– Dies irae. (Can’t understand why some people find this depressing.)
I’ll keep going…
Not really, our choir still does Requiem Masses on request, and a friend whose mother died earlier this spring, arranged a beautiful Latin Requiem Mass for her (in the Ordinary Form), but it was another schola singing.
I’m sick of the Missa Angelis (so too is apparently the Vatican’s choirmaster). Most don’t consider, at least the Kyrie and Gloria, to be Gregorian chant actually. It is dated (17th century) much later than the Gregorian period. The Kyrie in particular is too “cheerful”. Too many choirs gravitate to the Missa Angelis because “the people know it”, missing out on other beautiful kyriales such as Orbis Factor (Kyrie XI).No matter how many times I hear the Missa Angelis, I still am still amazed
We use the Orbis Factor during Ordinary time. The only time we use the Missa Angelis is during the Easter season, so I haven’t been able to become “sick of it” yet. I wasn’t too sure if the Missa Angelis was considered “Gregorian” or not, but I was listening to it at the moment and thought I might as well include it
You Canadians are doing something right. I’d like to hear from American Catholics if there is equivalent interest and tolerance for chant. I have my suspicions.We use the Orbis Factor during Ordinary time. The only time we use the Missa Angelis is during the Easter season, so I haven’t been able to become “sick of it” yet. I wasn’t too sure if the Missa Angelis was considered “Gregorian” or not, but I was listening to it at the moment and thought I might as well include it
About Requiem Masses… my best friend’s great-grandfather had a traditional Latin Requiem Mass about a month ago.
Tolerance…I love it too much to use the word tolerance.
It’s not all roses, we’ve been chased out of two parishes… and not because we aren’t good at it, even the monks who heard us say we’re comparable if not better than they are.
In my diocese, we’ve been fed cotton candy for so many decades that the attitude toward meat and vegetables is positively mutinous. Those who want meat and vegetables are either saying nothing, or else they’re vastly outnumbered by those who want candy. My little chant group did the music for Easter Sunday at one of the local parishes, and the priest commented during the Mass that the music was depressing.
A very sad summation of the state of modern Catholic liturgical music. Unfortunately, the same is true at my parish, though I’m feverishly trying to change it.
I will add you (and others trying to do the same) to my prayer list. Sadly, you are facing, like most of us, an uphill battle.
I’m afraid my suspicions are being confirmed here. Because of 40+ years of liturgical experimentation and the rejection of so much of the “old,” looks like even rudimentary knowledge of chant is totally foreign to most modern Catholics. The few responses to my initial post leaves me to believe most see this discussion as “greek” and irrelevant.
I have a feeling that allowing copyrighted music into the Mass was a grievous mistake. Church music shouldn’t be a source of profit, it should draw from a very rich well of tradition. And I’m sure if language was a barrier, there are communities of monks that would love to take on the challenge of setting the propers to chant in the vernacular. I’ve been to a Cistercian abbey where they did just that (in French in this case) and it came across much better than the vile little jingles that pass as “sacred” music these days.
The last time I heard somebody who attended a local parish say they didn’t like Church music, I told them, “You haven’t heard any yet.”