First Sunday of Advent - The Proper of the Mass; Plainchant sung by Hari Bayani

First Sunday of Advent
The Proper of the Mass (Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion)
Plainchant sung by Hari Bayani
Recorded Saturday, November 27, 2021
The Community Church of Honolulu
Edited and produced on GarageBand and iMovie

00:00 Introduction
00:09 Introit
03:47 Gradual
06:27 Alleluia
08:45 Offertory
10:23 Communion

English translations:

INTROIT (ENTRANCE ANTIPHON):
Unto you have I lifted up my soul. O my God, I trust in you, let me not be put to shame; do not allow my enemies to laugh at me; for none of those who are awaiting you will be disappointed.
(Verse): Make your ways known unto me, O Lord, and teach me your paths.
(Traditionally, a “Gloria Patri” [Glory be to the Father] would be inserted after the verse but before the opening antiphon)

GRADUAL (replaced by the Responsorial Psalm in the Ordinary form of the mass):
They will not be disappointed, O Lord, all those who are awaiting you.
(Verse): Make your ways known unto me, O Lord, and teach me your paths.

ALLELUIA:
(Verse): Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

OFFERTORY:
Unto you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; O my God, I trust in you, let me not be put to shame; do not allow my enemies to laugh at me; for none of those who are awaiting you will be disappointed.

COMMUNION:
The Lord will bestow his loving kindness, and our land will yield its fruit.
This was a “last-minute” production – two days ago, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice to record some Gregorian chant for the Advent and Christmas season? I plan to record the Proper of the Mass for the next few weeks, and if people take an interest, I may continue recording chant for the rest of the liturgical year. (The hum, by the way, that you may hear from time to time in my recording is my laptop heating up and buzzing from the long recording session – sorry!)

Some background: at the local Catholic church in my hometown (St. Patrick Church in San Francisco, California), I grew up attending both mass in English and in Latin, with an important distinction – I attended not the Traditional (a.k.a. Extraordinary form) of the mass, but rather the “Novus Ordo” mass, a.k.a. “Vatican II” mass or the “Mass of Paul VI” – basically the Ordinary form of the Catholic mass as we know it today, post-1960s. Because of the greater emphasis on congregational participation in the modern Ordinary form of the mass, I was able to learn many of the Latin prayers and Gregorian chants while sitting in the congregation. Later in my adolescence, the organist at the time, Mr. Steve Repasky, discovered that I had musical talent and began mentoring me in liturgical music, and I even sang in the Men’s Schola – I was introduced to a rich tradition of sacred music that is no longer taught in school or in everyday church choir rehearsals. Mr. Repasky in particular taught me how to read Gregorian notation (4 staff lines, movable C and F clefs and square notation). I actually find it much easier to interpret plainchant from Gregorian notation than from modern notation.

In my career as a church musician, I had the privilege over many years of singing much chant at St. Patrick Church, St. Mary’s Cathedral and the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi (all in San Francisco). St. Patrick no longer offers the Latin mass, which saddens me, but I’m thankful for all that I learned during my youth, and hope that my humble videos will reach a wider audience via YouTube. I am NOT an expert in Gregorian chant, and I cannot go into all the esoteric discussions and polemics about the historical developments of plainchant, but I have a deep appreciation for all that my mentors over the years have taught me.

Lastly, and I must address the “elephant in the room” – I absolutely refuse to entertain ANY divisive comments on my video that use chant as a political/philosophical/theological device for arguments for or against the Extraordinary form (“Tridentine”) of the mass versus the Ordinary form (“Vatican II”). I just happen to LOVE chant and want to share my love of it with the world, and I think the beauty of plainchant can be appreciated by people of many spiritual backgrounds and faiths. In my humble opinion, chant has something to offer practically everyone.

The Proper of the Mass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_(liturgy)

In-depth book on learning how to sing plainchant (free online pdf file) by Dom Gregory Suñol, OSB, Monk of Montserrat:
https://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/sunol.pdf

Free online pdf file of the Gregorian Missal (from where I took my music images and English translations), published by the Monks of Solesmes:
https://media.musicasacra.com/books/gregorianmissal-eng.pdf
© 1990, St. Peter's Abbey, Solesmes.
© 1990, Desclee, Paris - Tournai.
The English translation of the prayers, the eucharistic prayers, prefaces, and other texts from the Order of Mass from The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

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