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”.