I need suggestions for good Mass settings

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Filii_Dei said:
The OP asked for suggestions, and we gave them, and we even went beyond to explain the advantages behind them, but apparently giving something that isn’t contemporary folk music composition “doesn’t actually help”. However, I’m glad to see that you haven’t been postulating your own contempt and have been constructively contributing your own suggestions too… oh.
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Actually, the OP mentioned that he was considering the German Mass by Schubert arr/set by Proulx. That is hardly a contemporary folk music composition, as Schubert lived in the early part of the 19th century and was a well-known classical composer. In addition, not all of the non-chant suggestions were “contemporary folk music composition”, unless you are suggesting that everything that isn’t chant is “contemporary folk”.

Now, don’t get me wrong… I really love and enjoy chant and believe that chant in any denomination (Jewish, Catholic, etc.) is true sacred music since it is so different from any other style and genre of composition and really can’t be mistaken for secular music, like other forms of music. I mean, I used chant and polyphony for my mass parts when I was married. But there is also nothing wrong with using mass parts composed in a style other than chant, especially if rendered appropriately either via composition, instrumentally or vocally. Also, having worked in music ministry for many years, you sometimes have to be so careful with how you approach music directors or pastors, especially in regards to more traditional music. I’ve seen too many people either get booted from their paid and volunteer positions when trying to (even nicely and respectfully) suggest music different from what as currently being done at their parish. The OP knows his music director better than us and he was not asking for suggestions on how to handle the music director with suggesting more chant. He wasn’t even asking for a debate about chant. He was just asking for good mass settings that was better than the Mass of Creation. Yes, I do believe that chants are loads better than MofC, but so were a number of the other settings suggested that weren’t chant.

Although it may or may not be true that there is something more going on with the other poster’s problem with getting the congregation to learn chant at her parish where she works, it was not part of the OP. As someone who has worked at a number of parishes, every congregation is different and it doesn’t matter what economic, culture or class they are in. Some parishes pick it up a lot easier than others. Kids usually get it fairly easier than adults, especially if the adults never had any experience with chant. True, there are probably some parishes who just don’t like chant and will not sing it and I’m sure that within those groups they influence the younger generations in how they view chant, but I also wouldn’t completely rule out that there are truly people who just can’t wrap their heads around it, whether or not we picked it up easily. I actually know individual who do enjoy chant, they like to listen to it, yet they can’t sing it, and they purposely attend Latin OF masses with all Latin chant and polyphony. Perhaps it’s a mental block, but it’s still a reality, none-the-less, and it can potentially take years, maybe almost all their lives until they can get past the mental block and actually do it.
 
Gelnhausener said:
Mr. Tucker is managing editor of Sacred Music and publishing editor of the Church Music Association of America. Therefore, I prefer to take his word when it comes to music in the Divine worship.
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OK, what about bishops around the world? Have they suddenly jettisoned hymns and begun, in unison, to mandate chanted Propers by all of their parishes? Why do they remain so disobedient if this is what Tucker interprets in the GIRM?

Tucker is a good man, but here he has a conflict of interest. His organization is selling chant and Propers. He has a vested interest in parishes choosing them over hymns. He is in competition with OCP/GIA/WLP for music ministry budget money.
Jeffrey Tucker:
There can be no more making up some random text, setting it to music, and singing it as the entrance, offertory, or communion.

I have no doubt that the practice of singing non-liturgical texts will continue but it will now continue only under a cloud. If I’m reading this correctly, any text other than an appointed text for the Mass will now fall outside the boundaries provided for by the authoritative document that regulates the manner in which Mass is to proceed.
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Sorry, Tucker, you’re just wrong on this. OCP/GIA/WLP will continue to peddle their twaddle and parishes will continue to buy it. It is true that the Church wishes that more people used chant and Propers, but the revolution will be slow and steady, not overnight like you predicted (two years ago).

Vernacular hymns are here to stay. They still need to be approved by the competent authority - and they always have - and competent authority is pretty lax in what they let publishers get by with - but they aren’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
 
Tucker is a good man, but here he has a conflict of interest. His organization is selling chant and Propers. He has a vested interest in parishes choosing them over hymns. He is in competition with OCP/GIA/WLP for music ministry budget money.
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I’m sorry, Elizium, but that comparison is apples to mangoes. The only product officially sold by CMAA is the Parish Book of Chant, either Volume 1 or the new 2. And technically, they do not require nor advertise sales of those or other “products” because they, and a great number of non CMAA source books are available gratis on the Musica Sacra website. To that end, you have done a discredit to the reputation of Mr. Tucker and CMAA. There is not one paid staffer in the whole of CMAA, and that is demonstrable. Please retract the insinuation that CMAA is a “publisher.” You may be confusing the product lines of affiliated composers such as Jeffrey Ostrowski (Vatican II Hymnal, Edmund Campion Hymnal), Adam Bartlett (Simple English Propers/Lumen Christi Missal) Richard Rice (various volumes) and Kevin Allen (various products.) None of these are “proffered” by CMAA.
 
Well, I apologize for my inaccuracy, but I stand by my statement about his interests and his mistakes in interpreting the GIRM in this way. It has not been interpreted this way by the people who matter - priests and bishops. There has been little migration to chant in the two years since his blog post was written, and we have certainly not seen the sea change he predicted.
 
agapewolf said:
Possiblity # 3, which has been my point.

it’s difficult to learn.
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I don’t buy that. I easily learned to chant the Thanksgiving for Light for Evening Prayer and I’m not much of a singer.

Our General Intercessions for Evening Prayer are set to a Byzantine Chant and everyone picked it up immediately.

Nobody would have a problem chanting the responses from the Roman Missal, they’re certainly easier than the Angeles setting of Mass that Canadians are singing, but our choir director didn’t give us that choice because she doesn’t like chant.
 
Elizium, it’s always good and your points are always eloquently placed.
Didn’t I remember you stating that you were associated with Adam Bartlett,now DM at the Phoenix Cathedral?
 
CatholicZ09 said:
At our last liturgy meeting, the director said he wanted to implement a new Mass setting for Ordinary Time 2 (September - November) because we’ve used Heritage Mass for every season other than the Christmas and Easter seasons.

What are some good suggestions? I know he doesn’t like a lot of chant, so those ones are out. I think he had Mass of Creation in mind, but I’m trying to get him to avoid that, so I need distractions!

Thanks for the help!
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I started playing the Mass of the Most Holy Trinity (OCP). I love it! !!
 
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