Writing/composing a mass

[tom25]

This is meant as an honest question, not trying to stoke an argument or step on any toes.

Is there a tradition or practice of people making and/or composing masses? I heard a guy once on The Journey Home talk about writing a mass, and I remember hearing about a German composer composing a mass. So yeah, is this a thing or did these individuals just do some quality sacred music?

 

[poche]

What they are talking about is the music that accompanies the prayers of the mass. The Kyrie Eleison, The Gloria, The Sanctus, The Agnus Dei,

 

[Gertabelle]

This is meant as an honest question, not trying to stoke an argument or step on any toes.

Is there a tradition or practice of people making and/or composing masses? I heard a guy once on The Journey Home talk about writing a mass, and I remember hearing about a German composer composing a mass. So yeah, is this a thing or did these individuals just do some quality sacred music?

Well, the “quality” of some of these masses could be in question…

There are certain parts of the mass that can be sung, and composers have written music for these parts of the mass. These often rather large musical compositions are given names such as “Mass in B Minor” (composed by Bach) or “Mozart’s Requiem” (composed by Mozart and including music for a funeral mass).

There are many contemporary settings of mass music, some of which is used in Catholic churches every Sunday at mass. In our current hymnal, my parish has “Mass of Christ the King,” “Mass of the Resurrection,” and the “Heritage Mass.”

The mass itself is unchanged. It’s just the music for certain parts of the mass that change.

Oh, and the words to these parts of the mass must be preserved. If a composer changes the words, his or her musical setting cannot be used at mass.

Currently, these are the parts of the mass for which a composer might write music:

• Kyrie
• Gloria
• Gospel Acclamation (“Alleluia” or “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ…”)
• Credo (profession of faith)
• Sanctus (“Holy, holy, holy Lord…”)
• Memorial Acclamation
• Great Amen
• Our Father (not common to set this to music)
• Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God…”)

Please forgive me if this answer is more information than you needed. I wasn’t sure about you question and just wanted to cover the bases as it were.

God bless you!

 

[FrDavid96]

This is meant as an honest question, not trying to stoke an argument or step on any toes.

Is there a tradition or practice of people making and/or composing masses? I heard a guy once on The Journey Home talk about writing a mass, and I remember hearing about a German composer composing a mass. So yeah, is this a thing or did these individuals just do some quality sacred music?

Yes…with the qualification that it means composing the music for the ordinary parts (ie those that are the same for every Mass, as opposed to the prayers that change by day/season/occasion). It isn’t about composing the words, but the music that accompanies them.

For a classical composer that was (maybe still is) considered to be a necessary achievement, even for non-Catholics. It’s not about the spirituality, but the ability to compose the music.

Not having heard what you heard on the radio, I can’t address it specifically.

 

[Herculees]

I’d like to piggy back FrDavid96 and add that when they said they composed
the Mass they also may have been talking about picking out readings and
petitions. One can legitimately do this on particular occasions such as a
funeral Mass for a friend/relative or even your own or on special occasions
such as a wedding, or profession of religious vows. There are of course
limitation of what readings one can choose but there are options that one
can choose from.

Herculees

 

[tom25]

Thank you everyone. Now I know.

 

[poche]

Years ago I had a course in music. They talked about masses as musical compositions. Basicly they were the parts of the mass that were usually sung; the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Sanctus, the Agnus Dei, and the Ite misa est.