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Jean_Anthony
Guest
Please don’t respond to off topic posts. Use the report post function instead. Thank you all.
Do you prefer the Gloria being sung by everyone or by choir mostly with responses from congregation?
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3DOCTORS
Guest
Thanks!
Downloaded both, will try them out!
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zab
Guest
I like to sing along with the choir. It has been several months now since our music director printed out the booklets with the music for the people in the pews to follow along and many of us can sing the parts by heart now.
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Sarabande
Guest
I do agree with you. Even though I don’t like most of the newer settings of the Gloria, I still sing it as long as I know it or have the music to read from. Most of the time I’m cantoring, so I learn everything I’m tasked to sing/cantor even if I don’t particularly like it. Thus, I try to find something good and redeeming about the music so that I’m sincere (insincerity in music really gets me, so I make a point to find something I like about it in order to be truthful in the words and music), whether it’s a few measures or phrases in the music or the text. And that goes for secular concert or operatic works that I’m hired to sing. Since learning to do that in my work experience, I’ve taken that into the mass experience when I’m just a congregant and not a paid or volunteer musician.What’s more important is that it is done well. If there is a great choir to sing the Gloria (and other parts of the Ordinary) to a polyphonic setting then that is great. But if the setting is congregational then we should all participate - I just hate it when everyone stands there like lemons not joining in - for goodness sake, make an effort and show some respect.
That all said, from my experience of working at numerous parishes, I think sometimes the problem with people not singing, especially with the Gloria or other parts of the mass (hymns not included) is that some parishes either only sing the Gloria a couple times a year or they keep switching up the mass parts, people really don’t get to learn the music. This is most true with the Gloria. You can’t expect a congregation to sing it if they don’t know it and don’t have music to even read from for the handful of people who might be able to read music.
One parish I work at sings the Gloria three times a year… maybe 4 times, so they resort to using a response Gloria which I know really isn’t ideal. It’s a great parish, though, and very involved. They sing when they know the music and appreciate good music and good musicianship. And although they may not know any settings of the Gloria, they have done very well with the new mass parts as we have been using them since this past September when the archbishop permitted parishes to begin using them in order to have parishes ready by this past Advent.
Another parish I work at sing the Gloria every Sunday, so the people really do sing it. It’s a very good singing parish, though. It took them a few weeks to a couple of months to learn the new Gloria, but now they sing it well. The music director is wonderful. She does a mix of congregational singing, instrumental and solo work. The parish appreciates good music and good musicianship for mass as well and they have set up a fund to pay for professional classical instrumentalists and classical singers, which is how I ended up working there along with other cantors and instrumentalists. From speaking with parishioners there, since this music director arrived along with the pastor a couple of years ago, the quality of music has gone up INCLUDING the singing. It used to be a parish that didn’t sing, but now they do. They really appreciate well-trained instrumentalists and singers leading the liturgy and it encourages them to sing more as well.
Of course, every parish is different, but I do know at both of those parishes (one in the city, the other in a small town), since they have put more money and effort in the quality of the music, “participation” in singing the mass and singing hymns during the mass has risen substantially.
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