Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

A Beautiful Example of Hymnody in the Roman Rite of Mass

Palm Sunday features one of the few times when what is called a hymn is an embedded part of the ritual of Mass. The hymn is “Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit.” Ironically, in most American parishes, this is replaced by “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” So entrenched is the vernacular hymn mania in the United States that not even the hymns in the ritual itself are used but instead are replaced by inferior substitutes. This is very sad. On the other hand, this is inspiring:

7 Replies to “A Beautiful Example of Hymnody in the Roman Rite of Mass”

  1. Thanks so much for posting this! It is a truly lovely hymn. Paul Ford has a wonderful English setting in By Flowing Waters. The Revised Translation has a new English setting in text form, but I did not see it set to music. Anyone know if the actual music will appear in the final copy of the Missal?

    A blessed Triduum to all!

  3. I'm an amateur pianist/organist and would love to get the sheet music to this. Might you have a link?

  4. Uh, Jeffrey, what is "ironic" about the use of the English hymn "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" as it is a fairly good metrical translation of "Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit …"???

  5. What's ironic, as I said, is that even when the Roman Missal gives us a hymn – a rare occasion in which it does so – we STILL choose to exercise the option of choosing yet another hymn that is not in the Missal.

  6. For those who want an English language setting of "Gloria, laus et honor" to music other than the oft used hymn tune St. Theodulph, take a look at this as a possibility for next year: All Glory, Laud and Honor (Unison with hand bells and other medieval percussion instruments) with a
    rhythmic reconstruction from 10th-century manuscript by Schola Antiqua. This was adapted by Richard Proulx and is quite accessible to congregation and schola both. We used it in my parish this year and it worked very well for the procession of palms. GIA is the publisher and has a sound bite on the web site.

  7. Jeffrey, I guess that fits if you believe that an English translation of "Gloria, laus …" to a musical setting of high quality — you can even use a Bach chorale version — is not the same thing as "Gloria laus …"

    I don't believe it, and with all the problems we have in music for worship today, I'm amazed that anyone could identify this as a problem.

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