I really like Jacob Bancks' Mass of the Most Sacred Heart. It used to be available free on the musicasacra web page. Not sure if it still there. You could contact the composer at his website too. http://jbancks.com/home/.

There's also lots of great settings at http://www.ccwatershed.org/Mass/

By 'through composed' I assume you mean 'normal', as opposed to those settings which make of the first phrase a 'refrain' which is repeated at alternate 'verses'. This is a gross savaging of Gloria, and I thought this practice had been forbidden by 'competent ecclesiastical authority'. Is this not so?

I had heard to the contrary. This is sad, very sad.

Gloria is a hymn, a psalmus idioticus, with a distinct and deliberate literary form which rather evolved over time. Opening with A) the angelic greeting, glorifying God and assuring peace to those of good will, it then moves to a series of B) acclamations by which we praise, adore and bless God in his great glory; this is followed by C) which is a litany of petition for mercy and forgiveness by Jesus, the Son and the Lamb; finally, D) the Trinity is recognised by adoration of Jesus, the Most High, with the Holy Ghost and the Father. The beauty of this literary shape should not be lost on anyone of the slightest sensitivity to content, and reverence for this treasure from our heritage.

Gloria is not a verse and refrain song, nor was it ever intended to be. It is not a responsorial nor an antiphonal form. Making it into such is utterly to misapprehend its form, content, and message. Doing so is the sort of literary savagery (blind butchery!) which has become widespread in the Church ever since the II. Vatican Council, all with the blessing of those 'competent ecclesiastical authorities' who are supposed to be the guardians of our patrimony - not to mention our very own mendacious publishers (philistines all!) who are always on the look-out for some new, trendy, cute, clever and cretinesque novel to sell to unwitting multitudes.

'Competent Ecclesiastical authorities" have given permission for the publishing of dozens and dozens of settings of the Gloria with a refrain.

authority on what? probably not art.

Proulx's A Community Mass Gloria is nice and through composed. If simplicity is your desire, the Lee Congregational Gloria has been revised as well. The Mass VIII adaptation is also very nice from the Vatican II Hymnal (attached as pdf).

Chuck, out of curiosity and definitely not muckraking,
Some of the post MR3 settings composers have strategically set the text to either ignore a refrain for a through composed text, but added the coda of a reiterated "Gloria in excelsis" after either version. In the case of the latter, how stand ye, O sage of the Midwest?

Well, O MeloSage of the Left Coast, I didn't coda-fy my own Gloria. But the concluding phrase (at "Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father") recapitulates one of the main motives that appears earlier in my setting. After singing "in the glory of God the Father" like that, it would have seemed redundant to add a "Glory to God in the highest" Coda after that.

Long ago, in my pre-RotR (& certainly pre-MR3) days, I did compose a (forgettable) Gloria that had a refrain and, for a Coda, some rather elaborate (okay, excessive) Amens. I don't even know if I still have the score buried somewhere (it was that long ago, hand written), and even if I did, I would be loathe to try to update the text and the music now.

If anything, though, I probably share MJO's viewpoint on the structure of the Gloria as a multipart hymn, much in the same way that I understand the Te Deum. So, adding a repeat of the "Glory to God in the highest" as a final coda just doesn't feel right to me, on theological/liturgical/hymnological/aesthetic grounds. Better, it seems to me, to let the music in the final phrase(s) evoke a summing up of all that has gone before.

True, Julie, and singing sections in alternation by two groups is a practice with a considerable historical pedigree. However, this is hardly the same thing as savaging the form by making it into a sing-song refrain. Whoever thought up this silly practice should be barred from practicing music in the Church and required to pay a fine.

We like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KCwU05DAHU

Try this one:
http://www.theromanmissal.org/PDFS/Mass_7.pdf

CHG and Francis, thanks for sharing your music with us. I enjoyed them thoroughly!! Are these compositions in print anywhere?

And I'm partial to mine, which (I think) made a good showing at the 2012 Colloquium. Scroll down to "Choir alone" and click on "Gloria," for the best recording:

http://www.benesonarium.com/roman-missal/

What is now GIRM 53 provides in relevant part:

"The Gloria in excelsis (Glory to God in the highest) . . . is intoned by the Priest or, if appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir; but it is sung either by everyone together, or by the people alternately with the choir, or by the choir alone. If not sung, it is to be recited either by everybody together or by two choirs responding one to the other."

While I agree that the time-honored way to alternate is as described in the comments above, this provision in GIRM has been interpreted also to permit a refrain as a form of alternation. That's the root of the innovation. Unless and until authorities with jurisdiction expressly abrogate such an interpretation, it's likely to continue. While I strongly prefer to avoid refrain-structured Glorias, I can tolerate them as training wheels for congregations to gradually learn new settings of the Gloria, with the idea being that the use of the refrain structure would gradually be eliminated.

We sang Chris' "Tertione" for a year with some intermittent diversions to ICEL and Sherwin. The choir loves it, as I believe the PIPs did as well. The only nagging (at least to me) aspect is what to do if the intrinsic beauty of a Gloria or Sanctus serves to dissuade actuosa from the PIPs?
Of course I know all of the arguments that exonerate "us" from needing to actually worry about this stuff, but if y'all remember, I asked theoretically if it's possible to achieve a balance of aesthetics and participation in a thread a year or so ago.
It seems to me that reatively unmetered settings like Nickel's St Therese or the Sherwin (even the ICEL which I use with my accompaniment and faux ison/obigato in the Sops) have a sort of advantage over the metered settings that have come out since MR3.

It seems to me that reatively unmetered settings like Nickel's St Therese or the Sherwin (even the ICEL which I use with my accompaniment and faux ison/obigato in the Sops) have a sort of advantage over the metered settings that have come out since MR3.

Quite.

Through-composed? Um, does that mean the composer is finished with it???

Our music director was surprised to hear that you could do the Gloria without a refrain. I got him to do the Andrews Gloria for a couple of months, but I don't think the pastor liked it, so we'll see if it shows up again.

I've had good success with mine over the past year and a half - adapted from the Marian hymn "wunderschoen praechtige" (Austrian rather than German melodic variant for those who know the tune).

@kirchenmusik: I love it! Two things: 1) that "dominant" in m. 40 is PURPLE!!!! :) 2) How do you find the tessitura for the congregation? The room here doesn't really like things that lie in that middle C-G range much, but rather the fifth above that. I'm just interested because (at least from pictures) I'd think you have a similar room in your job. Thoughts?

I'm particularly fond of the Siena Chant Mass by Br. Michael O'Connor, OP. I think calling it a "chant" Mass is a bit of a misnomer as it pretty much begs for organ accompaniment (the organ accompaniment could be adapted into a lovely SATB, too), but I find it inherently singable, nobly simple with potential to be more solemnized, and yet to many ears will sound rather contemporary (if that is a concern). The text and music flow nicely with each other and not dictated by a set meter (probably hence the "chant" term). It, like his "Mass of St. Michael," is in the St. Michael Hymnal.

Schubert's Symphony No. 8 should be paired with Nielsen's Symphony No. 4 (the "Inexhaustible").

I believe it's the "Inextinguishable" symphony. Nielsen was a great composer, though.

One might also pair the Schubert 8th ("Unfinished") with the Mahler 10th or Bruckner 9th, instead ... both being unfinished.

Chuck

You are correct.

Of course, there's always my favorite, Bruckner's 8th (the "Apocalyptic"). The final 10 minutes, with von Karajan conducting the VPO (how Bruckner erupts, then pulls everything back in a very extended tease (in multiple senses of the word - "I tease, therefore I am" could be a Brucknerian motto) before the final 75 seconds of music):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvpXqAjnBFI

I didn't read that one, that's for sure. I'm not sure I agree with you that it's not a congregational setting. I am pretty confident that my parish would not only sing this, but would love it.

We are weary of using the Andrews 'Mass for Congregations' and the pastor prefers through-composed settings. Any suggestions or thoughts will be appreciated.

A Community Mass
Mass of Wisdom
Missa de Angelis
Mass of Christ the Savior
ICEL Chant
John Lee-Richard Proulx
Mass of St. Ann ;-)

The John Carroll is not through-composed

How about either the People's Mass or Mass of Christian Unity by Vermulst?