Musical Liturgy and the New Mass

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quirkycanuck

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My church has obtained copies of the new “Celebrate in Song” book which includes a lot of new music. Is there sheet music available somewhere that includes guitar chords for this book? Our small folks choir has a couple of very capable guitarists who can probably figure most of them out. I just wondered if anyone knows where such a resource is available either online or offline.

By the way, the new music is really excellent and very spirit driven stuff. Just my impression.

Thanks
QC
 
The Catholic church had the finest liturgical music in the world. It was all thrown away after Vatican II and the ‘renewal’ then. I can’t see us getting any of that back now - and that’s the pity.

The music at our church is worse than the Salvation Army tripe. The idea of music building ritual and hence community is gone - we have a choir that 'performs; music that frequently no one in the congregation knows, so we are essentially an ‘audience’ not participants in a familiar ritual as once we were.

I would wish that the new ritual would bring back some of that good, old Catholic music of well written and well composed hymns.
 
I was very disappointed that there was a setting of the Mass which included the…uck, rock electric guitar. However, this is not the OP’s question. He wants accompinament music.

There is literally no use in contacting the CCCB (who is the publisher), but on their Publications website, there is a version of Celebrate in Song Instumentalist Version which can be bought at the Publishing site here!

I don’t particularly like the one by Geoffrey Angeles, it’s not fit for the Mass in my opinion, (electric guitars, drums, bass, and cymbals should never be anywhere near the Church!) but that’s my opinion and is by no means infallible 😛

It doesn’t fit the elegant and poetic style, but YMMV.
 
LoyalViews said:
I don’t particularly like the one by Geoffrey Angeles, it’s not fit for the Mass in my opinion, (electric guitars, drums, bass, and cymbals should never be anywhere near the Church!) but that’s my opinion and is by no means infallible 😛
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No need to get apologetic. You are totally right.
 
LoyalViews said:
There is literally no use in contacting the CCCB (who is the publisher), but on their Publications website, there is a version of Celebrate in Song Instumentalist Version which can be bought at the Publishing site here!
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Whenever I listen to mass settings online, I go straight for the Kyrie because it tends to be the most beautiful to me. The most poignant. We as sinners, asking a merciful God to have mercy on us.

Listening to the songs on this link was… disappointing.

The guitar pieces in the second link are :(.
 
Cailte said:
The Catholic church had the finest liturgical music in the world. It was all thrown away after Vatican II and the ‘renewal’ then…
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You can change “had” to “has”. Though I am sure some high-church Anglicans or the Orthodox might disagree.

Assuming though that you mean Gregorian chant, while on life support it is still alive and sung daily in the context of the current (i.e. post-Vatican II) liturgy. To look for it, a good place to start would be any Benedictine monastery of the Solesmes congregation.

Also in my province I know of at least 5 choirs still using it on a regular basis at Mass plus two Benedictine monasteries for Mass and the Divine Office.

So I think using the past tense is a bit premature! And I notice that a lot of younger Catholics are interested in this ancient tradition. It’s the 60-something children of the “spirit” of Vatican II who seem the most hostile to it. But that’s just anecdotal.
 
I’m not familiar with the book, but most song books have a music version with accompaniment and guitar chords. Try asking the person who ordered the books. I’m sure the music version is in the same catalogue.

Music is something we can never agree in. If it wasn’t for Saint Carlo Borromeo and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina we’d still be on the Liber Usalis. That might suit some of the members of our forum, but it greatly restricts our opportunities to praise God.
 
As LoyalView pointed out, you need to get the instrumentalist version of your hymnal. Note that this is often referred to as the choir book/edition in contrast with with the pew book.
 
TheMc said:
No need to get apologetic. You are totally right.
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TrueLight said:
Whenever I listen to mass settings online, I go straight for the Kyrie because it tends to be the most beautiful to me. The most poignant. We as sinners, asking a merciful God to have mercy on us.

Listening to the songs on this link was… disappointing.

The guitar pieces in the second link are :(.
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Okay, so hold your stomachs for this one.

The second Mass setting, is MANDATORY for all Parishes in some Dioceses.
 
LoyalViews said:
Okay, so hold your stomachs for this one.

The second Mass setting, is MANDATORY for all Parishes in some Dioceses.
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The John Dawson setting?

[running out the room to go emancipate my supper from my stomach]

[coming back]

I find it odd, if not agenda-driven that entire dioceses go so far as to ban the usage of the VERY MUSIC IN THE MISSAL. Very strange indeed.

To be honest, I’d rather not sing than sing that trash.

Next thing you know, we’ll be suffering through an AC/DC Mass setting.
 
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Not only are they banning the music in the missal itself, but also the 20+ Masses in the 2 official song books of the roman rite, known as the Graduale Romanum and Graduale Simplex.

Yes, you read that right: Some dioceses are not allowing official, universal liturgical books to be used.

I wonder what the CDWDS would think of this…
 
OraLabora said:
You can change “had” to “has”. Though I am sure some high-church Anglicans or the Orthodox might disagree.

Assuming though that you mean Gregorian chant, while on life support it is still alive and sung daily in the context of the current (i.e. post-Vatican II) liturgy. To look for it, a good place to start would be any Benedictine monastery of the Solesmes congregation.

Also in my province I know of at least 5 choirs still using it on a regular basis at Mass plus two Benedictine monasteries for Mass and the Divine Office.
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Yes, I agree the music is still there - but it’s not at any of the churches I have attended in the past 30 years or so. But I’m not just referring to Gregorian chant - just the community church hymns of yesterday like "Holy God we praise thy name’ and “Sweet Heart of Jesus” “Tantum Ergo” “We stand for God” and all the fine hymns that we sang together while I was growing up in Ireland.
OraLabora said:
So I think using the past tense is a bit premature! And I notice that a lot of younger Catholics are interested in this ancient tradition. It’s the 60-something children of the “spirit” of Vatican II who seem the most hostile to it. But that’s just anecdotal.
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Actually frequently it is people like me who lived through the awful changes in church music who seem to lament its loss the most. At my church I even had a discussion recently with people of similar age to me about trying to find someone who could come in and lecture on church music and the important place of it in familiar ritual - not just 'turn to hymn no 789" etc that we get now and no one knows the hymns because there are too many and very forgettable- and the place that ritual music plays in building a strong sense of community and belonging.
 
Heh, found this thread digging for music threads here…

I’m a young person (a 90s child) and I lament what I can see happened with Vatican II. Finding songs that have dance rhythms in them, completely unsingable, lyrics that celebrate us rather than Him, or lyrics that apparently counter Catholic teaching (“let us drink wine together on our knees”, anyone? How is that even slightly eucharistic? Perhaps my inner engineer is showing…).

What do people use when Latin isn’t really an option (too much of a pastoral issue in this parish)? We are unfortunately stuck with the OCP Heritage series of books for this year, but if I could make my case to the pastor he might switch it out for next year.

I just note that this is an incredibly large beast with many tentacles, needing some pushing and moving but also gentleness and charity. I want to minister to the best of my abilities but I can’t even manage that if I’m distracted by the questionable music I’m playing.
 
Did the Catholic church used to have more ‘classical’ music in the past? The music is always a hang up with me and sometimes I prefer to go to my local Eastern Catholic liturgy that has no music. The sound of the chanting is wonderful. We did have a great organist that filled our church with full out, big, beautiful sound that rocked the walls but he has left. Now we are back to piano diddies and sometimes clapping to guitars. I wish there was some of the great old Chant or more “glorious” or “beautiful” music than the dull hymn sound? Just venting----- It’s obviously not my choice to make:-)
 
julia1234 said:
Did the Catholic church used to have more ‘classical’ music in the past?
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Yes, back when ‘classical’ was in style. The Church has always kept up with the latest trends in music (though it can be slow in adopting them). Folks have always wrung their hands over the newest new thing – even back when polyphony was the new thing. There was even a time when piano was considered too profane & secular for Mass.
julia1234 said:
The music is always a hang up with me and sometimes I prefer to go to my local Eastern Catholic liturgy that has no music. The sound of the chanting is wonderful.
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Amen!

I think you mean that the Eastern Catholic Churches have no instruments. They have music that is voice only – a capella! Everything, except the homily and the Communion Prayer, is supposed to be sung, Some ECC have an organ.
 
I_Thirst said:
I think you mean that the Eastern Catholic Churches have no instruments. They have music that is voice only – a capella! Everything, except the homily and the Communion Prayer, is supposed to be sung, Some ECC have an organ.
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That’s true for the most part but there are some Eastern rite parishes where part or all of the Liturgy is chanted or recited, rather than sung.

Given that there are over 20 rites in the Catholic church, it’s not surprising to find some diversity. 👍
 
theistgal said:
That’s true for the most part but there are some Eastern rite parishes where part or all of the Liturgy is chanted or recited, rather than sung.
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Good point! If no cantor is present, reciting is an option. Chanting and singing are generally the norm – and, as you mentioned, it depends on the rite.
 
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