Paul F. Ford, a member of the Collegeville Composers Group of the Liturgical Press, is providing a preview of a very interesting collection of ordinary chants for Mass (with the new text of course). What I’ve seen of them show them to be both traditional and innovative: easy plainsong settings with English, Spanish, and Latin text, with accompaniment and choral parts underneath. I sang through some of them and they really work. They are solemn and dignified and any parish could do well with the settings posted so far. The collection is to be called “Lift Up Your Hearts.” There is some real creativity going on here, not in the sense that they are complicated or difficult but creativity in the sense that they reflect a realistic understanding of how music works in a parish environment. The sound and feel of this would signal a vast improvement in liturgical music for most parishes today.
Thanks for the pointer, Jeffrey. It would be a generous gesture on your part if you were to point out that the Collegeville Composers Group, responsible for this new setting, includes Paul Inwood, so frequently (including on this blog in the last few days) the victim of ill-founded and unchristian vilification.