To us, however, the Gregorian chant is the true song of the Church, chiefly because it is essentially choral in character; by which we mean that its melodies, so simple in construction, so massive in form, and its grave and majestic rhythm, fit it eminently for execution by large bodies of singers, called in church parlance the schola, or choir.
In the discipline of the early church it was supposed that all the congregation of the faithful present at the Holy Sacrifice responded to the salutations and solemn invitations of the priest at the altar to unite with him in prayer and acts of adoration. We have before us a very old reproduction of an ancient manuscript, entitled, Ἡ Φεὶα λειτουργία τοῦ ἁγιοῦ ἀποστόλου Πέτρου, Missa Apostolica; seu, Divinum Sacrificium S. Apostoli Petri, which purports, and on good authority, to be the Mass of St. Peter. At the close of the Offertory, we read as follows; we quote the Latin version given side by side with the Greek:
"Deinde sacerdos voce clara dicit.
"Dominus vobiscum.
"Populus. Et cum spiritu tuo.
"Sacerdos. Oremus.
"Populus. Domine, miserere, ter.
"Tum sacerdos alta voce.
"Præbe, Domine, servis tuis, dexteram cœlestis auxilii, ut te toto corde perquirant, et quæ dignè postulant consequantur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, cum quo vivis et regnas Deus noster in unitate Spiritus sancti, in sæcula.
"Populus. Amen. Sanctus Deus, sanctus fortis. Et interea dum populus dicit hymnum ter sanctum, precatur sacerdos. (Various prayers here follow, closing with the Lavabo.)
"Mox sacerdos clara voce.
"Dominus vobiscum.
"Populus. Et cum spiritu tuo.
"Sacerdos. Ostia, ostia. (Alluding to the closing of the doors and departure of the catechumens.)
"Populus. Credo in unum Deum, etc.
"Sacerdos. Stemus honeste; stemus cum reverentia, etc.
"Populus. Misericordiam; pacem.
"Sacerdos, alta voce. Hostiam tibi Domine destinatam in oblationem sanctifica, et per eam nos clementer suscipe, per Dominum, etc., per omnia sæcula sæculorum.
"Populus. Amen.
"Sacerdos. Sursum corda.
"Populus. Habemus ad Dominum.
"Sacerdos. Gratiarum actiones submittamus, Domino Deo nostro.
"Populus. Dignum et justum est."
The priest continues to chant the preface. At the close of it the people sing the Sanctus, and answer Amen when the priest has pronounced the words of consecration. The entire Pater noster is given to the people, and they respond to the usual salutations made after the communion. A side rubrical note, referring to the parts assigned to the populus or people, says, "Populi vox est et cantorum."
This manner of celebrating High Mass will seem to many of our readers as strange and obsolete; but such is precisely the manner in which one can yet hear the Holy Sacrifice in many towns and villages on the continent of Europe, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and sixty-nine; and we need hardly say with what sublime and soul-stirring effect.
We do not think it at all probable that this old form of congregational accompaniment of the Mass ever can be universally revived. Yet it must be acknowledged that no more complete, intelligent, or edifying expression of the Great Eucharistic Rite could possibly be desired.
"Shall we ever see the day," asks a writer in the old Dublin Review, "when, on entering a Catholic church during service time, we shall be struck, not with the dampening spectacle of a congregation partly composed of unbelievers in the act of enjoying the pleasure of a Sunday concert, while the remainder, with closed books in their lap, or by their side, wait patiently or impatiently till the prolonged and a hundred times repeated Amen of the Gloria or the Creed deigns to come to an end, but with the refreshing sight of an unmixed body of true worshippers, learned and ignorant, high and low, rich and poor, unostentatiously led by a select choir, engaged in heartily singing the praises of Him in whose house they are assembled? To so consoling and truly Catholic a state of things should all our reforms tend; for it will only be when it is established that we shall be able to taste the sweetness, as well as delight in the beauty and feel the grandeur of that congregational singing which so many desire, but which is incompatible with an encouragement in churches of the music of Don Giovanni, Fidelio, Lodoiska, Il Barbière, and Faust."
Were this revival of congregational singing in the mind of the Church, there could be no question about the form of melody to be applied. No one would think of looking elsewhere than to plain chant as the only practical and fitting resource in that event.
But, as in past times there was always the select schola or choir to whom the choral selections of the divine offices were committed, so at the present day it would seem to be that which the Church aims mainly at preserving. Indeed, as Dr. Lootens well observes, the very architectural dispositions of our churches, when constructed according to the ritual, suppose such a body of singers, who, being the coadjutors of the sacred ministers, are supposed to possess a quasi-ecclesiastical character, and appear in the sanctuary properly vested as clerici, or clerks, and whose demeanor, as well as singing, is of that grave and decorous character which beseems the house of God and the presence of the Holy Sacrament. The learned prelate says:
"A Protestant meeting-house is built to preach in; the nearer the minister is to the people, the better he is heard. Our churches are, first of all, places of worship. Nothing so affects the visitor who enters one of our churches in the old country as the mysterious depth of their sanctuaries. We allude here not merely to the Gothic cathedrals, but to all kind of churches, no matter to what particular order of architecture they belong. Architects, in those ancient times, would as soon have thought of planning a church without a chancel, (choir,) as of building one without a roof."