General Instruction on the Roman Missal 2003

The cantor of the psalm is to sing the psalm or other biblical song that comes between the readings. To fulfill their functioncorrectly, these cantors should possess singing talent and anaptitude for correct pronunciation and diction. (Par 102)

There should be a cantor or a choir director to lead and sustain the people in the singing. When in fact there is no choir, it is up to the cantor to lead the various songs, and the people take part in the way proper to them. (Par 105)

Celebrating the Mass

In 2005, the Vatican published a new General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), a Latin document – to be formally translated into each required language – regulating the celebration of the ordinary form of the Novus Ordo throughout the world.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales followed this with Celebrating the Mass: A Pastoral Introduction (CTM), a further set of instructions on how to interpret the GIRM. In short, this was how their lordships expected the Mass to be celebrated in parishes throughout England & Wales. Of course, this included the place of music and musicians.

CTM presumes there will be a psalmist, a cantor, instrumentalists, a choir and a director of music to “assist the assembly’s full participation in singing the songs, responses, and acclamations which are constitutive elements of the liturgy”. The document describes these people as “ministers of music” who “exercise a liturgical function within the assembly and by their role help to add beauty and solemnity to the celebration.

“The cantor’s function is to lead and encourage the assembly in singing. The cantor also introduces and teaches new music to the people. The role of the psalmist and cantor may be carried out by one person.”

Bill Tamblyn: The father of cantors

Vatican’s II’s demand that the people should sing that “which is rightly theirs", meant that somehow they would have to learn those items, unless they were using the Latin plainsong settings.

Bill Tamblyn was among those pioneer parish musicians who broke the mould by actually addressing their congregations.

In 1971, just a year after the introduction of the Novus Ordo Tamblyn wrote Sing Up: A Guide and Encouragement to Sing in Church. In it, he suggests that a cantor can stand at the front of the church and not only lead the congregation in song but rehearse and teach them beforehand. He lists the parts of the liturgy which should be sung and who should sing them.

Tamblyn even considers how to rehearse a congregation: He suggests how to speak to them, how to encourage them and even how to teach them a complete Mass setting (seven items) in just six weeks. He lays out a detailed plan for congregational rehearsals, championing the “call-response” method and indicating possible hand gestures.

“The congregation will only be able to play this game for five to ten minutes. And anyway, you will have to teach it all again next week when fifty per cent of the congregation will have changed.”

In his later work, The Cantor’s Handbook [1980], Tamblyn presumes that, whatever the musical resources of a parish, there will always be a Cantor-Animateur to lead the congregation in song:

“Through his spoken and gestural instructions he co-ordinates the participants: the organist, the choir, the servers, the priest, the people. He orchestrates and integrates the liturgy”.