Ming posted this on the page where I blogged the Mass Shalom, but I thought he posed good questions that might provoke some more general discussion and assistance:
We have been using Mass Shalom for many months now, after switching over from A Chant Mass for the Assembly. The Glory to God chant was a bit touch and go the first couple of times…
I am thinking of trying out some mass settings
– Paul Taylor’s Mass of St Francis (played it through once: also my parents’ parish St Bernadette’s Castle Hill NSW uses it)I have just bought the following but have not played through them
– Joshua Cowie’s Mass of Mary McKillop (need more than one voice parts to make it work)
– Richard Connolly’s Notre Dame Mass
– Richard Connolly’s Mass of Our Lady Help of Christians
– Maggie Russell’s Mass of FreedomWe have also used the earlier version of Marty Haugen’s Mass of Creation for quite some time.
My own favourite is the (old version of) Bernadette Farrell’s Setting Four in GA (GA 126-132). I looked up Mass of Hope http://www.ocp.org/massofhope and the revised version is much simplified. I miss having this mass sung with a full choir, plus an organ and a keyboard.
I would like to hear from anyone how has used any of the above, or any other mass settings. I just play what has been given to me, but if my wife D’Arne and I can learn some new ones, at least we have the option to try to “sell” them …
We have been with the new settings some years now and maybe it’s time to see what else is out there.
I blogged my impressions of the six settings chosen by the Australian Bishops here but have had reason to review my opinions since. Of the six, Mason’s “Glory and Praise”, Taylor’s “St Francis” and Smith’s “Shalom” (revised by Mason) are all singable, playable and functional for suburban parishes with limited resources, and having played them all in parishes think they work well, although Shalom has always been a difficult one for guitar. I think the other three chosen settings are either for the very talented or Cathedrals. In other words I was too scared to even make backings for them.
I’ve played Haugen’s “Creation” and, while I generally love his songs, I don’t think the Gloria survived the rewrite. Similarly, Maggie Russell’s “Freedom”, has clunks in the revised Gloria that are rather jarring. We have been using it as one of our three settings (with “Glory and Praise” and “St Francis”) but I’d prefer it was retired myself.
If we did look for another setting there is no lack of choice as Ming suggests.
Robinson’s “Mass for Moderns” has been revised, contrary to my ignorant blogging some years ago. It was very popular before the change and is worth looking at again. I’ll put up some backings for sing along purposes soon.
…other worthy possibilities I have blogged already.
Pocket Mass (OK that baby is mine and somewhat unlovable)
It may still take years of parishes singing the new masses before any particular setting rises to the top and becomes as ubiquitous as say “Creation” was, but I’d value opinions, ideas, experiences and answers to Ming’s questions. He hints that having to sell a new setting may be a challenge just yet, and I’m sure he’s right as some people are still not over the shock of having to learn a more than one new setting in that first year and may not be ready for any more just yet.
I love mass settings. When I first learned about the new translation of the missal, I went on YouTube to the “MassSettings” channel and listened to most of the new versions. At that time, I remember listening to the Gloria from David Haas’ Mass for a New World many times. It reminded me of his Mass of Light Gloria, but it wasn’t as awkward as the revised version of that setting. (Before the new translation, we would mismatch that Gloria with the other parts from the St. Louis Jesuits Mass, which was sadly not revised.)
Our parish currently uses 3 complete settings (Haugen’s Mass of Creation, Schutte’s Mass of Christ the Savior, and and Guimont’s Mass for a Servant Church) and parts of Proulx’s Community Mass, as well as the Danish Amen and several Gospel Acclamations. We tend to rotate through Gospel Acclamations more frequently than whole settings, so they don’t always match.
In my opinion as a person in the pew, our most successful setting is Mass of Christ the Savior. It seems to be the one the congregation sings the best. I know it’s used at other parishes in the area and it was used at a wedding I attended at another parish last summer so it seems quite popular here. The only downside I have with it is the Gloria and Holy Holy both have repeated parts that make them seem to drag on if the tempo isn’t fast enough.
If it were up to me, I’d throw out the Guimont version. It’s not easily accessible for the congregation and it sounds strange when not done on organ. But alas, it’s our diocese default setting for diocesan masses. Every parish was supposed to use it for the first 6 months after the new missal’s implementation. I doubt that happened everywhere, but we did it and now we’re stuck with it. It’s a nice setting for major events and whatnot, but not so much for a weekend vigil mass with piano and guitar.
Mass of Creation generally goes well. If you’ve used it before, it’s not a terribly difficult transition to make, but even after using it for a couple years I still hear people sing wrong words and skip lines in the Gloria. If you haven’t used it before, I’d recommend using something else since it is rather clunky. It seems best suited for people looking for familiarity.
We use A Community Mass during Advent (so no Gloria) and it seems to do well. The revised Holy was easy to transition to and it helped that the When We Eat This Bread is set to the exact same tune. The Amen (we repeat it when we use it) and Lamb of God didn’t change and we’ve been using those for decades, so there’s no problem there.
I’m not sure what the plan is for Lent this year, but we’ve been using a hodgepodge of parts during Lent the past couple years and I wouldn’t expect that to change. We’ve been using Community’s Holy, Servant Church’s Save Us, and the Danish Amen (we also repeat this one when we use it).
Prior to the new translation, along with Creation, Light/St. Louis Jesuits, and Community, we used Haugen’s Mass of Remembrance, but I’m not a fan of that revision. The parish where they record our diocese TV Outreach Mass couples the Gloria from Tony Alonso’s Mass of Joy and Peace with the other parts of Lawton’s Glendalough Mass and I really enjoy that as an alternative for Glendalough’s high Gloria. I’d love to see that combination added at my parish, but I don’t think we’ll be adding anything new for a while, but you never know.
I know that doesn’t really address the settings you mentioned, but I thought I’d share my experience. Good luck with any new setting you choose. 🙂
Thanks, Ryan
Yes it’s a pity about the Gloria for the Glendalough Mass.
The parish I played the revised “Creation” at had much the same problem and the Gloria seemed to go all over the place.
I think we would have revolted if the archdiocese had imposed a mass setting – they wouldn’t have dared. The Australian Bishops made recommendations and certainly parishes paid some attention to them.
I’ll have to have a look at Schutte’s mass – I like much of his work and if anyone could make the new Gloria singable I suppose he could have.
Geoff
Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts.
Ryan, thanks for introducing me to the YouTube “MassSettings” channel.
I like Curtis Stephan’s Mass of Renewal. I will have to get a copy and try it out …
Years ago, St Bernadette’s Castle Hill used Agnus Dei from Tony Way’s Lonsdale Setting (GA 122) for a couple of months and I really liked it. I don’t think his setting has been revised.
Around 1999-2001 I sang with a group called i9: we sang mass settings from Byrd and Palestrina, Victoria (memory is very hazy) at different (mainly Anglican) churches. Interesting experience, definitely enjoyed exploring the music through rehearsing and performing. No one in the congregation joined …
I have been playing keyboard (not organ) at my parish since 2001. It used to be just me on the keyboard. More recently my wife D’Arne joins me. Whenever we have a list that has “quiet music” slots, we get to choose. Having 2 quiet music slots each week in the months of December and January has been an interesting experience. This website has been of great value.
I started with a friend Bobby who was providing music for 3 faith communities in Toronto in 1996. Every time we introduced new music, he would talk about it before the start of service, and then play through on the guitar, and get people to sing through.
At St Agatha’s, our previous parish priest would also introduce new music before the start of service. He would demo, and then the congregation would follow. Didn’t happen very often. Curious how other churches introduce new music.
So far, new or classical selections are either my on keyboard, or accompanying D’Arne. We have much more flexible rehearsals than the usual church choir … : )
Hi Mark,
At Corinda Graceville, if we have a new piece of music, we will introduce it before Mass. Most of us will get the organist to play the melody line, then break it up into phrases with the cantor singing a line and the congregation singing it back. Then we put it all together. Usually this takes a maximum of 5 minutes.
We have GA on the pews in both churches and the back page of our newsletter for anything no in GA (http://www.corindagracevilleparish.org.au/newslettercurrent.pdf). I Sibelius new hymns with the melody line for the newsletter.
Thank you for sharing your newsletter, Chris.
I don’t have Sibelius: good to see Sibelius is also a verb!
Speaking of Sibelius, I should listen to the episodes of “Letters to Sibelius” I missed before they disappear from the web, eg http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2016/01/02/4373895.htm
We’ve used the Gloria from Timothy R Smiths Mass of the Sacred Heart. (Available from OCP, here: http://www.ocp.org/newmasssettings/newsettings/sacredheart) – and it’s worked extremely well.
Our traditionally-minded young curate has had us learning the Missal Chant setting: seriously musicians and folk-musicians alike don’t have much love for this one and I agree with them. But I’ve been surprised by how well some parts (eg the English Holy Holy) have been picked up.
We purchased the books / CD which the Irish bishops recommended settings, but they are either in Latin or too difficult. However we do have some pieces from the Glendalough, and some of the “bits and pieces” eg Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes, which they published.
I think most parishes here have an all or nothing approach now, rather than bits from here and there, which makes Glendalough’s high notes in the Gloria a pity.
Perhaps chant settings could be our Lenten penance. (joking)
Settings favoured by Bishops are a worry since they tend to inhabit Cathedrals and seem to forget what goes on in the suburbs.
Geoff
My choir is guitar/piano/harmony with occasional C instrument, so we choose Mass settings that tie in musically with that arrangement of singers/musicians.
So not initially considered were
– Mass of St Francis (no harmony)
– Mass of Our Lady, Help of Christians (not written for guitar / piano)
Our favoured Mass Setting:
– Mass of Renewal (Curtis Stephan) – elegant, joyful, musical, high quality liturgical music.
Since 2010 we have also cycled through
– Mass of Creation (revised)
– Mass of Light (revised)
After our pianist attended a youth congress in Melbourne, we changed tack and adopted a mass setting with just a melody line – Fr Rob Galea’s Glorify Mass Setting.
All four mass settings have been very well received by singers, musicians and the assembly, and I recommend all four.
Tip: To help the assembly with the ‘Glory to God’ for Masses of Light and Creation, an A5 sheet with the Glory to God words and melody is distributed at the start of mass and collected at the end.
Yola
I think providing melody lines is a very hospitable gesture.
Geoff
Yes, giving a melody line to the congregation can help a lot. We did a similar thing, with an A5 sheet of all the Mass parts, when we were learning a new Mass Setting.
Here are the Mass Settings that are rotated in the parishes I play at.
Corinda Graceville
– Mass Shalom
– Mass of Glory and Praise
Holland Park Mt Gravatt
– Mass Shalom
– Mass of St Francis
As we are all aware, there are a number of factors when picking a new mass setting. It needs to be suitable for all musicians in the parish with their different playing and singing abilities.
I occasionally play in 2 parishes. The first plays one of the “plainsong/chant” and “Mass of St Francis” (both in the Catholic Worship Book II).
The other is an MSC parish – and (perhaps not surprisingly) they have a number of settings that have been written by different priests of the Order. Most commonly, we use a setting “Mass of the Sacred Heart” by Fr James Maher (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mb_0aE6FjdK6DVqBixPXLjnSNyXED6Q88) – I don’t know whether it’s simply because the parish is used to it, but they seem to really join in (they’ve been using it far longer than I’ve been there). We also occasionally use a setting by Fr Gerard McCormick – but I find this one cumbersome to play (and likely cumbersome for the people to sing) because it has fast bits and slow bits, and ups and downs (and it’s not helped by the fact that over time it’s been refined, so different people are familiar with slightly different versions of it) – I sort of suspect it could sound really nice if led by a well rehearsed choir, but if mass settings are about encouraging congregation involvement, then perhaps it misses the mark a little. That said, I do like the consistency between the different Memorial Acclamation and Great Amen in this setting.
I think very occasionally we’ve used non MSC settings – the Mass of Glory and Praise (Paul Mason) and Mass of St Francis (Paul Taylor)