Best Mass Settings (And worst!)

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What mass settings do people like? and hate?

I just finished up a review of mass settings, from the perspective of a parish looking for one that will be beautiful while encouraging congregational singing. I considered settings within the genres of traditional, blended, and contemporary.

Good traditional settings:
  1. Psallite Mass from the Collegeville Composers
  2. Mass in Honor of St. Isaac Jogues by Jeff Ostrowski
Good blended settings:
  1. Mass of Wisdom by Steven Janco
  2. Revised Mass of Creation by Marty Haugen
  3. Mass of Christ the Savior by Dan Schutte
Good contemporary settings:
  1. Mass of Renewal by Curtis Stephan
  2. Mass of Communion by Matt Maher
  3. Mass of St. Anne by Ed Bolduc
Bad mass settings:
  1. Storrington Mass by Marty Haugen
  2. Mass of Joy and Peace by Tony Alonso
Here is my full review, with youTube videos of all the masses!
contemporaryorthodoxy.weebly.com/blog/best-catholic-mass-settings
 
I believe a certain mass by Dan Schutte is known by some as the “My Little Pony” mass.

Yeah, that gets my vote for worst.
 
Probably my favorite modern mass setting is the Mass of St. Frances Cabrini by Kevin Keil.
 
This is the version that we use in ordinary time when we sing the parts in English.
youtube.com/watch?v=A2gIkeQrLQ4&list=PL90387B3131632F39&index=1

In the Christmas Season and Easter Season we sing parts of the Mass in Latin and the music is exactly like that in the following video of Mass of the Angels (even though the video is titled for Traditional Latin Mass)
youtube.com/watch?v=NyV01zXuW-A

I prefer the music at our Masses over any of the contemporary music. We have a Youth choir (boys and girls), an adult choir (men and women), and a men’s choir and all of choir sing more traditional music…
 
jclangfo said:
What mass settings do people like? and hate?

I just finished up a review of mass settings, from the perspective of a parish looking for one that will be beautiful while encouraging congregational singing. I considered settings within the genres of traditional, blended, and contemporary.

Good traditional settings:
  1. Psallite Mass from the Collegeville Composers
  2. Mass in Honor of St. Isaac Jogues by Jeff Ostrowski
Good blended settings:
  1. Mass of Wisdom by Steven Janco
  2. Revised Mass of Creation by Marty Haugen
  3. Mass of Christ the Savior by Dan Schutte
Good contemporary settings:
  1. Mass of Renewal by Curtis Stephan
  2. Mass of Communion by Matt Maher
  3. Mass of St. Anne by Ed Bolduc
Bad mass settings:
  1. Storrington Mass by Marty Haugen
  2. Mass of Joy and Peace by Tony Alonso
Here is my full review, with youTube videos of all the masses!
contemporaryorthodoxy.weebly.com/blog/best-catholic-mass-settings
Click to expand...
Good traditional settings: anything from the 17 Gregorian Mass settings (bonus points if you do the 3-fold kyrie instead of the 2 for the Ordinary Form)
Good blended settings: I like the Community Mass by Richard Proulx (can’t think of any others at the moment)
Bad Mass settings: most Mass ordinary settings written by Marty Haugen or David Haas (still thinking of other more specific ones)

Contrary to popular opinion, it IS possible to teach the Gregorian Mass settings to the congregation for them to sing (it just takes a long while, but it’s worth it).

I am actually working on a chant Mass myself. The goal of it is to be something that a parish that is still new to (or getting back to) chant can use if they aren’t ready for the Gregorian Mass settings yet. If you pm me, I can give you a look of what I have so far (and what you think of it).
 
I really like the Mass of a Joyful Heart written by Steve Angrisano and Tom Tomaszek.

I play it for our “youth” mass, and the teens and young adults love it. I would classify it in your contemporary mass settings.
 
ctb95 said:
I believe a certain mass by Dan Schutte is known by some as the “My Little Pony” mass.

Yeah, that gets my vote for worst.
Click to expand...
I just googled this … honestly, I didn’t think this was bad, but now I’m not going to be able to listen to it again without hearing the “My Little Pony” commercial.
 
Thanks for the list. I noticed that just about everything in our hymnal is by Haugen, and if it’s bad enough that I’m checking the composer’s name… yeah. I’m glad to know that it’s not like that everywhere! I’d appreciate any tips for how to respectfully campaign for changing that once I’m actually received into the church.
 
Being a musician (acoustic guitar) at church, I’d like to comment on a few of the Mass Setting I have played at mass from a musicians perspective:

Matt Maher…I have only played the Kyrie & Lamb of God but there are nice arrangements that seems to have been written by a guitar player rather than a piano player and are very reverent feeling to me.

Mass for the Healing of the World by Trevor Thompson. I like this one a lot. In particular I like to play the Gospel Acclamation for this one, which has kind of a coldplay feel to me and is fun to play and I can rock out a little.

Mass of Saint Ann-this one if very cool to play. The arrangements convey joy in a very dramatic way. If you listen to the Glory for example you will see what I mean. The way the instruments will pause briefly behind the cantor and then BOOM!!! The Kyrie is very pretty too.

Mass of the Desert…this one has a “mysterious” or “exotic” feel that I like, like David Bowie meets Kashmir from Led Zeppelin. Feels like written by a guitar player rather than a piano player.

I don’t like Mass of the New Era from Rachel Frazier… is has an “angular” feel to me , if that makes sense. Also I find some of the songs a little difficult to play…kind of awkward chords with lots of flats in those "angular "arrangements I don’t care for.
 
Don’t know if the topic was limited to English compositions, but assuming it’s not, my faves are Missa XI Orbis Factor and Missa IV Cuncitpotens genitor Deus.
 
For the “worst” file: Polka Masses. Any and all settings. :ouch::ouch::ouch:

For some reason they are popular in our neck of the woods as a way to kick off the parish summer festivals. Agghh. . .

Mass for a Servant Church by Michael Guimont is nice setting that could work for both traditional and contemporary style Masses, although probably better with traditional.
 
Michael85 said:
Missa de Angelis. Listen to the Kyrie - it’s absolutely beautiful!

youtu.be/O4T4BkXvSPw
Click to expand...
Nooooooo!!! As a member of a Gregorian schola, I am sick to death of that setting, which isn’t even Gregorian chant, it’s neo-Gregorian, yet it’s the one everyone asks for. :eek:

I much prefer Mass XI (Orbis Factor) for Sundays of Ordinary Time; Mass IX for feasts and solemnities of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also wonderful, and the high notes in the Gloria are are a real challenge to sing; Mass IV (usually for feasts of the Apostles) is nice as well. I also like Mass XIV, used ad libitum for Sundays of Ordinary Time.
 
The Worst Mass Settings are the following:

The Mass of Christ the Savior (Dan Schutte), The Mass of St. Ann (Ed Bolduc), The Mass of Glory (Bob Hurd and Kevin Canedo), The Mass of Renewal (Curtis Stephan), and The Mass of Communion (Matt Maher).

Again, these Mass Settings are just downright AWFUL.

The one that I mentioned (by Dan Schutte) is the “My Little Pony” Mass Setting.

Pretty much, most of (if not all of) the songs composed by these guys are horrible.
 
hcruz402 said:
The Worst Mass Settings are the following:

The Mass of Christ the Savior (Dan Schutte), The Mass of St. Ann (Ed Bolduc), The Mass of Glory (Bob Hurd and Kevin Canedo), The Mass of Renewal (Curtis Stephan), and The Mass of Communion (Matt Maher).

Again, these Mass Settings are just downright AWFUL.

The one that I mentioned (by Dan Schutte) is the “My Little Pony” Mass Setting.

Pretty much, most of (if not all of) the songs composed by these guys are horrible.
Click to expand...
What? You really think that Matt Maher & Curtis Stephan generally write awful songs? Wowzers!
 
OraLabora said:
Nooooooo!!! As a member of a Gregorian schola, I am sick to death of that setting, which isn’t even Gregorian chant, it’s neo-Gregorian, yet it’s the one everyone asks for. :eek:

I much prefer Mass XI (Orbis Factor) for Sundays of Ordinary Time; Mass IX for feasts and solemnities of the Blessed Virgin Mary is also wonderful, and the high notes in the Gloria are are a real challenge to sing; Mass IV (usually for feasts of the Apostles) is nice as well. I also like Mass XIV, used ad libitum for Sundays of Ordinary Time.
Click to expand...
I hadn’t heard a Greek Kyrie in decades when I was standing in a record shop in Charlottetown PEI and this song came on. Orbis Factor?
 
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