I just received a note from an Anglican Catholic in Canada who has long considered becoming Roman. He had hoped that the new Missal would make the aesthetics of the Mass more bearable, but then he looked at the Mass settings being offered by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
His reaction: “Anglican Catholics here have been chanting in English to Plainsong tunes for generations, every one of our Masses is chanted in English – the whole congregation chants the Introit Gradual Gloria Creed Agnus Dei, Kyrie, Our father etc etc etc. I have never heard a pop type tune in all the years I’ve been an Anglican Catholic. I had hoped that with the new translation of the English Novus Ordo Mass some efforts would be made. From what I have seen so far, the three Mass settings remind me of my 1980’s experience in the Pentecostal world.”
Music alone should never prevent conversion but there really are serious issues here. It is just a fact that millions stay away from Catholic parishes and have for many decades because they can’t stand the noise.
This is why the Missal chants offer such hope. If in doubt, sing the Missal chants!
The NLM posts a BBC recording of the Mass with the new translation from Our Lady and the English Martyrs, Cambridge. The language of the New Missal sounds fantastic as expected. It is a big upgrade – and mostly what I experience here is blessed relief. Oh so blessed.
However, there is much progress to be made in the surrounding music.
Mass begins not with the introit but with a song based on a text that is not part of the liturgy
The celebrant evidently refuses to sing anything in the Kyrie and so the penitential rite goes back and forth between speaking from the altar and singing from the loft
Credo is not sung even though there are two excellent settings in the new Missal
The Offertory chant is replaced by a hymn with non-liturgical text
The preface dialogue before the Sign of Peace should be sung to encourage more decorum
Communion chant dropped and replaced by a motet.
On the plus side
The Gloria is fantastic.
The celebrant sings the preface and does a great job
The Eucharistic Acclamation sung without accompaniment: excellent
Our Father sung with outstanding melody, one that should be immediately adopted all through the English-speaking world.
Agnus Dei sung properly with cantor only on each “Lamb of God” – not one in one hundred parishes will get this right.
We begin with the Psalmist urging us to gather to make offerings to the Lord but also make vows and accomplish them. So the entire first line has the sound of urging us to act and sustain that action, with the lingering notes on FA, moving to this tricky liquiscent figure on “circuitu.” The first half of the chant ends calmly. And truly it could end there and be very beautiful.
But it doesn’t end there. Suddenly, matters become much more serious. We start again on Fa but this time move to La on the text “Terribili” and with no break pass through this firery phrase that is extremely intense with drama, especially once we get to “principum.” When you sing that, your voice just feels the intensity and the heat of the moment. Then again we sing the word “terribili” and move through another striking musical phrase the burns with the passion of someone singing about an awesome power. Just to listen to it, you know that the story here has taken on a much greater significance at the end that it began with.
And so what are we singing about? Our vows, we are told, are made to “the awesome God who takes away the life of princes; he is greatly feared by all the kings of the earth.” Thus does God stand above all states, no matter how powerful they may appear. God can strike down all earthly power, and so should all earthly rulers live in fear. Who then should receive our vows? The state? Or God?
Is it any wonder that Rousseau considered Christians essentially dangerous to the collectivist-secularist civic order he attempted to create? The chant explains why. At liturgy, we are not singing about the glories of the “general will” but rather about transcendent power that reigns over all. We are loyal citizens, yes, but our first loyalty is to God.
This version will give you a sense of the sound (but probably not the drama).
