Should We Sing the Gloria or recite it

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felix44860

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I just became a new member of of our Parish Council (Bossier City, Louisiana). I had the privilege to sit in on the last council meeting of the year. I was able to meet the current members and some who honorably served the council and were stepping down from it. They are a devoted group of catholic parishioners, I was honored to be among them.

I sat there listening ans was trying to figure out what my roll as a council member was going to be. As I listened to the agenda items, one of the items was presented the the members for discussion. Which I never thought was an issue among the parishioners. The question to the members dealt with the “Glory Be.” The current version of the “Glory Be” song it’s difficult to follow and if you miss a note it becomes even more difficult to re-join the song.

So, my question is, are their different versions of the “Glory Be” and where can I find then. We need to use one version that will be easier for the whole parish to sing. The other option is since our Parishioners aren’t comfortable singing the current “Glory Be”, should we go back to reciting it the “Glory Be”?

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions,

Felix E Rivera 🙂
 
felix44860 said:
I sat there listening ans was trying to figure out what my roll as a council member was going to be. As I listened to the agenda items, one of the items was presented the the members for discussion. Which I never thought was an issue among the parishioners. The question to the members dealt with the “Glory Be.” The current version of the “Glory Be” song it’s difficult to follow and if you miss a note it becomes even more difficult to re-join the song.

So, my question is, are their different versions of the “Glory Be” and where can I find then. We need to use one version that will be easier for the whole parish to sing. The other option is since our Parishioners aren’t comfortable singing the current “Glory Be”, should we go back to reciting it the “Glory Be”?

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions,

Felix E Rivera 🙂
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There are many easy to learn version of the Gloria. Even in the Breaking Bread hymnal.

The Heritage Mass has a fairly easy Gloria (and doesn’t use the refrain-3 verse structure that makes many versions of the Gloria far too long). The revised version is used in our Cathedral, and besides the usual learning time that it takes it’s pretty well known now amongst the parishioners.

The Latin Gloria from the Missa de Angelis setting is also not that hard to learn (we use it occasionally in my Seminary), and it’s also in the Breaking Bread (and maybe other OCP hymnals? I’m not sure).

Just be glad you’re not subject to the Geoffrey Angeles Gloria that we have in Canada (if you’re getting a drinking-song vibe from it, don’t worry. So do the rest of us. Personally, I prefer the Dawson Gloria).
 
Are you referring to the “Gloria” at Mass? “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace…”?

There are hundreds if not thousands of different musical settings of it. The Church prefers that it be sung.
 
Oh, I forgot to add this too.

If at all possible have it sung. No offense to anyone who likes it spoken, but it just songs wrong when its spoken. It’s a hymn of high-praise for our God, and speaking it just feels like it looses that whole emphasis.
 
The “Glory Be” itself is much easier to sing in Latin. There are so many settings of it.
 
curlycool89 said:
There are many easy to learn version of the Gloria. Even in the Breaking Bread hymnal.

The Heritage Mass has a fairly easy Gloria (and doesn’t use the refrain-3 verse structure that makes many versions of the Gloria far too long). The revised version is used in our Cathedral, and besides the usual learning time that it takes it’s pretty well known now amongst the parishioners.

The Latin Gloria from the Missa de Angelis setting is also not that hard to learn (we use it occasionally in my Seminary), and it’s also in the Breaking Bread (and maybe other OCP hymnals? I’m not sure).

Just be glad you’re not subject to the Geoffrey Angeles Gloria that we have in Canada (if you’re getting a drinking-song vibe from it, don’t worry. So do the rest of us. Personally, I prefer the Dawson Gloria).
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I’ll take the chant in the Roman Missal over both the Angeles and Dawson settings. I just wish Fr. Somerville could be induced to rewrite the “New” Good Shepherd Mass Gloria". I believe the original Good Shepherd Mass Gloria was very similar to today’s wording.
 
Phemie said:
I’ll take the chant in the Roman Missal over both the Angeles and Dawson settings. I just wish Fr. Somerville could be induced to rewrite the “New” Good Shepherd Mass Gloria". I believe the original Good Shepherd Mass Gloria was very similar to today’s wording.
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We never learned the chant version that’s in the Celebrate in Song for the Gloria, but we learned all the other Mass parts for the chant.

Unfortunately, the Angeles setting is used at all “official” diocesan events here. So we have to resist the urge to shake hands back and forth like it’s a drinking song. While altar serving.

I will say though that it’s all worth it (even the Angeles Gloria) if I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, have to hear the “Gloria! clap clap Gloria! clap clap in excelsis deo” ever again. shudders
 
curlycool89 said:
We never learned the chant version that’s in the Celebrate in Song for the Gloria, but we learned all the other Mass parts for the chant.

Unfortunately, the Angeles setting is used at all “official” diocesan events here. So we have to resist the urge to shake hands back and forth like it’s a drinking song. While altar serving.

I will say though that it’s all worth it (even the Angeles Gloria) if I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, have to hear the “Gloria! clap clap Gloria! clap clap in excelsis deo” ever again. shudders
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:confused:
 
Are you folks talking about the Missa de Angelis chant setting of the Latin Gloria?

:eek:

We started using it during Easter and it is an excellent work! The Roman Missal English chant is dull and there is nothing glorious about it. MdA Gloria is joyful and majestic (and it’s in Latin), I love it to death.
 
Elizium23 said:
Are you folks talking about the Missa de Angelis chant setting of the Latin Gloria?

:eek:

We started using it during Easter and it is an excellent work! The Roman Missal English chant is dull and there is nothing glorious about it. MdA Gloria is joyful and majestic (and it’s in Latin), I love it to death.
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My summer project is setting the new English translations to the Missa de Angelis, hopefully in time to use them at our parish for the fall. I have the Gloria almost finished.
 
Elizium23 said:
Are you folks talking about the Missa de Angelis chant setting of the Latin Gloria?

:eek:

We started using it during Easter and it is an excellent work! The Roman Missal English chant is dull and there is nothing glorious about it. MdA Gloria is joyful and majestic (and it’s in Latin), I love it to death.
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No, they are speaking about something else. An awful clapity clap clap setting.
 
YoungTradCath said:
No, they are speaking about something else. An awful clapity clap clap setting.
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And if you ask me the Gloria of the Mass of the Angels is the chant equivalent of a clapity clap clap setting.

There are so many much more beautiful (and older!) Gloria settings in the Graduale Romanum. When we chant a Gloria from the 10th or 12th century I can’t help but feel a frisson.

But I make it clear, this is a matter of personal taste.
 
OraLabora said:
And if you ask me the Gloria of the Mass of the Angels is the chant equivalent of a clapity clap clap setting.

There are so many much more beautiful (and older!) Gloria settings in the Graduale Romanum. When we chant a Gloria from the 10th or 12th century I can’t help but feel a frisson.

But I make it clear, this is a matter of personal taste.
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Have the older settings (in English) been updated to be in compliance with the new translation (OF Mass)?

If a congregation sings the Latin settings of the Gloria, I assume that there was no need for a “new” translation, right? So the settings are exactly that same as they have been for decades? That would be an advantage, I think.

I think that one of the problems with the Gloria in the OF Mass is that the new translation is so very different than the old translation, and even after a year and a half, many of us still have trouble remembering the new translation. 😦 I wish I were more flexible in my brain, and I know I’m not the only one. Those pew cards are looking pretty tattered.
 
Elizium23 said:
Are you folks talking about the Missa de Angelis chant setting of the Latin Gloria?

:eek:
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No, we’re talking about the Fr. Geoffrey Angeles’s setting of the Gloria, one of three settings commissioned by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops for the new Missal. All three settings have responsorial Glorias.

To add insult to injury, the CCCB then published “Celebrate in Song” to provide parishes with the new prayers and Mass settings and divided the book into:
Mass Setting A: Geoffrey Angeles
Mass Setting B: John Dawson (Mass of the Holy Family)
Mass Setting C: Michel Guimond
Other Chants: in this section they dumped the Roman Missal chant settings. Our choir director admitted not even looking at that section at all because it wasn’t marked as a “Mass Setting”.

You can check out the settings at the link above. Setting C is better than A & B but not accessible to a parish that doesn’t want to sing a capella and has only a couple of guitar strummers and an accordion (mercifully not used very often) to accompany the choir.
 
Cat said:
Have the older settings (in English) been updated to be in compliance with the new translation (OF Mass)?

If a congregation sings the Latin settings of the Gloria, I assume that there was no need for a “new” translation, right? So the settings are exactly that same as they have been for decades? That would be an advantage, I think.

I think that one of the problems with the Gloria in the OF Mass is that the new translation is so very different than the old translation, and even after a year and a half, many of us still have trouble remembering the new translation. 😦 I wish I were more flexible in my brain, and I know I’m not the only one. Those pew cards are looking pretty tattered.
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The “new” translation is much closer to the original translation that what we’d been using since 1975.

For decades in Canada the go-to setting for the Gloria was Fr. Somerville’s “New” Good Shepherd Mass. ‘New’ because he wrote Good Shepherd Mass for the original translation and then had to change it. I wish he’d go back and tweak the original to give us something worth singing.
 
OraLabora said:
And if you ask me the Gloria of the Mass of the Angels is the chant equivalent of a clapity clap clap setting.

There are so many much more beautiful (and older!) Gloria settings in the Graduale Romanum. When we chant a Gloria from the 10th or 12th century I can’t help but feel a frisson.
Click to expand...
I agree, the de Angelis is the most over-used of the chant settings of the Gloria–oh it is painful to watch Papal Mass after Papal Mass with it featured–but it is better than probably 98% of what passes for a Gloria today.
 
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