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Wednesday 12 October 2011

The Gloria you should all be singing!

If you have not yet discovered the really fine work done by Jeff Ostrowski and the other good folks at the Corpus Christi Watershed, then I urge you to do so. Their work along with that of Jeffrey Tucker and Adam Bartlett at The Chant Cafe and Church Music Association of America is critically important right now. The change to the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal is a great opportunity but if the beauty is to be realised fully, then  you are going to have to spread this news in your parish to affect real change.

Here is the setting of the Roman Missal Gloria based on Mass XV, Missa Dominator Deus which dates from at least the 9th century. It is presented here with an organ accompaniement. This Gloria was deemed by Father Bill Burke of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to be "too hard" for Canadians and has been scandalously left out of the so-called "Chant Setting" in the Canadian hymnal supplement.

Father Burke, with all due respect, I have more confidence in my fellow Catholic Canadians than you do.

I have used this Gloria for the past two weeks at the Vigil Mass on Saturdays and it will take some time but I fully expect the congregation will learn this and come to appreciate its prayerfullness and ethereal beauty.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will the Canadian missal books have the music for the ICEL Gloria or the Canadian chant Gloria?

Teresa B. said...

Our choir director was told at the workshop - that in the Toronto archdiocese you MUST sing one of the 3 mass song settings or the chant setting that are in the Celebrate book. After a year we can move on to other mass settings. We will start to sing the Gloria this week (not the hard one lol!)

Vox Cantoris said...

Anon.

I don't know where they dug up this "chant" that appears in Celebrate in Song. That is the "official" publication as a supplement to CBWIII.

I am advised by the CCCB that future editions will contain the correct Gloria from ICEL. Probably because they were ordered to do it after the other was printed.

Dissent I say.

Just like our bishops.

Dissent!

Vox Cantoris said...

Teresa,

Father Bill Burke and the expert liturgists at the CCCB without the knowledge of ICEL, Vox Clara or individual Canadian bishops have dissented from the instruction that all Catholics be able to sing at least one common Mass setting.

That setting is the one in the Roman Missal as above.

Since Father Bill Burke, Msgr. Patrick Powers and the others have shown such dissent from what the Church wants I think that we should follow their example of dissent from their false authority.

I will not serve them or their puerile view of Canadian Catholics.

When in doubt, look to Peter!

Beside, the Archdiocese of Toronto lists this Gloria and a link to the organ setting on its webpage.

What does that tell you?

Anonymous said...

If people do not read the missal, and the Gloria is always sung how do the children learn, and remember?

Gabby said...

Not sure why you're asking.

Children learn songs all the time, why would the Gloria be different?

I don't think Theresa B. meant that in the Archdiocese the Gloria may only be sung; I think the rule is that if it's sung you must use one of the four settings in the CIS. I'm sure the Gloria may be recited as necessary at Masses that don't have choir/cantor/musicians.

Gabby said...

Today our choir director told me that they'd opted for the Angeles setting. She doesn't particularly like the idea of a responsorial Gloria but didn't like the Dawson setting (we have that in common) and felt that the Guimont setting was way too difficult for the rag-taggle choir that we have. Considering that they can't even follow the notes in a Schutte hymn, she's probably not wrong.

Gabby said...

She also said she had "never looked at the chant setting".

JP said...

@ Anon

Even if the Gloria is ALWAYS sung, people can learn and remember it. My son, who is 7 and intellectually disabled actually learns things better if they are in song format. This is in no way a characteristic of his condition.

Lots of people learn better if something is set to music!

Gabby said...

No kidding, my brother used to learn verb conjugations by singing them.