On those Paraphrases

I was asked on Twitter today about the Lutheran custom of substituting chorales for the texts of the Ordinary. Thought I share my response here as well. First, this custom has long-standing within the Lutheran tradition, of course. To many Lutherans for centuries "Allein Gott in der Höh'" WAS the Greater Gloria. Second, though, Lutherans throughout the age of Orthodoxy continued to hear and sing the Latin original canticles (think at Bach's time where the A choir would carry the Latin and the B choir would carry the predominantly German paraphrases, and alternate by week—I think I'm remembering how Stiller laid it out). The key, then, is that Lutherans of yesteryear heard the chorale paraphrases as enriching meditations on the shorter Latin texts that no doubt many of them held in their heads and hearts. Zum Beispiel, "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis...dona nobis pacem" would always be in their heads as the background to:

O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig
am Stamm des Kreuzes geschlachtet,
allzeit erfunden geduldig,
wiewohl du warest verachtet,
all Sünd hast du getragen,
sonst müssten wir verzagen.
Erbarm dich unser, o Jesu... Gib deinen Frieden, o Jesu.

Lamb of God, pure and holy,
Who on the cross didst suffer
Ever patient and lowly,
Thyself to scorn didst offer.
All sins Thou borest for us,
Else had despair reigned o'er us.
Have mercy on us, O Jesus... Thy peace be with us, O Jesus.

I think the chorale paraphrase tradition can still be enriching, but ONLY if the prose is in the heads and hearts of the chorale singers, and that seems to require regular use of the prose. Hence, it seems to me that the best practice is a regular use of the prose ordinary, such as we have in Divine Service 3, then with occasional use of paraphrases (i.e., Divine Service 5) as enriching fare, just not the so-called "meat and potatoes" of one's liturgical diet.