Question about composing a mass setting

  • Thread starter Thread starter ckellerman
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

ckellerman

Guest
Hi, everyone! I am a musician interested in composing a setting for mass. I have searched all over the internet and have not found any rules or guidelines about composing a mass. Does anyone have ANY information on this subject? Thanks!

Chris
 
I don’t think there’s any specific layout, especially since masses have different formats themselves. Many classical composers wrote masses. If you can get your hands on a mass by Bach, that should be able to help. Also, just pay attention to what parts are being sung next Sunday. 🙂
 
According to the GIRM’s latest, all settings must be submitted for approval. I’ve been waiting to hear more about that process but have not as of yet.

A good place to start is to scour through all the music documents over the last 100 years and then study the history of the tradition to get a clue as to what should be appropriate. Many of these documents are located at adoremus.

They reveal the forms, models, and general guidelines for composing a setting for Mass. The History is available in many locations including Grout, writings of the saints, and various publications concerning study of church music with an understanding as to its purpose through form.

Secondly a study of composition excellence is encouraged, either independently or formally.

For your inspiration… Bach, a good Lutheran, kept a copy of the Bible open to 2 Chron 5: 11-14 to impress upon his students the importance of the task of music for the glory of God.

Good luck,
Joe B
 
Chris,
Why do you want to compose a mass setting?
Charles
 
40.png
ScurraDei:
Chris,
Why do you want to compose a mass setting?
Charles
Click to expand...
Charles-
Well, for a couple reasons. One is that I am a music student and enjoy composing. I want to use my talents to create some music that directly glorifies God. Another reason is that I feel many settings do not fit and enhance the text very well.

Chris
 
40.png
ckellerman:
Charles-
Well, for a couple reasons. One is that I am a music student and enjoy composing. I want to use my talents to create some music that directly glorifies God. Another reason is that I feel many settings do not fit and enhance the text very well.

Chris
Click to expand...
Sounds to me like you are on the right track…

Joe B
 
the only warning i would give is make sure the music glorifies god, not enterains the congregation (it can do the latter but not as the intent)
 
If you are going to do an English language setting just remember that we will be getting a new translation of the Roman Missal before long, which will make your setting obsolete. OTOH, if there are advanced copies of the new translation floating around you could be in a great position to have a Mass setting ready to go out of the gate (pending any last-minute rewriting due to changes made to the text you worked from).
 
40.png
ckellerman:
Hi, everyone! I am a musician interested in composing a setting for mass. I have searched all over the internet and have not found any rules or guidelines about composing a mass. Does anyone have ANY information on this subject? Thanks!

Chris
Click to expand...
Chris,
Sorry for the late response, I’ve been away…
Try Cantica Nova Publications, They have a lot of good resources. They had the proposed new translations out there, but the ICEL asked them to remove it saying it wasn’t for public scrutiny… From what I remember, the proposed translation is a lot different text wise, (and a lot closer to what it should be; “And with your spirit”, “I believe”, not We believe, etc.) This, for example, will make the Gloria more of a chalenge: (I know, 'cause I’ve been working on a mass myself…)
no more repeating chorus of “Glory to God…” just to give the congregation something easy to sing.
Of course, I see this as a good thing. 😉

We may see the changes as early as this year (Advent?) or at the latest, next year. (IMO) At any rate, may God bless your work.
Jim.
 
ocp.org/en/people/

This is a website for Oregon Catholic Publishing which is publishing company of Christian music. Consider checking this out, emailing them or one of the Catholic composers listed on their site and ask them for some direction. It probably won’t hurt to try. God bless you in your efforts.
 
I’m actually mid-process of composing a mass setting myself. Look at other models , just to get an idea. As a music student you may have heard the name of the composer Frank Martin. He was a Swiss calvinist who composed a beautiful a capella mass setting (he in my opinions is who of the most underrated composers of this century).

Avoid the monumental Bach B minor mass as a model. Beautiful though it may be, its entirely innappropriate for liturgical use (read LOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGG).

Advice piece number one: Use the text and nothing but the text. Approved text that is. If Latin, you don’t have to worry about changes in translation. If you write it in English, tough those this may seem, try to make it adaptable in case of (what looks to be a slow moving, but impending) translation change. Or write a second version based on what LOOKS like will be the new text.

Advice piece number two: Purely aesthetically speaking, avoid over-sentimentality, let the text speak for itself. I’m kind of picky, but I treat the musical aspect of liturgical music merely as a presentation, rather than the end to a means (or means to an end?) in itself. I have no idea if that last sentence made any sense whatsoever.

Advice piece number three: Look at the history. Find a Liber Usualis (your music library will almost guaranteed have one). Great stuff in there.

Best of luck on your setting. Let the text be your guide.
-pm
 
Just out of interest, do you expect that people will sing your mass once finished ?? If so, WHO, or rather, what type of choir do you anticipate will sing it, SATB or humble small music group? We are a small music group always looking for an easy to play mass, (hint hint !) not too many of them around, althought we did download ‘a simple mass’ from a webite which has been great for us because we only have five of us to lead the singing. The parish are good singers and will try most things, but I have noticed they are often reluctant to sing any gloria, I don’t know why as they do sing other parts of the mass. good luck with your mass setting/writing.🙂
 
jimmytoes said:
We may see the changes as early as this year (Advent?) or at the latest, next year. (IMO) At any rate, may God bless your work.
Jim.
Click to expand...
Don’t look for the changes any time sooner than late 2009 or 2010. There are still changes that have not yet been approved by episcopal conferences and then there are changes they want then it has to go back to Rome. Once everything is approved it will still take time to get the new missals published.
 
Recent posters to this thread, please note that the OP wrote his question in 2005 and hasn’t been back since. Don’t be offended if he doesn’t reply to you.

Betsy
 
stbruno said:
ocp.org/en/people/

This is a website for Oregon Catholic Publishing which is publishing company of Christian music. Consider checking this out, emailing them or one of the Catholic composers listed on their site and ask them for some direction. It probably won’t hurt to try. God bless you in your efforts.
Click to expand...
No self-respecting musician would consult *them *for direction. Their music is cheap, and overly simple. Generally speaking, their music is pretty weak. I do like at least one of their songs- there’s a song called “I will serve”, which has a music video with it (about the religious life) and it is very good. They show it on EWTN from time to time. Still, it seems they accept the trash with the gems, and reword many of the traditional hymns for the sake of political correctness.

“In the heart of the young men of today, there is an ardent desire to live the ancient way of life of the glorious Carmelite Saints in its full splendor and beauty. The Carmelite monastery in Wyoming is living proof of this powerful reality, having attracted more than five hundred inquiries in the last four years from young men throughout the United States and the entire world.”

Bad composers think they can compose a song, and you end up with the all-too-popular I-IV-V-I chord progressions all the time, or the same rhythms and/or guitar strumming patterns.

Average composers can put chord progressions together, but think they have to publish everything they write.

Good composers know that they have to throw out what they write sometimes.

Great composers throw out most of what they write, and only publish something when they feel that the music has written itself- that they studied the text and allowed everything to just fall into place. They heard what it should be in their heads, and they wrote it down. Unfortunately, many a great composer will never be because they can’t play or write down what they hear in their head before they forget it.

Prodigies can write something great on command.
 
I was going to say “Listen to the Mass of Creation and then do the exact opposite.”
 
stbruno said:
ocp.org/en/people/

This is a website for Oregon Catholic Publishing which is publishing company of Christian music. Consider checking this out, emailing them or one of the Catholic composers listed on their site and ask them for some direction. It probably won’t hurt to try. God bless you in your efforts.
Click to expand...
With all due respect to stbruno, OCP is the last place I would look to for any recommendations. Their composers have taken excessive liberties with the parts of the Mass, especially Christopher Walker and Bob Hurd. Walker’s hand-clapping Gloria was removed from the service portion to the hymns section because the words were an inaccurate paraphrase of the Gloria. Bob Hurd’s spanglish service music includes paraphrases and is very problematic. Of course, out of fairness, Marty Haugen’s Mass parts (Mass of Creation) published by GIA have their share of problems, especially where the Agnus Dei is concerned.

I would wait until the new translations come out, as VociMike suggested. In the meantime, if you can get a copy of the 1969 Roman Missal in English (the one that carries Cardinal Spelling’s imprimatur), you might very well be on the right track. I managed to peek at a bootleg copy of the working document for the English Roman Missal (a vendor on ebay was selling it) and many of the new translations closely resemble what the 1969 English-language Roman Missal has.

You could at least use some of their language when setting your meters, harmonies and notes. I also suggest that you get hold of a copy of Pope Benedict’s Spirit of the Liturgy and A New Song to the Lord books. The latter focuses on liturgical music to a certain degree while the former can also give you some very good insights. It would also help for you to read Musica Sacram and the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy. These should prove most helpful, along with Pope St. Pius X’s Moto Proprio on Sacred Music, which, contrary to what some might think, is very relevent today (even Pope John Paul II exhorted and extolled the document’s values, saying that contemporary church music still needs a good deal of purification).

I hope this helps.
 
ckellerman said:
Hi, everyone! I am a musician interested in composing a setting for mass. I have searched all over the internet and have not found any rules or guidelines about composing a mass. Does anyone have ANY information on this subject? Thanks!

Chris
Click to expand...
That’s definitely an old school idea. In past centuries, any number of composers have developed setting for mass, just as the same religious topics have been explored again and again in sculpture and painting.

The only caveats would be that right now the liturgy seems to be in a bit of flux with new translations,etc., pending (so you would be prudent to take that into consideration in your work) and of course, any setting would have to be approved before it could actually be used.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top