgeport, PA (Greater Philadelphia).