Black Mountain Liturgy

[goout]

Any experience with Black Mountain Liturgy at Mass?
youtube.com/watch?v=9dGA4mzKqEY
Let me start off by saying I personally enjoy the music. The harmonies are great.

The problem we are encountering is that the congregation can’t/won’t participate. The melody lines requires too many leaps (it’s supposed to have a dancing quality) and it is out of the vocal range of 90% of people.
Some of it is not metered intuitively. By intuitively I mean that an average person can sort of guess where the music is going next.
Anyone else do this at Mass?

 

[tee_eff_em]

The problem we are encountering is that the congregation can’t/won’t participate.

The melody lines requires too many leaps (it’s supposed to have a dancing quality) and it is out of the vocal range of 90% of people.

Some of it is not metered intuitively.

These are three pretty compelling reasons to not use the setting. :twocents:

And after listening to a minute of it, I am not surprised. It showcases the talents of a well-practiced and diverse choir, which music has its place, but which you are unlikely to coax out of a typical congregation. :twocents:

tee

 

[Oneofthewomen]

These are three pretty compelling reasons to not use the setting. :twocents:

And after listening to a minute of it, I am not surprised. It showcases the talents of a well-practiced and diverse choir, which music has its place, but which you are unlikely to coax out of a typical congregation. :twocents:

tee

After listening, I must agree with Tee 100%

It is a lovely setting, but it is not accessible to the typical pew sitter.
I understand that musical people want to be challenged, and to showcase their talent. As a music lover myself though, I would rather have simple, even banal music, done well by the whole congregation, than have “performance quality” music that is only sung by the choir.

This is also one of the reasons I am not fond of Gregorian chant. I don’t mind plain chant and Taize style chant, but I do not like the ups & downs of Gregorian, and there is nothing worse that bad chant. I would rather have silence.

 

[pianistclare]

Seems pretty tame to me. But I have to say, we sing the same old stuff week in, week out, and people just don’t sing. They just stare at the choir.
At my old parish where I was director, we were in the loft, and everyone sang. It’s just too tempting to stare at the musicians when they are down front and not participate.
People used to say to me that they loved watching me play the piano and organ. That’s when I knew we had to make the move BACK to the choir loft.

But it’s a fine setting.
If you want something easier to follow but modern, try the Mass of St. Ann by Ed Bolduc. Gorgeous. Also the Glendalough Mass by Liam Lawton.

 

[27lw]

I’m not lovin’ it. The Gloria seems too bouncy - - some of the words go by pretty quickly. Sounds similar to tons of other contemporary Mass settings, to my ear.

The rest of it seems nicer in general, not so fast-paced and bouncy.

 

[pianistclare]

I’m not lovin’ it. The Gloria seems too bouncy - - some of the words go by pretty quickly. Sounds similar to tons of other contemporary Mass settings, to my ear.

The rest of it seems nicer in general, not so fast-paced and bouncy.

“Glory to God in the Highest!”
If there was ever a place for joyous music, the GLORIA is the place for it.

 

[27lw]

Oh well, I certainly don’t equate “bouncy” and “joyous” as the same thing.

As the original post said, is has a dance-like quality. So, are we dancing or praying at Mass?

 

[pianistclare]

Oh well, I certainly don’t equate “bouncy” and “joyous” as the same thing.

As the original post said, is has a dance-like quality. So, are we dancing or praying at Mass?

Prayer doesn’t have to be dour.
As I said , there are time in the liturgy for joyous singing, and times for very reverent and solemn singing.

 

[ProVobis]

Any experience with Black Mountain Liturgy at Mass?
youtube.com/watch?v=9dGA4mzKqEY
Let me start off by saying I personally enjoy the music. The harmonies are great.

I noticed there are quite a few of them. Mass of St. Ann, Mass of Wisdom, Mass from Age to Age, etc. As a novice listener to this type of beat music for the newer translation, I wonder how you decided on the BML. The lyrics are the same, I presume.

 

[27lw]

Prayer doesn’t have to be dour.
As I said , there are time in the liturgy for joyous singing, and times for very reverent and solemn singing.

Who said anything about dour? Not me. We wouldn’t anyone to think you are misconstruing my words, right?
There are plenty of Mass settings that are joyous, beautiful, prayerful, solemn, melodic, reverent, lyrical, soaring, and any combination of those qualities.

 

[pianistclare]

Who said anything about dour? Not me. We wouldn’t anyone to think you are misconstruing my words, right?
There are plenty of Mass settings that are joyous, beautiful, prayerful, solemn, melodic, reverent, lyrical, soaring, and any combination of those qualities.

I’m out.

 

[goout]

I noticed there are quite a few of them. Mass of St. Ann, Mass of Wisdom, Mass from Age to Age, etc. As a novice listener to this type of beat music for the newer translation, I wonder how you decided on the BML. The lyrics are the same, I presume.

The liturgy guy is pressured from different sides to be inclusive with the types of music. Most especially from those who want to make sure “new” music is included.

After another couple weeks:
The setting is beautiful for the choir. But it’s not suited for full conscious and active participation.

It’s too high. In fact the tenor part is a little high for us in the choir. It hits the F, which requires a guy with a pretty good voice, fully awake and focused, which doesn’t always happen by 9:10 on Sunday morning.
The E in the melody line in the Sanctus just isn’t going to happen for the congregation.
In fact D is stretching it for the people in the congregation. It takes a pretty confident singer to bang that out in front of friends and neighbors.
That kind of thing causes people to put the book down and shut up, cause they are not performers.

Not metered intuitively
Requires too many wide intervals.

It’s as if written by performers, for performers.