Gregorian Chant Ordinary Rediscovered – Examples of Using Gregorian Melodies of the Ordinary of the Mass in the 20thand 21st-Century Liturgical Compositions

Abstract

Official documents referring to laws and principles of music in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in Roman Rite remind that the Church acknowledges primacy of Gregorian chant but also allows other forms of singing, especially polyphony. It is, however, recommended that people’s participation in the singing of Ordinarium Missae should not be completely excluded. It can be slightly problematic to put those guidelines into practice. Certain suggestions of how to engage both people and a polyphonic choir may be found in selected compositions by Wolfram Menschick, Rev. Zdzisław Bernat and Katarzyna Danel.