Favorite mass parts settings

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Which mass parts settings are played in your church?
Do you have a favorite set of mass parts, if so, what is it.
Is one setting used for every mass in the parish?
Is it changed for the different seasons… Lent, Advent, Easter, etc.

Most of what we use comes from the Mass of Creation
Our ‘choir coordinator’ recently started using the “Mass of Celebration” by Ed Bolduc. She has suggested in the past that all 3 of our English choirs start using it. (BTW she leads the other 2 English masses; I lead the third) If I am told I have to change it I will, but with the current politics in leadership, I don’t think they’ll push it… I like the "Gloria’ from this setting, but I’m not crazy about the rest, I think it’s a little too syncopated to expect the crowd to pick it up quickly.

I have been reluctant to change what I am playing because the crowd SINGS IT!! (I hate to mess with anything that people are SINGING!!)

But all this has made me curious about what other options are out there???
 
What can I say, the old-school Missa de Angelis does it for me. Most people would be familiar with at least some parts (probably the Kyrie being the best know).
 
In my PE days I liked Missa Marialias (Kyrie Cum Jubilo in the Liber), aka Fourth Communion Service.
 
My favorite, which we do at the Cathedral, is the Community Mass by Richard Proulx, from 1970. The Gloria, which is sung unaccompanied, has a wonderful rise and fall in the melody, which I just love.

In my home parish, we have recently done the Jubilation Mass by Chepponis, which I hated at the beginning, but grew to like. We also do the Celtic, which I like, and the Mass of Creation, which I think is the ugliest thing I’ve ever heard. We do the Proulx Community Mass for funerals.

There’s a setting by Healey Willan that we do in the Episcopal parish where I sing, which is my absolute favorite of all time. I just can’t remember the name of it. :rolleyes:

Betsy
 
We are currenly using the Celtic mass settings for the mass at which I play.

I do not have a favorite mass setting, though I am partial to several Latin settings, and I KNOW that intensely dislike certain recent settings.

We do not use the same setting at every mass – way too much variation in style from one mass to the next. The one I play at is “old fashioned,” whereas the evening mass is TeenLife.

Yes, we do change the mass settings for each season. We use Latin in lent, for example, and a setting I absolutely love to play that sounds like a gospel choir with tons of alleluias during Easter. (can’t remember the name of the mass or the composer at the moment)

Gertie
 
There seem to be about four mass settings used throught the year at the church I attend, but I don’t know the names of all of them. I know we use Mass of Creation (which, I once read in a bulletin, was actually the only setting used for years and years for all masses), as well as the St. Louis Jesuits Mass.

I tend to give descriptive names to the other settings based on how the Gloria is sung - right now we’re using what I call the “frantic Gloria Mass” because the Gloria sounds frantic if it’s sung too fast ("Glory to God! Glooooorrry! To God! Glory to God in the Hiiiiigheeest! Glory to God! Gloorry To God! And Peace to his people! His people on Earth!). For Easter we had a mass setting that sounded rather dull and silly to me - (Gloria! Gloria! Glory to God in the Highest!).

And then there’s what I call the “Intergalactic Techno Gloria.” It reminds me of the type of music you’d hear in 1980’s cartoons whenever they were set in outer space. (“Glory to God in the Highest! SING! Glory to God!”)

People are most apt to sing the Mass of Creation setting, simply because it was oversued for so long.
 
<<There’s a setting by Healey Willan that we do in the Episcopal parish where I sing, which is my absolute favorite of all time. I just can’t remember the name of it. :rolleyes: >>

It’s the Second Communion Service in the 1940 Episcopal hymnal, but its proper title is Mass of St. Mary Magdelene (which actually could be in Latin).
 
bpbasilphx said:
<<There’s a setting by Healey Willan that we do in the Episcopal parish where I sing, which is my absolute favorite of all time. I just can’t remember the name of it. :rolleyes: >>

It’s the Second Communion Service in the 1940 Episcopal hymnal, but its proper title is Mass of St. Mary Magdelene (which actually could be in Latin).
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Yes, that’s it. Thanks.

Betsy
 
Thanks for your replies.
I have to admit that except for the Celtic mass and the few that some of you poked fun of… I’ve never heard of the one’s you mentioned and they aren’t in any of my songbooks. Where the heck are you folks finding all these mass arrangements???
 
VAC said:
…they aren’t in any of my songbooks. Where the heck are you folks finding all these mass arrangements???
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Well, there’s your trouble. Get yourself a real hymnal, like Worship from GIA. Or even Gather Comprehensive. Or you can google the individual works and find out who publishes them.

Betsy
 
It’s kinda funny how stunned I was when I realized that St. Therese of Lisieux had never known “Gather Us In” or “Gift of Finest Wheat”… It makes you wonder what kind of music inspired saints throughout the centuries before OCP. Then I found out that there is a treasury of music that the church has handed down over the centuries…and it’s beautiful!

Click on the St. Gregory Hymnal below…

us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/neumannpress_1962_13938038

One of my hopes in life is never to hear a person call Haugen/Haas music “Traditional Catholic Music”.
 
baltobetsy said:
Well, there’s your trouble. Get yourself a real hymnal, like Worship from GIA. Or even Gather Comprehensive. Or you can google the individual works and find out who publishes them.

Betsy
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Actually, I have access to the green Gather book , I see masses of creation, remembrance, and light, and bits and pieces of a few others, but not the abovementioned ones, unless I’ve overlooked it.??
They aren’t in OCP’s accompaniment book either.
 
My personal favorite is the Mass of Light.

At the Newman center I attended we took it at a good clip, and it made for a beautiful, praise focused service.

I adore the celtic alleluia as well.

Chris
 
I am not a musician but these are the masses that I like the most:

WLP
Sing Praise and Thanksgiving- Joncas
People’s Mass- Vermulst
Danish Mass- Kraehenbuhl
Mass in Honor of Pope Paul VI- Connor

OCP
Heritage Mass- Alstott
Mass of God’s Promise -Schutte(w/ Lamb of God from Holy Cross Mass- Isele)
Celtic Mass- Walker
St. Louis Jesuit’s Mass (w/ Gloria and Lamb of God from A New Mass for Congregations- Andrews)

GIA
Mass of Creation- Haugen
Mass of Light- Haas
Mass of the Angels and Saints- Janco
Black Mountain Liturgy- Morris
A Community Mass- Proulx

Other
Mass of Compassion- Canedo

Our organist only changes about 2 times per year, thus wearing out the mass settings. They should be rotated weekly.
 
I like:
  • Missa de Angelis
  • Mass for Christian Unity - Vermulst
  • People Mass - Vermulst
  • Danish Mass (especially with the various choral expansions for the Amen - glorious)
  • The German Mass - Schubert (although we have to do a different Agnus Dei - music is so beautiful, though)
  • New Plainsong Mass - Hurd
For Choir - I can’t remember the name, but there is a mass in English by Adrian Batten. It’s very nice.

Our Cathedral also does a Latin NO mass. These are my faves:
  • Missa Aeterna Munera (I think that’s the complete title)- Palestrina
  • Missa Brevis - Palestrina
  • There is also a lovely mass setting by Thomas Luis de Victoria, which I can’t think of the title right now as well.
The masses are switched up each season, and the choral masses are different often. We’ve been doing Community Mass by Proulx which is fine. We don’t do Mass of Creation or the Celtic Mass. For Alleluias and the Psalms, we usually use the Gelineau Psalmodies.
 
bb9 said:
Our organist only changes about 2 times per year, thus wearing out the mass settings. They should be rotated weekly.
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While I agree that singing the same Mass for 6 months is too long, changing every week is way too short. People need time to learn (or re-learn) a Mass setting. I think it makes sense to change Mass settings based on the liturgical seasons, which means over a period of months. That has the added benefit of helping to highlight for the congregation the movement through the liturgical year.
 
VociMike said:
While I agree that singing the same Mass for 6 months is too long, changing every week is way too short. People need time to learn (or re-learn) a Mass setting. I think it makes sense to change Mass settings based on the liturgical seasons, which means over a period of months. That has the added benefit of helping to highlight for the congregation the movement through the liturgical year.
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Yes, I agree with that. 👍
 
Rabbititus said:
I tend to give descriptive names to the other settings based on how the Gloria is sung - right now we’re using what I call the “frantic Gloria Mass” because the Gloria sounds frantic if it’s sung too fast ("Glory to God! Glooooorrry! To God! Glory to God in the Hiiiiigheeest! Glory to God! Gloorry To God! And Peace to his people! His people on Earth!). For Easter we had a mass setting that sounded rather dull and silly to me - (Gloria! Gloria! Glory to God in the Highest!).

And then there’s what I call the “Intergalactic Techno Gloria.” It reminds me of the type of music you’d hear in 1980’s cartoons whenever they were set in outer space. (“Glory to God in the Highest! SING! Glory to God!”)

.
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:rotfl: :rotfl:
 
Oh, I forgot, My husband and I play occasionally, we like Mass of Rememberance and Mass of the Americas, which has no Lamb of God, so we do a beautiful Agnus Dei that we found in our music issue.

Peace,
Kelly
 
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